FRANCIS

See also:

• FRANCIS WILLUGHBY (1635—1672)

WILLUGHBY (1635—1672)  , English ornithologist and ichthyologist, son of Sir Francis Willughby, was born at Middleton, Warwickshire, in 1635 . He is memorable as the pupil, friend and patron as well as the active and original co-worker of John Ray (q.v.), and hence to be reckoned as one of the most important precursors of Linnaeus . His connexion with Ray dated from his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge (1653—1659) and, after concluding his academic life by a brief sojourn at Oxford, and acquiring considerable experience of travel in England, he made an extensive Continental tour in his company . The specimens, figures and notes thus accumulated were in great part elaborated on his return into his Ornithologia, which, how-ever, he did not live to publish, having injured a naturally delicate constitution by alternate exposure and over-study . This work was published in 1676, and translated by Ray as the Ornithology of Fr . Willughby (London, 1678, fol.); the same friend published his Historia Piscium (1686, fol.) . Willughby died at Middleton Hall on the 3rd of July 1672 . In Ray's preface to the former work he gives Willughby much of the credit usually assigned to himself, both as critic and systematist .