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Francis Willughby

 
Francis Willughby

 
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Francis Willughby
 
 
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Francis Willughby (sometimes spelt Willoughby) (November 22, 1635 – July 3, 1672) was an English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 ornithologist
Ornithology

Ornithology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of birds. Several aspects of the study of ornithology differ from closely related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds....
 and ichthyologist
Ichthyology

Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish . At least 30,700 fish species have been described, comprising a majority of vertebrates....
.

He was born at Middleton Hall
Middleton Hall

Middleton Hall is a Grade II listed building dating back to medieval times. It is situated in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England, south of Fazeley and Tamworth and on the opposite side of the A4091 road to Middleton, Warwickshire village....
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton in the far north of the county....
 to Sir Francis Willoughby and Cassandra Ridgway. He studied at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School

Bishop Vesey's Grammar School is a selective state grammar school in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. Founded in 1527, it is one of the List_of_the_oldest_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom#Sixteenth_century....
, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield

Sutton Coldfield is a town within the Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham, in the northeast of the city, with a population of List of English cities by population recorded in the 2001 census....
  and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is one of the 31 Colleges of the University of Cambridge of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or University of Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduate students, and over 160 Fellows; however, counting only the student body it has somewhat fewer than Homert...
. In 1667 he married Emma Barnard, daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgnorth and London.






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Francis Willughby 001
Francis Willughby (sometimes spelt Willoughby) (November 22, 1635 – July 3, 1672) was an English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 ornithologist
Ornithology

Ornithology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of birds. Several aspects of the study of ornithology differ from closely related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds....
 and ichthyologist
Ichthyology

Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish . At least 30,700 fish species have been described, comprising a majority of vertebrates....
.

He was born at Middleton Hall
Middleton Hall

Middleton Hall is a Grade II listed building dating back to medieval times. It is situated in the North Warwickshire district of the county of Warwickshire in England, south of Fazeley and Tamworth and on the opposite side of the A4091 road to Middleton, Warwickshire village....
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton in the far north of the county....
 to Sir Francis Willoughby and Cassandra Ridgway. He studied at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School

Bishop Vesey's Grammar School is a selective state grammar school in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. Founded in 1527, it is one of the List_of_the_oldest_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom#Sixteenth_century....
, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield

Sutton Coldfield is a town within the Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham, in the northeast of the city, with a population of List of English cities by population recorded in the 2001 census....
  and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is one of the 31 Colleges of the University of Cambridge of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or University of Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduate students, and over 160 Fellows; however, counting only the student body it has somewhat fewer than Homert...
. In 1667 he married Emma Barnard, daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgnorth and London. They had three children, The oldest Francis, died at the age of nineteen, while his daughter Cassandra Willoughby
Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos

Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos was a British historian, travel writer and artist.She was the daughter of Francis Willughby of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a writer on natural history, and his wife Emma, the daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgenorth, Shropshire and London....
 married the Duke Chandos
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos Privy Council of Great Britain was the first of fourteen children by Sir James Brydges, 3rd Baronet of Wilton Castle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 8th Lord Chandos; and Elizabeth Barnard....
, who was a patron of Mark Catesby
Mark Catesby

Mark Catesby was an England natural history. Between 1731 and 1743 Catesby published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the Flora and Fauna of North America....
. His second son was Thomas
Thomas Willoughby, 1st Baron Middleton

Thomas Willoughby, 1st Baron Middleton was a Baron in the Peerage of Great Britain.He was born at Middleton Hall, Middleton, Warwickshire, the second son of Francis Willughby, the famed mathematician and naturalist , and was educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge....
 and was one of ten peers created by Queen Anne.

At Cambridge he was taught by the naturalist John Ray
John Ray

John Ray was an England Natural history, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray although no one knows why....
. In 1662 they travelled to the west coast of England to study the breeding seabirds. Between 1663 and 1666 they toured Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 together, travelling through the Netherlands
Netherlands

The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 and Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. They separated at Naples
Naples

Naples is a city in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples. The city is known for its rich history, art, culture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,800 years old....
 and Willoughby returned home via Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
. On returning to England they made plans to publish the results of their studies. Willughby died from pleurisy
Pleurisy

Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
 during the preparation of this work, but Ray published Willughby's Ornithologia libri tres in 1676, with an English edition two years later. This is considered the beginning of scientific ornithology in Europe, revolutionizing ornithological taxonomy
Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
 by organizing species according to their physical characteristics. Willughby and Ray were among the first to dismiss the older inaccuracies of Aristotle. Aristotle had claimed that swallows hibernated but Willughby and Ray (1678:212, quoted in Raven 1942:328) wrote: “To us it seems more probable that they fly away into hot countries, viz. Egypt, Aethiopia etc.” Ray also published Willughby's De Historia piscium (1686).

The Willughby family seat, Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall

Wollaton Hall is a country house standing on a small but prominent hill in Wollaton, Nottingham, England....
, now owned by the City of Nottingham
Nottingham

Nottingham is one of the three major city status in the United Kingdom in the East Midlands and is in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England....
, houses Willughby and Ray's natural history collection of stuffed animals and birds. The Willughby papers are amongst the Middleton collection held at the Nottingham University Library.