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''Vide etiam: [[Gulielmus Forsell Kirby]]''
[[Fasciculus:Kirby William 1759-1850.jpg|thumb|250px|''Gulielmus Kirby'']]
'''Gulielmus Kirby''' ([[Anglice]]: ''William Kirby''), natus est die [[19 Septembris]] [[1759]] ad [[Wittnesham]], [[Suffolcia]] - mortuus est die [[4 Iulii]] [[1850]], fuit studiosus [[Entomologia|entomologicuszoologia]]e et [[entomologia]]e [[Anglia|Anglicus]].
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== Family origins and early studies ==
Kirby was a grandson of the Suffolk topographer John Kirby (author of ''The Suffolk Traveller'') and nephew of artist-topographer [[Joshua Kirby]] (a friend of [[Thomas Gainsborough]]'s). He was also a cousin of the children's author Mrs [[Sarah Trimmer]]. His parents were William Kirby, a solicitor, and Lucy Meadows. He was born at [[Witnesham]], [[Suffolk]], and studied at [[Ipswich School]] and [[Caius College, Cambridge]], where he graduated in 1781. Taking holy orders in 1782, he spent his entire life in the peaceful seclusion of an English country parsonage at [[Barham, Suffolk|Barham]] in Suffolk. He assisted in the publication of pamphlets against [[Thomas Paine]] during the 1790s.
Kirby was brought to the study of [[natural history]] by Dr Nicholas Gwynn (a friend of [[Boerhaave]]'s), who introduced him to Dr Smith (Sir [[James Edward Smith]]) at [[Ipswich]] in 1791. Soon afterwards he corresponded with Smith seeking advice in the foundation of a [[Ipswich Museum|natural history museum at Ipswich]]. Among his early friends were the naturalists Charles Sutton and [[Thomas Marsham]], with whom he made lengthy scientific excursions, as later with [[William Jackson Hooker]] and others. His name appears on the original list of Fellows of the Linnean Society. He delivered the first of his many papers on 7 May 1793, on ''Three New Species of Hirudo'' (''Linn. Trans.'' II, 316).
== Major publications ==
Kirby produced his first major work, the ''Monographia Apum Angliae'' (Monograph on the [[Bee]]s of England), in 1802. His purpose was both scientific and religious:
<blockquote>
‘The author of [[Scripture]] is also the author of [[Nature]]: and this visible world, by types indeed, and by symbols, declares the same truths as the Bible does by words. To make the naturalist a religious man – to turn his attention to the glory of God, that he may declare his works, and in the study of his creatures may see the loving-kindness of the Lord – may this in some measure be the fruit of my work…’ (Correspondence, 1800)
</blockquote>
This, the first scientific treatise on English bees, brought him to the notice of leading entomologists in Britain and abroad. Extensive correspondence followed with scientists including Alexander MacLeay, Walkenaer, [[Johan Christian Fabricius]] and [[Adam Afzelius]].
Kirby began planning his ''Introduction to Entomology'', a celebrated title, in 1808. This was the practical result of a friendship formed in 1805 with [[William Spence (entomologist)|William Spence]], of [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]], and appeared in four volumes between 1815 and 1826. Much of the work fell to Kirby owing to Spence's ill health. It reached its seventh edition in 1856. In 1830 he was invited to write one of the ''[[Bridgewater Treatises]]'', his subject being ''The History, Habits, and Instincts of Animals'' (2 vols., 1835).
With [[Edward Sabine]] and J.E. Gray, Kirby prepared the natural history supplement for Captain Parry's 1819-1820 expedition to seek the [[North-West Passage]]: his work formed the insect section of the ''Account of the Animals seen by the late Northern Expedition while within the Arctic Circle'' 1821. J.D. Hooker established his contact with Dr Richardson to involve him in the publication of findings from Sir [[John Franklin]]'s 1st and 2nd expeditions, the insect section in the ''Fauna Boreali-Americana'' in 1837.
== Institution-founding activities ==
In 1815 Kirby took his MA with the intention of applying for the Professorship of Botany at the [[University of Cambridge]] when it should become vacant. A dispute arose as to whether this appointment lay in the grant of the Senate or the Crown. Kirby's Tory political complexion proved a stumbling-block, and in the event [[John Stevens Henslow]] was appointed.
In 1827 Kirby assisted Mr Denny in arranging the natural history specimens at [[Norwich]] Museum. In 1832 he helped to establish an early museum in Ipswich under the aegis of the town's Literary Institute, and presented a herbarium and a group of fossils. With Spence he helped to found the [[Entomological Society of London]] in 1833, with [[John Obadiah Westwood|John Westwood]] as Secretary, and became its Honorary President for life. On that occasion he presented his own cabinet of insects, collected over more than forty years, which contained many of the specimens figured in his papers.
Kirby was the original President of the [[Ipswich Museum]], 1847-50, fulfilling a project which he had advocated since 1791, and appeared with [[William Buckland]] and others at the opening ceremony. The attached lithograph by T.H. Maguire was copied from the oil portrait by F.H. Bischoff commissioned for and still displayed in the Museum. Professor Henslow succeeded him in this office.
Besides the books already mentioned he was the author of many papers in the Transactions of the [[Linnean Society]], the [[Zoological Journal]] and other periodicals; ''Strictures on Sir James Smith's Hypothesis respecting the Lilies of the Field of our Saviour and the Acanthus of Virgil'' (1819) and ''Seven Sermons on our Lords Temptations'' (1829). His ''Life'' by the Rev. John Freeman contains an extensive list of his works.
==See also==
*[[Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater|Earl of Bridgewater]] for other ''Bridgewater Treatise''
*[[Apiology]]
[[Image:KirbybySpence.jpg|thumb|230px|right|William Kirby at 67]]
*[[Thomas Say]] Father of Entomology in North America
==External links==
*[http://www.zalf.de/home_zalf/institute/dei/php/biograph/biograph.php ZALF ]List of obituaries, Collection details and another portrait.
*[http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontoen01kirbrich Internet Archive] ''Introduction to Entomology'' Volume 1
*[http://www.archive.org/details/introductiontoen02kirbrich Internet Archive] ''Introduction to Entomology'' Volume 2
* Image Source: ''Portraits of the Honorary Members of the [[Ipswich Museum]]'' (Portfolio of 60 lithographs by T.H. Maguire) (George Ransome, Ipswich, 1846-1852).
* Image Source Original drawing by William Spence. Pasted into [[George Crawford Hyndman]]'s copy of Volume 1 of the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. [[Ulster Museum]].
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== Bibliographia ==
* ''Monographia Apum Angliae'', 2 vols., 8vo (1802).
* Kirby et [[Gulielmus Spence|Spence]], ''Introduction to Entomology'', 4 vols (1815-1826).
* ''The Insects'' in J. Richardson, ''Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America: Containing Descriptions of the Objects of Natural History Collected on the Late NorthernLand Expeditions, under Command of Captain [[Ioannes Franklin]], R.N''. Josiah Fletcher, Norwich. Vol. 4, 377 pp.(Norwich, Josiah Fletcher, 1837).
==Nexus Vide etiam externi==
* [[Index nominum zoologorum]]
== Nexus externi ==
* J. Freeman, Life of The Rev William Kirby, MA, FRS, FLS, &c. (Longman Green Brown & Longmans, London 1852). ([http://books.google.com/books?id=v3JMAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=burrell++entomological&lr= online at Google Books])
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[[Categoria:BiologiMortui Angliae1850]]
[[Categoria: MortuiZoologi 1850Britanniae]] ▼[[Categoria:Entomologi]]
[[Categoria:Sodales Societatis Entomologicae Londiniensis]]
[[Categoria:Sodales Societatis Linnaeanae Londiniensis]]
[[Categoria:Socii Regalis Societatis Londiniensis]]
▲[[Categoria:Mortui 1850]]
[[de:William Kirby]]
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