Dr. Laurence Edmondston (9 February 1795 – 7 March 1879) was a British-born naturalist and doctor who lived in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Laurence Edmondston was born in

Lerwick Lerwick (; non, Leirvik; nrn, Larvik) is the main town and port of the Shetland archipelago, Scotland. Shetland's only burgh, Lerwick had a population of about 7,000 residents in 2010. Centred off the north coast of the Scottish mainland ...

, the capital of Shetland, in 1795. His mother was Mary Sanderson (1751–1831) and his father Laurence Edmondston (1740–1814). He was the youngest brother of

Arthur Edmondston Arthur Edmondston, M.D. (1776–1841) was a Scottish physician and writer in the Shetland Isles. Life Edmondston, eldest son of Laurence Edmondston of Hascosay, surgeon in Lerwick, and Mary Sanderson of Buness, Shetland, was born about 177 ...

(1776–1841). He worked in London at a mercantile office, and resided and travelled on the continent for that office for some time. He then studied medicine in Edinburgh. Although his family originally lived on the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Hascosay Hascosay ( sco, Hascosay; Old Norse "Hafskotsey") is a small island lying between Yell and Fetlar in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. Geography and geology The island's rock is coarse micaceous gneiss. The island has several pools, but the fre ...

in Shetland, Laurence settled as a medical practitioner on Unst, living at Halligarth, where he established a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

in the late 1830s (trees are scarce in the islands). In his teens, he acquired

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

s of

glaucous gull The glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus'') is a large gull, the second-largest gull in the world. It breeds in Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and winters south to shores of the Holarctic. The genus name is from Latin ''larus'', which a ...

(''Larus hyperboreus)'' and snowy owl (''Bubo scandiacus)'', which were both later recognised as the first British records. In 1822 and 1823, while completing his medical studies in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Edmondston published several papers in the ''Memoirs of the

Wernerian Society The Wernerian Natural History Society (12 January 1808 – 16 April 1858), commonly abbreviated as the Wernerian Society, was a learned society interested in the broad field of natural history, and saw papers presented on various topics such as ...

'', adding two more species to the British List,

Iceland gull The Iceland gull (''Larus glaucoides'') is a medium-sized gull that breeds in the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland, but not in Iceland (as its name suggests), where it is only seen during winter. The genus name is from Latin ''larus'', whic ...

(''Larus glaucoides'') and

ivory gull The ivory gull (''Pagophila eburnea'') is a small gull, the only species in the genus ''Pagophila''. It breeds in the high Arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through Greenland, northernmost North America, and Eurasia. Taxonomy The ivory ...

(''Pagophila eburnea)''. Edmondston's publications revealed a careful observer, capable of recognising that several ‘species’ recognised at the time were others in juvenile or winter plumages; for example, ‘speckled diver’ was winter-plumaged red-throated diver (''Gavia stellata)'' and ‘black-billed auk’ was juvenile

razorbill The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus '' Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis impe ...

(''Alca torda)''. He was also a pioneer conservationist as, in 1831, he instructed the shepherds on Hermaness on Unst to ensure the safety of the tiny population of breeding

great skua The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken fr ...

s. His children included

Thomas Edmondston Thomas Edmondston (1825–1846) was a British-born botanist, born in Buness, Unst. The family of Edmondston (also spelt Edmonston) was prominent in 19th-century Shetland. Thomas Edmondston's uncle, also Thomas Edmondston, was laird of the B ...

the

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

Jessie Saxby Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby (30 June 1842 – 27 December 1940) was an author and folklorist from Unst, one of the Shetland Islands of Scotland. She also had political interests and was a suffragette. Family Born on 30 June 1842 at ...

, an author and wife of the

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

Henry Saxby Dr Henry Linckmeyer Saxby (19 April 1836 – 4 September 1873) was an English born physician and ornithologist, most famous for his work in Shetland. Saxby was born in London and his father, Stephen Martin Saxby, was of some renown himself, as a n ...

Sources

*Pennington, M. G., Osborn, K., Harvey, P. V., Riddington, R., Okill, J. D., Ellis, P. M. & Heubeck, M. 2004. ''The Birds of Shetland''. Christopher Helm, London. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonston, Laurence 1795 births 1879 deaths People associated with Shetland Scottish ornithologists Alumni of the University of Edinburgh