Thomas Edmondston (1825–1846) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-born

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

, born in Buness,

Unst Unst (; ) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Shetland Mainland, Mainland and Yell (island), Yell. It has an area o ...

. The family of Edmondston (also spelt Edmonston) was prominent in 19th-century

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

. Thomas Edmondston's uncle, also Thomas Edmondston, was

laird Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scotland, Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a Baronage of ...

of the Buness estate on

and host to many scientific visitors to Shetland. Another uncle, Dr Arthur Edmondston, had written ''A View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands'' in 1809. His father, Laurence Edmondston, was also an accomplished naturalist. Edmondston compiled the first known list of Shetland plants at the age of 11. He discovered several rare plants growing on the serpentine rocks on Unst, including the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Shetland Mouse-ear ''Cerastium nigrescens'', known as Edmondston's Chickweed on the island. In 1845, he produced his ''Flora of Shetland'', which, despite a few shortcomings, was a considerable achievement given his age and it is still an important reference for Shetland botany. Less well known is his fauna, mainly a list of birds, published in the journal ''

The Zoologist ''The Zoologist'' was a monthly natural history magazine established in 1843 by Edward Newman and published in London. Newman acted as editor-in-chief until his death in 1876, when he was succeeded, first by James Edmund Harting (1876–1896 ...

'' in 1844. This is less reliable and much of it was obviously derived much from the work of his father, Laurence, and his uncle, Arthur. Thomas Edmondston was appointed Professor of Botany at Anderson's University in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

(now

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

), at the age of just 20. A few months later, he was offered the position of naturalist on board HMS ''Herald'', on a journey retracing the voyage of , and

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

became a frequent correspondent with requests for further observations. While disembarking from a boat on the coast of South America, however, Edmondston was killed by an accidentally discharged gun, cutting short a career of great promise. After his death, Charles Darwin was in regular correspondence with his father on Unst and was particularly interested in Edmonston's ongoing ornithological observations. The Edmonston family on Unst remain as Laird. After his death, his parents named another newborn son Thomas, reusing a family name as was a common practice in Scotland in this era.

References

Sources

* *Pennington, M. G., Osborn, K., Harvey, P. V., Riddington, R., Okill, J. D., Ellis, P. M. & Heubeck, M. 2004. ''The Birds of Shetland''. Christopher Helm, London. *Scott, W. & Palmer, R. 1987. ''The Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Shetland Islands''. Shetland Times, Lerwick. {{DEFAULTSORT:Edmondston, Thomas 19th-century Scottish botanists People associated with Shetland 1825 births 1846 deaths People from Unst