Willughby [Willoughby], Francis

1. Dates

Born: Middleton, Warwickshire, 22 Nov. 1635

Died: Middleton, 3 July 1672

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 37

2. Father

Occupation: Gentry

His father, also Francis Willughby, of Middleton Hall, Warwickshire, was a wealthy landowner. His mother was the daughter of the first Earl of Londonderry.

Clearly the family was wealthy.

3. Nationality

Birth: English

Career: English

Death: English

4. Education

Schooling: Cambridge, M.A.; Padua

Sutton Coldfield School.

Cambridge University, 1652-5; B.A., 1655; M.A., 1659.

Willughby was a Fellow-Commoner of Trinity College.

While he was in Padua during the winter of 1663-4, Willughby matriculated in the university.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Anglican (by assumption)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Natural History, Zoology, Entomology

Subordinate: Botany

With Ray Willughby undertook to do a complete natural history, he doing the animals, birds, fish, and insects, and Ray doing the plants. Apparently his greatest interest was in entomology; he published papers on insects in the Philosophical Transactions. He and Ray made a number of natural history expeditions, both in Britain and on the continent, together. His surviving papers show significant interest in botany.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Personal Means

Willughby lived entirely on inherited wealth from his family. In 1671 he inherited an additional estate from a kinsman, Sir William Willughby.

8. Patronage

Type: None

Willlughby was rather a patron himself--of John Ray, to whom he gave a home after he was ejected from Cambridge and later an annuity of £60.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: None

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Royal Society

Informal Connections: Lifelong friendship and association with John Ray. Collaboration with Philip Skippon, Nathaniel Bacon, and Francis Jessop.

Royal Society, 1663.

Sources

1. Biographia Britannica, 2nd ed. (London, 1778-93), 8, 4300-2.
2. Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1949-50), 21, 525-8. L.C. Maill, The Early Naturalists, Their Lives and Work (1530- 1789), (London, 1912), pp.99-130. Charles E. Raven, John Ray, Naturalist: His Life and Works, (Cambridge, 1941), passim.
3. Mary A. Welch, "Francis Willoughby, F.R.S. (1635-1672)," Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 6 (1971), 71-85. There is not a great deal of information about Willughby; it is hard to imagine a more definitve piece on him than this.
4. John Ray, "Preface," The Ornithology of Francis Willughby, (London, 1678).

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. "Memoir of Francis Willughby," in Jardine's Naturalists' Library, (London, 1833-43). There is a memoir on Willughby somewhere in this forty volume set, but my reference was apparently defective.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University