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He was directly appointed by Sir Joseph Banks, having previously performed the same duties for Capt. Cook's third voyage, thus was well known by Bligh. He had been a Kew Gardens botanist. He was described by Capt. Clerke as 'one of the quietest fellows in nature'.

He actually designed and oversaw the conversion of the Bounty required to house the breadfruit through the weeks of transport. His earlier relationship (during the Cook voyage) with the Tahitians was the key to the Bounty's quick acceptance on their arrival.

He was equally respected and liked by all the crew and officers. The mutineers ordered him below so he would not become even peripherally involved. Despite the fact that he was no doubt one of the oldest men on the Bounty, he enthusiastically went about his duties with the vigor of a much younger man, constantly relishing the opportunity to study the native vegetation.

The voyage in the launch, however, was very hard on him. During the voyage of the Launch, he appears to have sided with Bligh in the disputes with Fryer. About a week before the landing on Timor, he was taken quite ill with 'a burning in the bowels, loss of sight, and inability to walk' which he attributed to eating poisonous berries that he could not identify.

He died on 20 Jul 1789, about five weeks after their arrival at Timor, of an inflammatory fever. In his log, Bligh wrote at the time of Nelson's death, 'The loss of this honest man bears very heavy on my mind, his duty and integrity went hand in hand, and he had accomplished through great care and diligence the object he was sent for, always forwarding every plan I had for the good of the service we were on. He was equally serviceable on the [Launch] voyage, in the course of which he always gave me pleasure by conducting himself with resolution and integrity.'

Nelson was buried the next day with full honors. The corpse was carried by 12 soldiers dressed in black, followed by the Governor, ten gentlemen of the town, the officers of all ships in Timor harbor, and finally by all Bounty crewmembers. He was interred behind the chapel in a burial-ground appropriated to the Europeans living on the island. No tombstone was available to be placed.

On a later voyage to Tasmania, in 1792, Bligh named a high spot as 'Nelson's Hill" as "he was the first white man on it'. This later became known as Mount Nelson, and is the present day location of Hobart University, a distinction that the old scientist would have very much appreciated.