Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet

Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet
Portrait, c. 1822[1]
Born(1800-02-23)23 February 1800
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died21 November 1874(1874-11-21) (aged 74)
Alma materEdinburgh University
Known forNatural history

Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet of Applegarth FRS FRSE FLS FSA (23 February 1800 – 21 November 1874) was a Scottish naturalist.[2][3] He is known for his editing of a long series of natural history books, The Naturalist's Library.

Life and work[edit]

Jardine c. 1870, an illustration accompanying his obituary in the Illustrated London News[4]
Painting by Jardine's daughter, 1833

Jardine was born on 23 February 1800 at 28 North Hanover Street[5] in Edinburgh, the son of Sir Alexander Jardine, 6th baronet of Applegarth and his wife, Jane Maule. He was educated in both York and Edinburgh then studied medicine at Edinburgh University.[6]

From 1817 to 1821 he lodged with Rev Dr Andrew Grant at James Square, an arrangement made by his father. Grant was minister of St Andrew's Church on George Street.[7]

In his early years, aged only 25, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Sir David Brewster.[6]

He was a co-founder of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, and contributed to the founding of the Ray Society.[8] He was "keenly addicted to field-sports, and a master equally of the rod and the gun". While ornithology was his main passion, he also studied ichthyology, botany and geology. His book on fossil burrows and traces, the Ichnology of Annandale, included fossils from his ancestral estate.[9][10] He was the first to coin the term ichnology, and this was the first book written on the subject.[11] His private natural history museum and library are said to have been the finest in Britain.[12]

Jardine made natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing the hugely popular forty volumes of The Naturalist's Library (1833–1843) issued and published by his brother in law, the Edinburgh printer and engraver, William Home Lizars.[13] The series was divided into four main sections: Ornithology (14 volumes), Mammalia (13 volumes), Entomology (7 volumes), and Ichthyology (6 volumes); each prepared by a leading naturalist. James Duncan wrote the insect volumes. The artists responsible for the illustrations included Edward Lear.[14] The work was published in Edinburgh by W. H. Lizars. The frontispiece is a portrait of Pierre André Latreille.

His other publications included an edition of Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne which re-established White's reputation, Illustrations of Ornithology (1825–1843), and an affordable edition of Alexander Wilson's Birds of America.

Jardine described of a number of bird species, alone or in conjunction with his friend Prideaux John Selby. He died on 21 November 1874 in Sandown, Isle of Wight.

Family and descendants[edit]

He was married to Jane Home Lizars, and through her was brother-in-law to John Lizars FRSE and William Home Lizars.[15] After Lady Jardine's death he married the daughter of the Rev. William Samuel Symonds, the well-known geologist.

Jardine's daughter, Catherine Dorcas Maule Jardine, married Hugh Edwin Strickland and produced many of the illustrations for Illustrations of Ornithology (identifiable by her initials, CDMS).

The Olympic rower Sir Matthew Pinsent is a direct descendant of Jardine.[16]

Bibliography[edit]

Jardine wrote many books and edited the series and wrote many of the books for The Naturalist's Library. The books are listed below by publication date with those of The Naturalist's Library under a separate heading.

The Naturalist's Library[edit]

Jardine edited the series of books that were published a part of The Naturalist's Library, and include (in the order in which they were published):[17]

  1. 1833, Ornithology: Humming Birds: Part I, by Jardine with a memoir of Carl Linnaeus
  2. 1833, The Natural History of Monkeys, by Jardine with a memoir of Comte de Buffon
  3. 1833, Ichthyology: British Fishes: Part II, by Robert Hamilton with a memoir of Alexander von Humboldt
  4. undated, Ornithology: Humming Birds: Part II, by Jardine with a memoir of Thomas Pennant
  5. 1834, Mammalia: Vol. II: The Felinae, by Jardine with a memoir of Georges Cuvier
  6. 1834, The Natural History of Gallinaceous Birds: Vol. I, by Jardine with a memoir of Aristotle
  7. 1835, The Natural History of Fishes of the Perch Family, by Jardine with a memoir of Joseph Banks
  8. 1835, Entomology: Vol. III: British Butterflies, by James Duncan with a memoir of Abraham Gottlob Werner
  9. 1836, The Natural History of Parrots, by Prideaux J. Selby with plates by Edward Lear and a memoir of Thomas Bewick
  10. 1836, Mammalia: Vol. V: Pachyderms, by Jardine with a memoir of Hans Sloane
  11. 1836, The Natural History of British Moths, Sphinxes, &c., by James Duncan with a memoir of Maria Sibylla Merian
  12. 1837, The Natural History of the Ordinary Cetacea or Whales, by Jardine with a memoir of Bernard Germain de Lacépède
  13. 1837, The Natural History of Foreign Butterflies, by James Duncan with a memoir of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
  14. 1837, The Natural History of the Birds of Western Africa, by William Swainson with a memoir of François Levaillant
  15. 1838, The Natural History of the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland: Part I: Birds of Prey, by Jardine with a memoir of Robert Sibbald
  16. 1838, The Natural Arrangement and Relations of the Family of Flycatchers or Muscicapidae, by William Swainson with a memoir of Albrecht von Haller
  17. 1838, A History of British Quadrupeds, by William MacGillivray with a memoir of Ulisse Aldrovandi
  18. 1839, The Natural History of the Amphibious Carnivora, Including the Walrus and Seals, Also of the Herbivorous Cetacea, &c., by Robert Hamilton with a memoir of François Péron
  19. 1839, The Natural History of Dogs: Canidae or Genus Canis of Authors: Including Also the Genera Hyaena and Proteles: Vol. I, by Chas. Hamilton Smith with a memoir of Peter Simon Pallas
    "Nest of the Common Humble-Bee (B. terrestris)", engraved by William Home Lizars
  20. 1840, The Natural History of Dogs: Canidae or Genus Canis of Authors: Including Also the Genera Hyaena and Proteles: Vol. II, by Chas. Hamilton Smith with a memoir of Félix de Azara
  21. 1840, Introduction to Entomology, by James Duncan with memoirs of Jan Swammerdam and Charles De Geer
  22. 1841, The Natural History of Marsupialia or Pouched Animals, by G. R. Waterhouse with a memoir of John Barclay
  23. 1841, The Natural History of Horses: The Equidae or Genus Equus of Authors, by Chas. Hamilton Smith with a memoir of Conrad Gessner
  24. 1841, The Natural History of the Fishes of Guiana: Part I, by Robert H. Schomburgk
  25. 1841, The Natural History of Exotic Moths, by James Duncan with a memoir of Pierre André Latreille
  26. 1842, The Natural History of the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland: Part III: Rasores and Grallatores, by Jardine with a memoir of John Walker
  27. 1842, An Introduction to the Mammalia, by Charles Hamilton Smith with a memoir of Dru Drury
  28. 1843, Ichthyology: Fishes, Particularly Their Structure and Economical Uses, by J. S. Bushnan with a memoir of Hippolito Salviani
  29. 1843, The Natural History of the Fishes of Guiana: Part II, by Robert H. Schomburgk with a memoir of Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
  30. 1844, The Natural History of Game-Birds, by Jardine with a memoir of Stamford Raffles
  31. 1852, The Natural History of Beetles, by James Duncan with a memoir of John Ray
  32. undated, Ornithology: Pigeons, by Prideaux John Selby with a memoir of Pliny the Elder
  33. 1859, Entomology: Bees, by Jardine with a memoir of François Huber
  34. 1860, Ichthyology: British Fishes: Part I, by Robert Hamilton with a memoir of Guillaume Rondelet
  35. 1860, Ornithology: Birds of Great Britain and Ireland: Part IV, by Jardine with a memoir of Alexander Wilson
  36. 1862, Ornithology: Birds of Western Africa: Part I, by W. Swainson with a memoir of James Bruce
  37. 1864, The Natural History of the Nectariniadae, or Sun-Birds, by Jardine with a memoir of Francis Willughby
  38. 1866, Mammalia: Deer, Antelopes, Camels, &c., by Jardine with a memoir of Petrus Camper
  39. 1866, Mammalia: Goats, Sheep, Oxen, &c., by Jardine with a memoir of John Hunter
  40. 1866, Ornithology: Parrots, by Prideaux John Selby with a memoir of Thomas Bewick
  41. 1866, Ornithology: Birds of Great Britain and Ireland: Part II, by Jardine with a memoir of William Smellie

Later supplements include the following titles: The Natural History of Man, Humming Birds Volume 3 and a single volume that collated the memoirs of "great naturalists".

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ In Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 21 February 1919.[1]
  2. ^ "The Late Sir William Jardine". Nature. 11 (265): 74. 26 November 1874. Bibcode:1874Natur..11Q..74.. doi:10.1038/011074a0.
  3. ^ "Papers of Sir William Jardine (1800-1874)". Archives Hub. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012.
  4. ^ "The Late Sir W. Jardine, Bart.", Illustrated London News, Saturday, 26 December 1874, page 609; Issue 1846
  5. ^ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1800-1801
  6. ^ a b Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  7. ^ William Jardine: A Life in Natural History by Christine Jackson
  8. ^ Osbert Salvin (Editor), Ibis, Quarterly Journal of Ornithology, Vol.V, 1875, page 522
  9. ^ Jardine, W. 1853. The Ichnology of Annandale; Or, Illustrations of Footmarks Impressed on the New Red Sandstone of Corncockle Muir.
  10. ^ Anon (26 November 1874). "The Late Sir William Jardine". Nature. 11 (265): 74. Bibcode:1874Natur..11Q..74.. doi:10.1038/011074a0.
  11. ^ Pemberton, S.G. and Pemberton E.A. 2017. doi:10.1080/10420940.2017.1380006 Sir William Jardine and the Ichnology of Annandale
  12. ^ Jackson and Davis, 2001.
  13. ^ Susan Sheets-Pyenson "War and Peace in Natural History Publishing: The Naturalist's Library, 1833-1843". Isis. 1981, v.72 (no. 261) pp.50-72.
  14. ^ Finn Sarah. 2022. “Hand-Colored Zoological Illustrations for ‘All Classes’ of British Society: The Publishing History of The Naturalist's Library 1833-1843.” Dissertation. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
  15. ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  16. ^ "Matthew Pinsent", Who Do You Think You Are Magazine, retrieved 23 August 2012. In Who Do You Think You Are?, BBC, broadcast 18 October 2007.
  17. ^ Schomburgk, Robert H. (1843). Ichthyology: Vol. V: Fishes of Guiana: Part II, pp. i-iii]

External links[edit]

Baronetage of Nova Scotia
Preceded by
Alexander Jardine
Baronet
(of Applegirth)
1821–1874
Succeeded by
Alexander Jardine