William MacGillivray

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 ...

(25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

naturalist and

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 ...

Life and work

MacGillivray was born in

Old Aberdeen Old Aberdeen is part of the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. Old Aberdeen was originally a separate burgh, which was erected into a burgh of barony on 26 December 1489. It was incorporated into adjacent Aberdeen by Act of Parliament in 1891. It ret ...

and brought up on

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle o ...

. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied Medicine at King's College, graduating MA in 1815. In Old Aberdeen he lived at 107 High Street. He then became an assistant Dissector in the Anatomy classes. In 1823 he became assistant to

Robert Jameson Robert Jameson Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist. As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor John ...

, the

Regius Professor A Regius Professor is a university Professor (highest academic rank), professor who has, or originally had, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, royal patronage or appointment. They are a unique feature of academia in the United Kingdom and Republic ...

of Natural History at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. He was curator of the museum of the

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The College has seven active faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical practices. Its main campus is located on ...

from 1831, resigning in 1841 to become Regius Professor of Natural History at

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has acted as the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. However, the building was constructed for and is on long- ...

, Aberdeen. MacGillivray was a friend of American bird expert

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

, and wrote a large part of Audubon's ''Ornithological Biographies'' from 1830 to 1839. Audubon named

MacGillivray's warbler MacGillivray's warbler (''Geothlypis tolmiei'') is a species of New World warbler. These birds are sluggish and heavy warblers, preferring to spend most of their time on, or near the ground, except when singing. left, A MacGillivray's warbler p ...

for him. He died at 67 Crown Street in Aberdeen on 5 September 1852 but is buried in

New Calton Cemetery New Calton Burial Ground is a burial ground in Edinburgh. It was built as an overspill and functional replacement to Old Calton Burial Ground and lies half a mile to its east on Regent Road in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the south-east slopes of Ca ...

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 ...

. The grave faces east onto the eastern path.

Family

In 1820 he married Marion Askill from Harris. The couple had 10 children, two of whom died in infancy. Two of MacGillivray's sons achieved recognition as naturalists. His eldest son,

John MacGillivray John MacGillivray (18 December 1821 – 6 June 1867) was a Scottish naturalist, active in Australia between 1842 and 1867. MacGillivray was born in Aberdeen, the son of ornithologist William MacGillivray. He took part in three of the Royal Nav ...

(1822–1867), published an account of the voyage round the world of HMS ''Rattlesnake'', to which he was the onboard naturalist. Another son,

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

, published an ''Aberdeen Flora'' in 1853, and donated 214 of his father's paintings to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

Legacy

A detailed version of MacGillivray's life, written by a namesake, was published 49 years after the ornithologist's death. MacGillivray correctly distinguished between the

hooded crow The hooded crow (''Corvus cornix''), also called the scald-crow or hoodie, is a Eurasian bird species in the genus ''Corvus''. Widely distributed, it is found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle Eas ...

and

carrion crow The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus ''Corvus'' which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species origi ...

, but they were considered only to be

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

for the next one and a half centuries until, in 2002, on DNA evidence, the hooded crow was awarded species status.

Works

MacGillivray's works include: *''Lives of Eminent Zoologists from Aristotle to Linnaeus'' (1830) *''A Systematic Arrangement of British Plants'' (1830) *''The Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt.'' (1832) *''A History of British Quadrupeds'' (1838) *''A Manual of Botany, Comprising Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology'' (1840) *''A History of the Molluscous Animals of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine'' (1843) *''A Manual of British Ornithology'' (1840–1842) *''A History of British Birds, indigenous and migratory'', in five volumes (1837–1852) *''Natural History of Deeside and Braemar'' (1855), published posthumously *''A Hebridean Naturalist's Journal 1817-1818'' (1996), published posthumously *''A Walk to London'' (1998), published posthumously MacGillivray illustrated

Henry Witham Henry Thomas Maire Witham FRSE FGS (1779–1844) was a British landowner remembered as an amateur palaeontologist and mineralogist. He was an early researcher into the internal structure of fossil plants. Life He was born Henry Silvertop t ...

's 1833 ''The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic deposits of Great Britain'', and edited ''The Conchologist's Text-Book'' through several editions.

References

External links