William Kirby (1759-1850): eminent Suffolk naturalist

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WILLIAM KIRBY (1759–1850)

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WILLIAM KIRBY (1759–1850): EMINENT SUFFOLK NATURALIST Patrick H. Armstrong The year 2015 was the 200th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Introduction to Entomology, and 2016 will be the 190th anniversary of the appearance of the fourth and final volume of the series. This publication was a milestone in the development of entomology, and a significant event in the story of natural history in Suffolk, and thus these anniversaries perhaps render a man who has been described as ‘The Father of Entomology’ worthy of the notice of a modern audience. The Reverend William Kirby (Fig. 1) came from a modestly distinguished family. His grandfather was John Kirby (1690–1753), cartographer and author of The Suffolk Traveller, based on a survey conducted between 1732 and 1734, and his uncle the artist-topographer Joshua Kirby (1716–1774). A cousin was Mrs Sarah Trimmer (1741 –1810), philanthropist, educator and children’s author. William Kirby’s father was a country solicitor. The family knew Thomas Gainsborough, the painter (Bettany, 1892; Freeman, 1852). In many respects Kirby typifies the phenomenon of the English parson-naturalist (Armstrong, 2000). Born in the Suffolk parish of Witnesham, after attending Ipswich School, not far distant, he proceeded to Caius College, Cambridge, graduating in 1781. He was ordained in 1782, and spent the rest of his life – some 68 years – living in the country parish of Barham (Fig. 2), Suffolk (about 2.5 miles, 6 km, from his birthplace). He was at first curate, and then, from 1797, the rector. Such long incumbencies were not unusual: they meant that a man could get to know a small area of countryside, and its plants, animals and people, extremely well. Thus in Kirby’s first major work Monographia Apium Angliae - Monograph on the Bees of England (1802), some 153 of the bee species described were collected in his own parish and a number in adjoining parishes (Freeman, 1852). Other observations from the local Suffolk countryside abound in his works; for example: The carrot, which forms a valuable crop of the sand-land farms in Suffolk, is often much injured, as is also the parsnip by a small centipede (S. electrica L.) and another polypod (Polydesmus complanatus, Latr.) which eat into the …upper part of their roots. (Introduction to Entomology, 1818 edition, vol 1, p 187.) Kirby’s network One of the reasons for the striking success of the English parson-naturalist genre was the tight network of relationships that the clergy provided for each other. Anglican clergy were often related to one another by kinship or marriage, they met at deanery meetings or other clergy gatherings, and corresponded frequently; in this way parsonnaturalists exchanged specimens and observations. William Kirby was no exception. In his 1802 book on bees he acknowledges particularly the assistance of the Rev Peter Lathbury of Livermere, Suffolk (p 26) and refers to a specimen of Evania appendigaster in the possession the Rev Jas Coyte of Ipswich (p 34). In another description he mentions his ‘venerable friend’ the Rev George Ashby of Barrow in Suffolk (p 167). Similar acknowledgements are to be found in Introduction to Entomology: he mentions the observation of vast numbers of Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 51 (2015)


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William Kirby (1759-1850): eminent Suffolk naturalist by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu