![PJ Selby02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/PJ_Selby02.jpg)
Prideaux John Selby
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
FLS (23 July 1788 – 27 March 1867) was an English
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 ...
,
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
natural history artist.
Life
Selby was born in Bondgate Street in
Alnwick
Alnwick ( ) is a market town in Northumberland, England, of which it is the traditional county town. The population at the 2011 Census was 8,116.
The town is on the south bank of the River Aln, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish bor ...
in
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land on ...
, the eldest son of George Selby of
Beal and
Twizell (d.1804), and his wife, Margaret Cook. He was educated at
Durham School
Durham School is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located in Durham, North East England and was an all-boys institution until 1985, when girls were admitted to the sixth form. The school takes pupils ...
.
He studied at
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
. He succeeded in 1804 to the family estates at Beal, and added to the landholdings there at a cost of some £14000 in about 1840. He sold the Beal estate amounting to in 1850 for £47000 (£ at today's prices).
He died at Twizell House and was buried in
Bamburgh
Bamburgh ( ) is a village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It had a population of 454 in 2001, decreasing to 414 at the 2011 census.
The village is notable for the nearby Bamburgh Castle, a castle which was the seat of ...
churchyard.
Family
In 1810 he married Lewis Tabitha Mitford (1782–1859) daughter of Bertram Osbaldeston Mitford (1748–1800) of Dennet's Hall in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
.
They had three daughters.
Work
Selby is best known for his ''Illustrations of British Ornithology'' (1821–1834), the first set of life-sized illustrations of British birds. He also wrote ''Illustrations of Ornithology'' with
William Jardine and ''A History of British Forest-trees'' (1842).
Many of the illustrations in his works were drawn from specimens in his collection. In addition to the above works he contributed to Jardine's ''Naturalist's Library'' the volumes on the pigeons (1835) and the parrots (1836), the latter illustrated by
Edward Lear
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...
. He was for some time one of the editors of the ''Magazine of Zoology and Botany''.
His collections were sold in 1885 and became dispersed. The
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n birds collected by
Andrew Smith went to the Zoology Museum of the University of Cambridge.
See also
*
:Taxa named by Prideaux John Selby
*
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 ...
and his ''
History of British Birds
''A History of British Birds'' is a natural history book by Thomas Bewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, ''Land Birds'', appeared in 1797. Volume 2, ''Water Birds'', appeared in 1804. A supplement was published in 1821. The text in ''Lan ...
''
*
William Yarrell
William Yarrell (3 June 1784 – 1 September 1856) was an English zoologist, prolific writer, bookseller and naturalist admired by his contemporaries for his precise scientific work.
Yarrell is best known as the author of ''The History of Br ...
References
Further references
Bowey, K. and Newsome, M. (Ed) 2012. ''The Birds of Durham''. Durham Bird Club.
Bibliography
* Mullens; Swann. (1918).
A Bibliography of British Ornithology'.
* Raine, Revd. James (1852). ''The History and Antiquities of North Durham''. p338
* Jackson, Christine E. (2004). ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.
External links
Gallery of Prideaux John Selby art* Selby, Prideaux John (1836
''Natural history of parrots''Edinburgh: W. H. Lizars. - digital facsimile from
Linda Hall Library
The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...
* A collection o
ornithological printsfrom Selby's 1833 ''British ornithology'' and his 1835 ''The natural history of pigeons.'' -
Linda Hall Library
The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Selby, Prideaux John
1788 births
1867 deaths
People from Alnwick
English botanists
Botanists with author abbreviations
British illustrators
English ornithologists
Alumni of University College, Oxford
19th-century English people
British bird artists
Prideaux
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh