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 ...

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.

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 prints
from Selby's 1833 ''British ornithology'' and his 1835 ''The natural history of pigeons.'' -

{{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