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Joseph Dombey (; Mâcon, France, 20 February 1742 – Montserrat, West Indies, May 1794) was a French botanist. He was involved in the "Dombey affair" which was precipitated by British seizure of a vessel his collections were on and diversion of the collections to the British Museum.
A year later he was sent on an expedition to visit South America and collect such useful plants as could be cultivated in France. He arrived in Callao in January 1778, and soon gathered a large herbarium of the flora, also accumulating much valuable information concerning the cinchona tree. In 1780 he sent a portion of his collection home, but the vessel containing them was captured by the British, and the specimens sent to the British Museum, where they are still retained, notwithstanding the subsequent claims by the French government.
Dombey sought at once to replace this loss, and soon had in readiness a second shipment, but the authorities of Callao confiscated over 300 original designs of rare plants on the pretext that works of native artists were not permitted to be exported to foreign countries. These designs were given to the Spain botanists Pavón and Ruiz, who used them in their publication of La Flora Peruana.
In 1782, he visited Chile and collected the plants indigenous to that country. During his stay in Concepción the cholera broke out, and at once Dombey offered his services and was appointed physician-in-chief of the city, which office he resigned in 1783 when the epidemic had passed. He was then invited to examine the quicksilver mines of Chile; the mines in Coquimbo he put in working order, and discovered the mines in Jarilla, and although he spent considerable money in this work, refused all compensation from the officials in Chile, saying that he accepted payment only from the king of France. Finally he sailed for Cádiz, where he arrived in February 1785. Here he suffered the loss of half of his collections, which were seized by the Spanish government and himself imprisoned until he agreed not to publish his researches prior to Pavón and Ruiz.
Dombey succeeded in escaping to France by way of Le Havre, and secured, on Buffon's recommendation, an indemnity of 10,000 francs and an annual pension of 1,200 francs. His remaining botanical collections were transferred to the French botanist L'Héritier who had to flee to London with them when Spain demanded these also.
In 1793, he was sent on a mission to the United States to help with metrication, but was captured by and imprisoned in Montserrat, where he died.
Posthumous works (published by L'Héritier):
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