Francis Willughby (sometimes spelt Willoughby, la, Franciscus Willughbeius)
FRS (22 November 1635 – 3 July 1672) was an English
ornithologist and
ichthyologist, and an early student of
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
and
games.
He was born and raised at
Middleton Hall, Warwickshire
Middleton Hall () is a Grade II* listed building dating back to medieval times. It is situated in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England, south of Fazeley and Tamworth, Staffordshire, Tamworth and on the opposite ...
, the only son of an affluent country family. He was a student at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, where he was tutored by the
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
and
naturalist John Ray, who became a lifetime friend and colleague, and lived with Willughby after 1662 when Ray lost his livelihood through his refusal to sign the
Act of Uniformity. Willughby was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
in 1661, then aged 27.
Willughby, Ray, and others such as
John Wilkins
John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is one of the f ...
were advocates of a new way of studying science, relying on observation and classification, rather than the received authority of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
and the Bible. To this end, Willughby, Ray and their friends undertook a number of journeys to gather information and specimens, initially in England and Wales, but culminating in an extensive tour of continental Europe, visiting museums, libraries and private collections as well as studying local animals and plants. After their continental tour, he and Ray lived and worked mainly at Middleton Hall. Willughby married Emma Barnard in 1668 and the couple had three children.
Willughby had suffered bouts of illness over the years, and eventually died of
pleurisy
Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity ( pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other sy ...
in July 1672, aged 36. His premature death meant that it fell to Ray to complete the works on animals they had jointly planned. In due course, Ray published books on birds, fish and
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s, the ''Ornithologiae Libri Tres'',
''Historia Piscium'' and ''Historia Insectorum''. The ''Ornithology'' was also published in an expanded form in English. The books included innovative and effective ways of classifying animals, and all three were influential in the history of
life science
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy t ...
, including their effect on subsequent
natural history writers and their importance in the development of
Linnaeus's binomial nomenclature
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
.
Early life
![Middleton Hall 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Middleton_Hall_04.jpg)
Francis Willughby was born at
Middleton Hall,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...
on 22 November 1635, the only son of Sir Francis Willoughby and his wife Cassandra (
née Ridgeway).
His grandfathers were Sir
Percival Willoughby
Sir Percival Willoughby (died 23 August 1643) of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire was a prominent land owner, businessman, and entrepreneur involved during his lifetime variously in mining, iron smelting, and glass making enterprises in Nottinghamsh ...
of
Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall is an Elizabethan country house of the 1580s standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England. The house is now Nottingham Natural History Museum, with Nottingham Industrial Museum in the outbuilding ...
, and
Thomas Ridgeway, 1st Earl of Londonderry. The family were affluent gentry, whose main seat was
Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall is an Elizabethan country house of the 1580s standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton Park, Nottingham, England. The house is now Nottingham Natural History Museum, with Nottingham Industrial Museum in the outbuilding ...
, now in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 3–5.] The younger Francis studied at
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School (BVGS) is a selective state grammar school with academy status in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. Founded in 1527, it is one of the oldest schools in Britain, the oldest state school in the West Midlands and th ...
,
Sutton Coldfield and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
.
[Serjeantson (2016) pp. 44–60.] He appears to have read widely, his library at his death containing an estimated 2,000 books,
[Poole (2016) pp. 231–232.] including literary, historical and
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...
works as well as
natural science volumes.
[Poole (2016) pp. 238–240.]
![Cassandra Ridgeway](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Cassandra_Ridgeway.jpg)
Willughby commenced his studies at Trinity aged 17 as a
Fellow-commoner
A commoner is a student at certain universities in the British Isles who historically pays for his own tuition and commons, typically contrasted with scholars and exhibitioners, who were given financial emoluments towards their fees.
Cambridge
...
. His tutor was
James Duport
James Duport (; 1606, Cambridge17 July 1679, Peterborough) was an English classical scholar.
Life
His father, John Duport, who was descended from an old Norman family (the Du Ports of Caen, who settled in Leicestershire during the reign of Henr ...
, who shared the Willughbys' royalist sympathies in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
.
John Ray, then a mathematics fellow at Trinity, arranged for his student
Isaac Barrow to teach Willughby that subject.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 24–25.] The two became friends, and in 1665 Barrow dedicated his ''
Euclid's Elements
The ''Elements'' ( grc, Στοιχεῖα ''Stoikheîa'') is a mathematical treatise consisting of 13 books attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt 300 BC. It is a collection of definitions, postulat ...
'' to Willughby and two other wealthy fellow pupils.
Although affluent students often left university without a degree, Willughby graduated
BA in January 1656, and this was later promoted to
MA by seniority in July 1660.
In 1657 he joined
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
, not an unusual step for a man of property who might have to deal with legal disputes.
[Johnston (2016) pp. 6–8.] Willughby and Ray had collaborated at Trinity on several "chymistry" projects,
[Roos (2016) p. 118.] including making "
sugar of lead" and extracting
antimony
Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...
,
[Roos (2016) pp. 108–109.] and in 1663 Willughby, then aged 27, was elected a founder
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
on the nominations of Ray and
John Wilkins
John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.
Wilkins is one of the f ...
, who became Master of Trinity College in 1660, and eventually
Bishop of Chester
The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York.
The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the ...
.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 43.][Birkhead (2018) pp. 34–38.] In 1667 Ray was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, but was excused the subscription because of his relative poverty.
[Birkhead (2011) p. 27.]
Travels
In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...
had advocated the advancement of knowledge through observation and experiment, rather than relying on the authority of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
and the church.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 11–12.] The
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
and its members such as Ray, Wilkins and Willughby sought to put the
empirical method
Empirical research is research using empirical evidence. It is also a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empiricism values some research more than other kinds. Empirical evidence (the record of ...
into practice,
including travelling to collect specimens and information.
Willughby helped Ray in collecting plants for his botanical work ''Catalogus Plantarum circa Cantabrigiam Nascentium'' (the ''Cambridge Catalogue''), which was published anonymously in February 1660.
Later that year, Ray and Willughby journeyed through northern England to the
Lake District, the
Isle of Man
)
, anthem = "O Land of Our Birth"
, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
and the
Calf of Man
Calf of Man ( gv, Yn Cholloo ) is a island, off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound. Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it is ...
, seeing a
Manx shearwater chick at the last site. Willughby then briefly visited the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
to consult some rare natural history books.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 47–50.]
Cheshire and Wales
![Himantopus Willughby's Ornithology](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Himantopus_Willughby%27s_Ornithology.jpg)
In May 1662, Willughby, Ray and
Philip Skippon
Philip Skippon (c. 1600, West Lexham, Norfolk – c. 20 February 1660) supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War as a senior officer in the New Model Army. Prior to the war he fought in the religious wars on the continent. D ...
, Ray's student, set out on a second journey through
Nantwich
Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...
and
Chester and west to
Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
. They returned inland to
Llanberis
(; ) is a village, community and electoral ward in Gwynedd, northwest Wales, on the southern bank of the lake and at the foot of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. It is a centre for outdoor activities in Snowdonia, including walking ...
and were shown a local lake fish called a ''torgoch'', which Willughby recognised as essentially the same as the
Windermere charr he had described previously in the Lake District. The party then headed south through west
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
to
Pembroke, visiting
Bardsey Island
Bardsey Island ( cy, Ynys Enlli), known as the legendary "Island of 20,000 Saints", is located off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The Welsh name means "The Island in the Currents", while its English name refers to the "Islan ...
on the way.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 50–55.] They then proceeded back along the Welsh south coast to
Tenby
Tenby ( cy, Dinbych-y-pysgod, lit=fortlet of the fish) is both a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on the western side of Carmarthen Bay, and a local government community.
Notable features include of sandy beaches and the Pembroke ...
, where they saw many fish species, and
Aberavon
Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a distr ...
, where they were shown a rare
black-winged stilt
The black-winged stilt (''Himantopus himantopus'') is a widely distributed very long-legged wader in the avocet and stilt family ( Recurvirostridae). The scientific name ''H. himantopus'' is sometimes applied to a single, almost cosmopolitan sp ...
.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 59–61.]
Willughby interviewed
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
speakers to attempt a systematic study of the language that, although never published, influenced subsequent scholars.
[Cram (1990) pp. 229–239.] It was during this trip that Ray and Willughby decided to attempt to classify all living things, with Ray mainly working on plants and Willughby on animals.
[Jardine (1999) pp. 301–302.] The tables of species they produced were used by Wilkins as part of a unifying scheme later published in 1668 as ''
An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language''. Wilkins' intention was to create a universal terminology to describe the natural world, and the study of languages and writing systems was meant to create a logical linguistic framework for his classification.
[Cram (1992) p. 193.]
Willughby and his companions parted company when he fell ill at
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
while they continued through the
West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...
to
Land's End
Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
. When Willughby had recovered, he spent part of the summer
birdwatching
Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...
in
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 65–70.] Ray and Willughby later visited the West Country together in 1667, returning via
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
and London.
Europe
![Willughby ray europe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Willughby_ray_europe.jpg)
In August 1662 Ray resigned his Fellowship at Cambridge, being unwilling to subscribe to the requirements of the
Act of Uniformity imposed on
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
clerics. Unemployed and without a source of income, his position might have been difficult, but Willughby offered him accommodation and work at Middleton, writing "I am likely to spend much of my life afterwards in wandring or else in Private Studiing at Oxford. having but little heart to thinke of settling, or ingaging in a family. I shall bee Verie glad of your constant company and assistance in my studies".
In April 1663, Willughby, Ray, Skippon and
Nathaniel Bacon (another friend from Trinity) departed for continental Europe on a pre-planned itinerary armed with the requisite passports and
letters of introduction to notable personages,
[Greengrass ''et al'' (2016) pp. 166–167.] with Willughby's wealth making the trip financially viable. They intended to visit museums, libraries and private collections, and also study local animals and plants. Given the limitations of time on their demanding schedule, fish and bird markets were a useful source of information and specimens.
[Greengrass ''et al'' (2016) p. 184.] Although all kept journals, most of Willughby's are lost,
and the journey is mainly documented in Ray's ''Observations topographical, moral & physiological made in a journey through part of the Low-Countries, Germany, Italy and France'', which included Willughby's notes from Spain.
The travellers visited
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, the
University of Leuven,
Antwerp,
Delft,
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
and
Leiden's university and public library. On 5 June they visited a colony of
cormorants
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven gen ...
,
grey heron
The grey heron (''Ardea cinerea'') is a long-legged wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but some populations from the more norther ...
s and
spoonbills
Spoonbills are a genus, ''Platalea'', of large, long-legged wading birds. The spoonbills have a global distribution, being found on every continent except Antarctica. The genus name ''Platalea'' derives from Ancient Greek and means "broad", re ...
at
Zevenhuizen, and Willughby dissected a spoonbill chick obtained there.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 78–87.] The party continued north through
Haarlem,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
before heading to
Strasbourg,
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 95–98.] where Willughby made a diversion to buy a handwritten book from its author,
Leonard Baldner. This book was illustrated with paintings of birds, fish and other animals.
Baldner was a prosperous former fisherman, town councillor and self-taught naturalist who, like the Englishmen, only wrote about what he saw.
Frederick Slare FRS made a translation of the German text into English,
later added to Willughby's copy after his death.
Ray claimed in his preface to the ''Ornithology'': "For my part, I must needs acknowledge that I have received much light and information from the Work of this poor man, and have been thereby inabled to clear many difficulties, and rectifie some mistakes in
Gesner.", although in practice few of Baldner's insights were incorporated into the text.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 101.]
![Palazzo Publico Bologna by Ferdinand -Cospi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Palazzo_Publico_Bologna_by_Ferdinand_-Cospi.png)
The party continued through
Liège,
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
and
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
,
[Birkhead (2018) p. 104.] and arrived in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
on 15 September where they stayed for several days before leaving on 24 September for Venice.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 114–123.] The journey through the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...
was arduous, with poor mountain tracks, bad weather and little food except bread, and it was 6 October before they reached their destination, where Skippon listed 60 species of fish and 28 kinds of birds he had noted in the Venetian markets.
The group remained in Venice from 6 October 1663 to 1 February 1664,
apart from a trip to
Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, where they investigated medical procedures including the
dissection of human corpses. They then travelled through northern Italy, stopping in
Ferrara,
Verona
Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...
,
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, before setting sail for
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
from
Livorno on 15 April 1664.
It was here that the party divided, Willughby and Bacon heading to Rome, where they spent May, June and July,
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 125–126.] while Ray and Skippon went on to
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
.
Throughout the continental journey, Willughby and Skippon in particular had continued their research into languages.
[Cram (2016) p. 258.] In Vienna, apart from visiting the local collections, they had taken the opportunity to study
Turkish and several
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
,
and surviving manuscripts show comparison tables for seventeen languages including
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
,
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.
[Cram (2016) pp. 246–247.]
Bacon contracted
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
somewhere in Northern Italy, and Willughby continued with just a servant to
Montpellier, where Ray was already present. Willughby entered Spain on 31 August and progressed through
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
,
Granada,
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
,
Cordoba and
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, reaching
Irun
Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain.
History
It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as a Roman-Vasconic town.
During the Span ...
on 14 November.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 142–145.] Willughby found little of scientific interest in Spain, which he considered backward. He also disliked the land and the people: "almost desolate... tyrannical inquisition... multitude of whores... wretched laziness... very like the Welsh and Irish."
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 146–147.]
Later life and death
![Willoughby memorial in Middleton parish church](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Willoughby_memorial_in_Middleton_parish_church.jpg)
In Seville, Willughby had received a letter saying that his father was seriously ill, so he had hastened his return to Middleton where he arrived shortly before Christmas 1664.
His father died in December 1665 and Francis then became responsible for the estate. Willughby was soon being urged by his relatives to find a wife, but procrastinated knowing that this would restrict his researches.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 149–150.]
In 1661 he had sent the Royal Society the first paper to describe the
life cycle of insects,
and he and Ray also verified the
parasitoidism of caterpillars by
ichneumon wasps. Willughby also bred and studied
leaf-cutter bees, his chosen research species later being named after him as Willughby's leaf-cutter bee, ''
Megachile willughbiella''.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 154–157.] Willughby was the first person to unambiguously distinguish the
honey buzzard from the
common buzzard,
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 164–166.] and in 2018 it was suggested that the former species should be renamed "Willughby's Buzzard" to commemorate this.
In 1668 Willughby married Emma Barnard, daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of
Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079.
Histor ...
and London. They had three children. Their first child, Francis, died at the age of nineteen, while their daughter
Cassandra Willoughby married the
Duke of Chandos
The Dukedom of Chandos is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. First created as a barony by Edward III in 1337, its second creation in 1554 was due to the Brydges family's service to Mary I during Wyatt's rebellion, wh ...
, who was a patron of the English
naturalist Mark Catesby
Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an English naturalist who studied the flora and fauna of the New World. Between 1729 and 1747 Catesby published his ''Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands'', the fi ...
. The second son,
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
, was created Baron Middleton in 1711 by
Queen Anne.
Willughby and Ray continued their researches, now mainly on birds, with the help of Francis Jessop, another Trinity alumnus, who sent them specimens from the
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...
, including
twite
The twite (''Linaria flavirostris'') is a small brown passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.
It is similar in size and shape to a linnet, at long. It lacks the red head patch and breast shown by the linnet and the redpolls. It is bro ...
and
red grouse.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 169–172.] They also were the first to investigate the active flow of
sap
Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant.
Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...
in
birches.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 173–175.]
Willughby had suffered several periods of illness, including violent fevers, between 1668 and 1671, described by Ray as "tertian ague" (
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
), and the additional physical and financial demands occasioned by having to defend a bitterly disputed inheritance put him under more strain. On 3 June 1672 he became seriously ill again, and signed his will on 24 June, disbarring any Catholic descendants from inheriting. He died on 3 July. The immediate cause of death was
pleurisy
Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity ( pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other sy ...
, probably related to
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
. He was buried at
St. John the Baptist parish church,
Middleton, with Ray, Skippon and Jessop present with the family at the interment.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 209–212.] The church contains a large memorial commemorating Francis, his parents, Francis senior and Cassandra, and his son, also Francis; this was erected by his second son, Thomas.
[Johnston (2016) pp. 24–25.]
Subjects of his studies
![Pepys copy of Willughby's Ornithology](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Pepys_copy_of_Willughby%27s_Ornithology.jpg)
As well as being a friend, John Ray was one of five
executors of Willughby's will, in which he was left the sum of £60 a year for life. He saw it as his duty to complete and publish his colleague's work on animals.
Birds
Willughby's ''Ornithology'' was intended to describe all the then-known birds worldwide.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 218.] Its innovative features were an effective
classification system based on
anatomical features, such the bird's beak, feet and overall size, and a
dichotomous key
In phylogenetics, a single-access key (also called dichotomous key, sequential key, analytical key, or pathway key) is an identification key where the sequence and structure of identification steps is fixed by the author of the key. At each point i ...
, which helped readers to identify birds by guiding them to the page describing that group.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 219–221.] The authors also placed an asterisk against species of which they had no first-hand knowledge, and were therefore unable to verify.
[Birkhead ''et al'' (2016) p. 292.] Willughby had been keen to add details of "
characteristic marks" to help with identification.
[Birkhead ''et al'' (2016) p. 273.] The authors also largely avoided the practice of previous writers, such as
Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner (; la, Conradus Gesnerus 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his tale ...
, by not including extraneous material relating to the species, such as proverbs, references in history and literature, or use as an
emblem
An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint.
Emblems vs. symbols
Although the words ''emblem'' and '' symbol'' are often us ...
.
[Kusukawa (2016) p. 306.] The book was published in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
as ''Ornithologiae Libri Tres'' (''Three Books of Ornithology'') in 1676.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 225.]
The first of the three sections included an introduction to bird biology, an explanation of the new classification system and the dichotomous key. The second and third sections described land birds and
seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
s respectively.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 229.] Emma Willughby paid for the 80
metal-engraved plates that completed the work, and this is acknowledged on the title page.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 231–232.] The English-language version, ''The Ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton'', published in 1678, included additional material, including a section on
fowling
Fowling is the hunting of birds by humans, for food ( meat), feathers or any other commercially value products, or simply for leisure (" sporting") or collecting trophies. It is comparable to wildfowling, the practice of hunting waterfowl ...
to broaden its appeal, but had no mention of Willughby's widow.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 236.] Its commercial success is unknown, but its influence was profound.
[Birkhead (2018) p. 239.]
Fish
The next book, on fish, was many years in the making; Willughby's widow had remarried, and her new husband,
Josiah Child
Sir Josiah Child, 1st Baronet, , (c. 1630/31 – 22 June 1699) was an English economist, merchant and politician. He was an economist proponent of mercantilism and governor of the East India Company. He led the company in the Anglo-Mughal War. ...
, had barred Ray from accessing his friend's papers. Furthermore, there were far more known species of fish than there were birds to describe, and Ray was working on his own ''History of Plants''.
[Jardine (1999) pp. 303–306.] The ''Historia Piscium'' was finally published in Latin in 1686 with a dedication to
Samuel Pepys, President of the Royal Society, who had made a generous financial contribution to the project. The book had four sections: an introduction to fish biology;
cetaceans;
cartilaginous fish (sharks and
rays
Ray may refer to:
Fish
* Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea
* Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin
Science and mathematics
* Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point
* Ray (gra ...
); and
bony fish, the last group being further classified by the number and nature of their fins. 187 plates completed the work, their cost making the book a financial disaster for the Royal Society, which had largely funded its publication.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 241–245.][Jardine (1999) pp. 307–310.][Kusukawa (2016) p. 309.]
"Insects"
![Megachile willughbiella male (21626826474)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Megachile_willughbiella_male_%2821626826474%29.jpg)
In the seventeenth century, the term "insect" had a much wider meaning than it does today, so the third major book, ''Historia Insectorum'', included many other
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s, such as worms, spiders and
millipede
Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...
s. It excluded
molluscs
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estim ...
, perhaps because
Martin Lister
Martin Lister FRS (12 April 1639 – 2 February 1712) was an English naturalist and physician. His daughters Anne and Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers.
J. D. Woodley, ‘Lister , Susanna (bap. 1670, d. 1738)’, Oxford Dic ...
, another Fellow of the Royal Society, was writing his own ''Historia Animalium'' that covered that group. Ray's problems with completing this publication were much the same as with the fish book, although in 1704 he was able to see manuscripts prepared independently by Sir Thomas Willoughby and the scholar Thomas Man, Sir Thomas having moved into Wollaton Hall in 1687 and regained access to Middleton and his father's papers and possessions.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 246–251.]
Ray died in January 1705, and little happened with the ''Historia Insectorum'' until
William Derham
William Derham FRS (26 November 16575 April 1735)Smolenaars, Marja.Derham, William (1657–1735), ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 26 May 2007. was an English clergyman, natural theologian, n ...
and the Royal Society finally published it in 1710 in Latin, incomplete, unillustrated and under Ray's name only.
Ray, however, makes it clear that Willughby did the bulk of the insect research,
[Kusukawa (2016) pp. 336–337.] including, for example, 20 pages of beetle descriptions.
[Ogilvie (2016) p. 352.] The book had four sections, starting with an innovative
classification system Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood.
Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes.
It may also refer to:
Business, organizat ...
based on
metamorphosis.
The second section contained the main species descriptions, followed by Ray's observations of
butterflies and moths and their caterpillars, and an appendix by Martin Lister on British beetles.
[Ogilvie (2016) p. 340.] Plates prepared by Sir Thomas Willoughby were not used, and they have now been lost, as have the manuscripts Sir Thomas showed to Ray.
Games and probability
![Playingcardsvanda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Playingcardsvanda.jpg)
Willughby's ''
Book of Games'' was unfinished at his death, but was published with accompanying interpretative material in 2003. He gave details of dozens of games and sports, including cards,
cockfight
A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ent ...
ing, football and word games; some are now unfamiliar, such as "Lend me your Skimmer".
[Cram ''et al'' (2003) pp. ix–x.] For each entry he included the rules, equipment and manner of play.
[Cram ''et al'' (2003) pp. 243–291.] He also studied the first games that babies and children play,
and wrote a more mathematical section "On the rebounding of tennis balls".
[Cram ''et al'' (2003) pp. 234–235.] As with his biological works, the ''Book of Games'' is organised on the empirical principles of observation, description, and
classification.
A lost work appears to have been one that, according to his daughter Cassandra, "shews the chances of most games",
["There are in the library at Wollaton many manuscripts which were written by my father... One which shews the chances of most
games" in Chandos (1958) p. 105.] which may have been titled ''The Book of Dice'' ("''Historii Chartitudii''").
[Johnston (2016) p. 12.][Cram ''et al'' (2003) p. 12.] Willughby was a competent mathematician,
[Wardhaugh (2016) pp. 124–125.] and there is evidence that the lost text considered
probability
Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1, where, roughly speakin ...
with regard to card and dice games.
[Wardhaugh (2016) pp. 128–129.]
Illustrations and sources
The numerous plates illustrating the species in the bird and fish books came from a number of sources. Willughby's own extensive collection included paintings he had bought on his European travels, and he also borrowed pictures owned by friends like Skippon and Sir
Thomas Browne. Many illustrations were taken from previous publications by other writers,
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 216–217.] and some were based on
Francis Barlow's oil-paintings of birds in
Charles II's aviary
An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages. Avi ...
in
St James's Park
St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous ch ...
.
[Birkhead (2018) pp. 227–228.][Jackson (2006) pp. 114–115.]
The illustrations taken from earlier books were from many sources, particularly the earlier natural histories or ornithologies by
Ulisse Aldrovandi
Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history st ...
,
Pietro Olina,
Georg Marcgrave
Georg Marcgrave (originally german: Georg Marggraf, also spelled ''"Marcgraf" " Markgraf"'') (1610 – 1644) was a German naturalist and astronomer, whose posthumously published ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' was a major contribution to early mo ...
and
Willem Piso
Willem Piso (in Dutch Willem Pies, in Latin Gulielmus Piso, also called Guilherme Piso in Portuguese) (1611 in Leiden – 28 November 1678 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch physician and naturalist who participated as an expedition doctor in D ...
.
[Birkhead ''et al'' (2016) pp. 292–295.] Where feasible, Willughby and Ray compared the available illustrations with life or specimens, or, if that were not possible, against each other, to select the most accurate version for publication.
In addition to these authors, sources used for the text included works by
Carolus Clusius
Charles de l'Écluse, L'Escluse, or Carolus Clusius (19 February 1526 – 4 April 1609), seigneur de Watènes, was an Artois doctor and pioneering botanist, perhaps the most influential of all 16th-century scientific horticulturists.
Life
Clu ...
,
Adriaen Collaert
Adriaen Collaert (c. 1560 – 29 June 1618) was a Flemish designer and engraver.
Biography
The estimated year of his birth at Antwerp is between 1555 and 1565. ,
Gervase Markham
Gervase (or Jervis) Markham (ca. 1568 – 3 February 1637) was an English poet and writer. He was best known for his work '' The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman'', first publishe ...
,
Juan Eusebio Nieremberg
Juan Eusebio Nieremberg y Ottín (1595 – 7 April 1658) was a Spanish Jesuit and mystic.
Nieremberg was born and died in Madrid, but his parents were German. He studied the classics at the Royal Court, he studied science at Alcalá and ca ...
and
Ole Worm
Ole Worm (13 May 1588 – 31 August 1654), who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Lati ...
.
[Gurney (1921) pp]
210–211
/ref> Olina's ''Ucelliera'', at least, seems to have been revisited between the Latin and English editions of the ''Ornithology'', since the later version contains a description of territorial
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
behaviour by the nightingale
The common nightingale, rufous nightingale or simply nightingale (''Luscinia megarhynchos''), is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song. It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is no ...
absent from the earlier work.[Birkhead (2011) p. 223.]
Legacy
Much of Willughby's written work has been lost, along with his scientific equipment and most of his collections of items of natural history interest;[Birkhead (2018) pp. 89–93.][Charmantier ''et al'' (2016) pp. 360–361.] what remains is largely owned by the family and housed in the University of Nottingham Middleton archive.[Charmantier ''et al'' (2016) p. 373.] The ''Ornithology'' influenced Réamur in organising his great bird collection, and Brisson in the compilation of his own work on the topic. Georges Cuvier commented on the influence of the ''Historia Piscium'', and Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...
from 1735 onwards relied heavily on Willughby and Ray's books in his '' Systema Naturae'', the basis of binomial nomenclature
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
.[Charmantier ''et al'' (2016) pp. 377–380.][Johanson ''et al'' (2016) p. 139.]
The lack of physical evidence, together with Willughby's early death and the publication of his books by Ray, means that the relative contributions of the two men has subsequently been disputed. Willughby's work was initially well-regarded, but Ray's reputation grew as time passed,[Birkhead (2018) pp. 260–265.] and, in 1788, the English botanist James Edward Smith James Edward Smith may refer to:
* James Edward Smith (botanist), English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society
* James Edward Smith (murderer), American murderer
* James Edward Smith (politician), Canadian businessman and mayor of Toronto
* ...
wrote that Willughby's contribution had been overstated by his friend, who gave himself too little credit. The opposite view was given by William Swainson, who felt that Ray's fame rested entirely on that of his patron, and he lacked the genius to have achieved anything on his own.
The pendulum swung again when Charles E. Raven wrote his 1942 biography of Ray, seeing him as the senior partner and saying that Willughby had "less knowledge, patience and judgment" than Ray, whom he considered a scientist of genius,[Raven (1942) p. 336.] and whose contributions he tended to compare favourably with the achievements of most other writers. Raven was unaware of the Willughby family archive at the University of Nottingham when he wrote his book,[Birkhead (2018) pp. vii–viii.] and access to that and other new material have led to modern appraisals giving a more balanced picture, with the two men seen to have made significant individual contributions, each demonstrating his own strengths.[Birkhead (2018) pp. 267–268.]
Willughby and Ray discovered several previously undescribed species of birds,[Birkhead (2018) pp. 269–270.] fish and invertebrates.[Birkhead (2018) pp. 134–135.] The names of the Windermere charr (''Salvelinus willughbii''), Willughby's leaf-cutter bee (''Megachile willughbiella'') and the tropical plant genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
'' Willughbeia'' all commemorate the younger man.[Birkhead (2018) p. 259.] However, Willughby and Ray's main influence was through their three books, especially the ''Ornithology'', with their emphasis on systematic description and classification.[Charmantier ''et al'' (2016) p. 379.][Birkhead (2018) pp. ix–x.] Even Willughby's own collection of 170 plates and nature paintings seems to be intended not just to provide individual illustrations, but to be an integral part of a collection intended to reinforce the order of nature.
Books
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Notes
References
Citations
Cited texts
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Bibliography
* Forgeng, Jeff, Dorothy Johnston and David Cram (2003). ''Francis Willughby's Book of Games''. Ashgate Press. .
* Willughby, Francis. ''A Volume of Plaies''. (Manuscript in the Middleton collection, University of Nottingham, shelfmark Li 113.) c1665-70.
External links
Voice recordings
*
Other resources
Middleton archives at the University of Nottingham
*
* ''National Geographic'' interview with Tim Birkhead
The Amazing Tale of the Genius that History Forgot
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willughby, Francis
1635 births
1672 deaths
People from the Borough of North Warwickshire
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
English ornithologists
Original Fellows of the Royal Society
English Dissenters
English alchemists
British ichthyologists
People educated at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
17th-century alchemists
Card game book writers