Chrono-Biographical Sketch: William Kirby

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Kirby, William (England 1759-1850)
entomology

from Wikipedia.org

William Kirby's long and happy life as a humble rural clergyman was in part enriched by his interest in nature--especially, in another humble element of God's Creation, the insects. He in fact became a leading entomologist of his time, giving his attention to the description of both local (e.g., his 1802 work on bees) and foreign forms (e.g., his volume on the specimens collected by Richardson in North America, for the latter's Fauna Boreali-Americana), and to insects in general (his Introduction to Entomology became the standard source on this subject). Kirby had a worldwide reputation and corresponded with all the leading figures in entomology of his era.

Life Chronology

--born in Witnesham Hall, Suffolk, England, on 18 September 1759.
--1781: B.A., Caius College, Cambridge
--1782: takes Holy Orders
--1788: charter fellow of the Linnean Society of London; elected as Member in 1796
--1797-1850: Vicar of Barham, Suffolk
--1802: publishes his Monographia apum Angliæ
--1815: M.A., Caius College, Cambridge
--1815-1826: publishes in four volumes his Introduction to Entomology , with W. Spence
--1818: elected to the Royal Society
--1829: publishes a volume of sermons
--1835: contributes a two-volume monograph on insects to the Bridgewater Treatises series
--1837: honorary president, Entomological Society of London
--1837: publishes his The Insects, fourth and final part of Sir John Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana
--dies at Barham, Suffolk, England, on 4 July 1850.

For Additional Information, See:

--Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 31 (2004).
--Abstracts of the Papers Communicated to the Royal Society of London, Vol. 5, 1843 to 1850 (1851): 1023-1026.
--Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Vol. 2 (1848-55): 133-135.

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