William MacGillivray

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

Life and work

MacGillivray was born in

Old Aberdeen Old Aberdeen is part of Aberdeen in Scotland. Old Aberdeen was originally a separate burgh, which was erected into a burgh of barony on 26 December 1489. It was incorporated into adjacent Aberdeen by Act of Parliament in 1891. It retains the sta ...

and brought up on Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied Medicine at King's College, graduating MA in 1815. In Old Aberdeen he lived at 107 High Street. He then became an assistant Dissector in the Anatomy classes. In 1823 he became assistant to

Robert Jameson image:Robert Jameson.jpg, Robert Jameson Robert Jameson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish natural history, naturalist and mineralogist. As Regius Professor of Natural History at the Univers ...

, the

Regius Professor A Regius Professor is a university Professor (highest academic rank), professor who has, or originally had, Monarchy of the United Kingdom, royal patronage or appointment. They are a unique feature of academia in the United Kingdom and Republic ...

of Natural History at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. He was curator of the museum of the

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is a professional organisation of surgeons. The RCSEd has five faculties, covering a broad spectrum of surgical, dental, and other medical and healthcare specialities. Its main campus is locate ...

from 1831, resigning in 1841 to become Regius Professor of Natural History at

Marischal College Marischal College ( ) is a large granite building on Broad Street in the centre of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland, and since 2011 has been the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council. The building was constructed for and is on long-term lease fr ...

, Aberdeen. MacGillivray was a friend of American bird expert

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin, April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a French-American Autodidacticism, self-trained artist, natural history, naturalist, and ornithology, ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornitho ...

, and wrote a large part of Audubon's ''Ornithological Biographies'' from 1830 to 1839. Audubon named MacGillivray's warbler for him. He died at 67 Crown Street in Aberdeen on 5 September 1852 but is buried in

New Calton Cemetery New Calton Burial Ground is a burial ground in Edinburgh. It was built as an overspill and functional replacement to Old Calton Burial Ground and lies half a mile to its east on Regent Road in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the south-east slopes of Ca ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. The grave faces east onto the eastern path.

Family

In 1820 he married Marion Askill from Harris. The couple had 10 children, two of whom died in infancy. Two of MacGillivray's sons achieved recognition as naturalists. His eldest son, John MacGillivray (1822–1867), published an account of the voyage round the world of HMS ''Rattlesnake'', to which he was the onboard naturalist. Another son,

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

, published an ''Aberdeen Flora'' in 1853, and donated 214 of his father's paintings to the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

Legacy

A detailed version of MacGillivray's life, written by a namesake, was published 49 years after the ornithologist's death. MacGillivray correctly distinguished between the

hooded crow The hooded crow (''Corvus cornix''), also colloquially called just hoodie, is a Eurasian bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. Widely distributed, it is found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle E ...

and

carrion crow The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae, native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus ...

, but they were considered only to be

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

for the next one and a half centuries until, in 2002, on

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

evidence, the hooded crow was awarded species status.

Works

MacGillivray's works include: *''Lives of Eminent Zoologists from Aristotle to Linnaeus'' (1830) *''A Systematic Arrangement of British Plants'' (1830) *''The Travels and Researches of Alexander von Humboldt.'' (1832) *''A History of British Quadrupeds'' (1838) *''A Manual of Botany, Comprising Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology'' (1840) *''A History of the Molluscous Animals of Aberdeen, Banff and Kincardine'' (1843) *''A Manual of British Ornithology'' (1840–1842) *''A History of British Birds, indigenous and migratory'', in five volumes (1837–1852) *''Natural History of Deeside and Braemar'' (1855), published posthumously *''A Hebridean Naturalist's Journal 1817-1818'' (1996), published posthumously *''A Walk to London'' (1998), published posthumously MacGillivray illustrated Henry Witham's 1833 ''The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic deposits of Great Britain'', and edited ''The Conchologist's Text-Book'' through several editions.

References

External links