Marmaduke Tunstall (1743 – 11 October 1790) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

and collector. He was the author of ''Ornithologica Britannica'' (1771), probably the first British work to use

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 ...

. Tunstall was born at

Burton Constable Burton Constable is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located approximately north-east of Hull city centre and south-east of the village of Skirlaugh. The civil parish is formed by the village of Bu ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. In 1760, he succeeded to the family estates of Scargill, Hutton, Long Villers and Wycliffe. Being a Catholic, he was educated at

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

in France. On completing his studies, he took up residence in Welbeck Street,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he formed an extensive museum, as well as a large collection of living birds and animals. He is known for formally describing the

Peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...

. After his marriage in 1776, the museum was moved to Wycliffe, and at the time, was one of the finest in England. Tunstall became a fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

at the age of twenty-one, and in 1771, was elected a fellow of 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 ...

. Tunstall died at Wycliffe, and his estates passed to his half-brother, William Constable. Constable invited

Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 17538 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating ch ...

, whom Marmaduke had commissioned to engrave ' The Wild Bull of the Ancient Caledonian Breed, now in the park at Chilingham-Castle, Northumberland', to Wycliffe where he spent two months making drawings from the bird specimens. The museum, known as the Wycliffe Museum, was sold to George Allan of Blackwell Grange, Darlington who set up the contents in his home. The museum remained even after his death in 1800 at the Grange until 1822 when it was purchased by the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, and becoming the "Newcastle Museum."

References

* Mullens and Swann – ''A Bibliography of British Ornithology'' (1917)

External links

* * * * 1743 births 1790 deaths English curators English natural history collectors English ornithologists Fellows of the Royal Society People from the East Riding of Yorkshire Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Scientists from Yorkshire {{UK-ornithologist-stub