Lilly Wigg (25 December 1749 – 28 March 1828) was an English botanist.
Life
Wigg was born in
Smallburgh
Smallburgh is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is fourteen miles (21 km) south-east of Cromer, fourteen miles (21 km) north-east of Norwich and north-east of London. The village lies five miles ...
, Norfolk, on 25 December 1749, the son of a shoemaker. He received a good village education, and was brought up to his father's trade, but moved to
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...
before he was twenty, where until 1801 he kept a small school in Fighting-cock Row. He acquired some knowledge of Latin, Greek, and French, was a skilled arithmetician, and wrote a beautifully neat
copperplate hand. Through his love of botany and skill as a collector he became acquainted with Dr
John Aikin
John Aikin (15 January 1747 – 7 December 1822) was an English medical doctor and surgeon. Later in life he devoted himself wholly to biography and writing in periodicals.
Life
He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son o ...
,
Thomas Jenkinson Woodward, Sir
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
* ...
and
Dawson Turner
Dawson Turner (18 October 1775 – 21 June 1858) was an English banker, botanist and antiquary. He specialized in the botany of cryptogams and was the father-in-law of the botanist William Jackson Hooker.
Life
Turner was the son of Jam ...
.
He was particularly interested in the study of
seaweed
Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...
, of which he created a collection from examples found on the beach.
In 1801 Turner engaged him as a clerk in Gurneys & Turner's bank at Yarmouth, a position which he occupied for the rest of his life. For nearly twenty years Wigg was collecting material for a history of edible plants, some of which, in manuscript, has subsequently been kept in the botanical department of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, while a manuscript ''Flora Cibaria'', consisting of extracts from books of travel, hes been kept at
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...
. Wigg also studied the birds and fishes of the Norfolk coast.
[
He was elected an associate of the ]Linnean Society of London
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
as early as 1790. James Edward Smith acknowledged contributions from him to ''English Botany'' (1790–1814), styling him "a most ingenious and accurate observer … eminently skilful in detecting, as well as in preserving, specimens of marine algae". He also contributed to William Withering
William Withering FRS (17 March 1741 – 6 October 1799) was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and first systematic investigator of the bioactivity of digitalis.
Withering was born in Wellington, Shropshire, the son of a surg ...
's ''Botanical Arrangement'' (1787–1792). Dawson Turner named after him ''Fucus'' (later ''Naccaria'') ''Wigghii''.[
Wigg died in Great Yarmouth on 28 March 1828.][
]
References
Attribution
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wigg, Lilly
1749 births
1828 deaths
People from Norfolk
18th-century British botanists
19th-century British botanists