Mark Catesby | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1683-03-24)24 March 1683 Castle Hedingham, Essex, England |
| Died | 23 December 1749(1749-12-23) (aged 66) London, England |
| Known for | Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Rowland |
| Children | Six (at least) |
| Parents |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Naturalist (both flora and fauna) and artist |
| Patrons | Peter Collinson |
Mark Catesby (24 March 1683 – 23 December 1749) was an Englishnaturalist who studied the flora and fauna of theNew World. Between 1729 and 1747, Catesby published hisNatural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands,[1] the first published account of theflora andfauna ofNorth America. It included 220 plates of birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, mammals and plants.
Catesby was born on 24 March 1683 and baptised atCastle Hedingham, Essex on 30 March 1683. His father, John Catesby (buried 12 November 1703), was a local politician and gentlemanfarmer. His mother was Elizabeth Jekyll (buried 5 September 1708). The family owned a farm and house, Holgate, inSudbury, Suffolk as well as property in London. An acquaintance with the naturalistJohn Ray led to Catesby becoming interested innatural history. The death of his father left Catesby enough to live on, so in 1712, he accompanied his sister Elizabeth toWilliamsburg, Virginia. She was the wife ofDr. William Cocke, who had been a member of the Council and Secretary of State for the Colony of Virginia. According to their father's will, Elizabeth had married Dr. Cocke against her father's wishes.[2] Catesby visited theWest Indies in 1714, and returned to Virginia, then home to England in 1719.
Catesby had collected seeds and botanical specimens in Virginia and Jamaica. He sent the pressed specimens toDr. Samuel Dale ofBraintree in Essex, and gave seeds to aHoxton nurserymanThomas Fairchild as well as to Dale and to the Bishop of London, Dr Henry Compton. Plants from Virginia, raised from Catesby's seeds, made his name known to gardeners and scientists in England, and in 1722 he was recommended byWilliam Sherard to undertake a plant-collecting expedition toCarolina on behalf of certain members of theRoyal Society. From May 1722, Catesby was based inCharleston, South Carolina, and travelled to other parts of that colony, collecting plants and animals. He sent preserved specimens toHans Sloane and toWilliam Sherard, and seeds to various contacts including Sherard and Peter Collinson. Consequently, Catesby was responsible for introducing such plants asCatalpa bignonioides[3] and the eponymousCatesbaea spinosa (lilythorn) to cultivation in Europe. Catesby returned to England in 1726.
Catesby spent the next twenty years preparing and publishing hisNatural History. Publication was financed by subscriptions from his "Encouragers" as well as an interest-free loan from one of the fellows of the Royal Society, the QuakerPeter Collinson. Catesby learnt how to etch the copper plates himself. The first eight plates had no backgrounds, but from then on Catesby included plants with his animals. He completed the first part in May 1729 and presented it to Queen Caroline;[citation needed] the first volume, comprising five parts, was finished in November 1732. Mark Catesby was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in February 1733 and was made a member of the Society of Gentlemen of Spalding in December 1743. The second volume containing another five parts was completed in December 1743, and in 1747 he produced a supplement[4] from material sent to him by friends in America, particularlyJohn Bartram, and also his younger brother, John, who was based with a British regiment in Gibraltar.[5] Not all the plates inNatural history are by Catesby: several, including the splendid and famous image ofMagnolia grandiflora were byGeorg Ehret.[6] Catesby's original preparatory drawings forNatural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands are in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, and selections have been exhibited in USA, Japan and various places in England including at the Queen's Gallery, London, in 1997–1998, andGainsborough's House in Sudbury in 2015.On 5 March 1747, Catesby read a paper entitled "Of birds of passage" to the Royal Society in London, and he is now recognised as one of the first people to describe bird migration.
Mark Catesby married Elizabeth Rowland on 8 October 1747 in St George's Chapel, Hyde Park Corner, but they had been a couple for about 17 years, having at least six children between April 1731 and June 1740. They were parishioners ofSt Giles Cripplegate in London and later, when that parish was subdivided, ofSt Luke Old Street. He died just before Christmas 1749 on Saturday 23 December in his house behind St Luke Old Street, London, and was buried in its churchyard. His grave is now lost. Catesby'sHortus britanno-americanus ... was published posthumously in 1763, and a second edition, entitledHortus Europae americanus ... was issued in 1767.
The Swedish naturalistCarl Linnaeus included information from Catesby'sNatural History in the 10th edition of hisSystema Naturae (1758). Linnaeus cited Catesby's book for 81 bird species and for 33 of these Catesby was the only author cited.[7]
Catesbaea, lilythorn, a genus of thorny shrubs belonging toRubiaceae (madder family) from the West Indies and southeastern USA was named after Catesby, originally byJan Frederik Gronovius.[8] However, under present rules of nomenclature, this name was formally published byCarl Linnaeus in 1753 in hisSpecies Plantarum based on plate 100 in volume two of Catesby'sNatural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands.[9][10]
TheAmerican bullfrog,Lithobates catesbeianus, is named in honor of Catesby.[11]
Catesby is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of New World snakes:Dipsas catesbyi andUromacer catesbyi.[12]
