Edward LhuydFRS (1660 – 30 June 1709), also known asEdward Lhwyd and byother spellings, was aWelshnaturalist,botanist,herbalist,alchemist,scientist,linguist,geographer andantiquary. He was the second Keeper of theUniversity of Oxford'sAshmolean Museum, and published the first catalogue offossils, theLithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia.
Lhuyd[1] (/lɔɪd/LOYD;Welsh:[ˈɬʊid]) is an archaic spelling of the sameWelshsurname now usually rendered asLloyd or Llwyd,[2] fromllwyd ("gray"). It also appears frequently as Lhwyd;[3][4][5] less often as Lhwydd,[6] Llhwyd,[7] Llwid[8] and Floyd;[9] andlatinized as (Eduardus[10][11] orEdvardus[12])Luidius, frequently abbreviatedLuid., and asLhuydus andLloydia in somescientific names. The English and Latin forms are also sometimes combined asEdward Luidius.[13]
Lhuyd was born in 1660, inLoppington,Shropshire,England, the illegitimate son of Edward Llwyd[14] or Lloyd of Llanforda,Oswestry, and Bridget Pryse ofLlansantffraid, nearTalybont,Cardiganshire, in 1660. His family belonged to the gentry of southwestWales. Though well established, the family was not wealthy. His father experimented with agriculture and industry in a manner that impinged[citation needed] on the new science of the day. The son attended and later taught atOswestry Grammar School, and in 1682 went up toJesus College, Oxford, but dropped out beforegraduation. In 1684, he was appointed to assistRobert Plot,Keeper of theAshmolean Museum (which at that time was inBroad Street), and became the second Keeper himself in 1690,[15] holding the post until his death in 1709.[11]
While working at the Ashmolean Museum, Lhuyd travelled extensively. A visit toSnowdonia in 1688 allowed him to compile forJohn Ray'sSynopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum a list offlora local to that region. After 1697, Lhuyd visited every county in Wales, then travelled toScotland,Ireland,Cornwall,Brittany and theIsle of Man. In 1699, it became possible through funding from his friendIsaac Newton for him to publish the first catalogue ever offossils, hisLithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia.[12] These had been collected in England, mostly in Oxford, and are now held in the Ashmolean.
Lhuyd received aMAhonoris causa from the University of Oxford in 1701 and a fellowship of theRoyal Society in 1708.[11]
In 1696, Lluyd transcribed much of the Latin inscription on the 9th-centuryPillar of Eliseg nearValle Crucis Abbey,Denbighshire.[16] The inscription subsequently became almost illegible due toweathering, but Lhuyd's transcript seems to have been remarkably accurate.[17]
Lhuyd was also responsible for the first scientific description and naming of what we would now recognize as adinosaur: thesauropodtoothRutellum impicatum.[18]
The first written record of atrilobite was by Lhuyd in a letter toMartin Lister in 1688 and published (1869) in hisLithophylacii Britannici Ichnographia.[19] It is a fleeting mention and he simply identifies his find as a "skeleton of some flat fish". The trilobite is nowadays identified asOgygiocarella debuchii Brongniart, 1822.[20]
In the late 17th century, Lhuyd was contacted by a group of scholars led byJohn Keigwin ofMousehole, who sought to preserve and further theCornish language. He accepted their invitation to travel there and study the language. Early Modern Cornish was the subject of a paper published by Lhuyd in 1702; it differs from the medieval language in having a considerably simpler structure and grammar.
In 1707, having been assisted in his research by a fellow Welsh scholar,Moses Williams, Lhuyd published the first volume ofArchæologia Britannica. This has an important linguistic description of Cornish, which is noted all the more for the understanding of historical linguistics it shows. Some of the ideas commonly attributed to linguists of the 19th century have their roots in this work by Lhuyd, who was "considerably more sophisticated in his methods and perceptions than[William] Jones".[21]
Lhuyd noted a similarity between two language families:Brythonic orP–Celtic (Breton, Cornish andWelsh) andGoidelic or Q–Celtic (Irish,Manx andScottish Gaelic). He argued that both families were derived from theContinental Celtic languages; the Brythonic languages originated in theGaulish language once spoken and written by theGauls of Pre-Roman France and the Goidelic languages are derived from theCeltiberian language once spoken in the Pre-RomanIberian Peninsula, which includes modernSpain andPortugal. He concluded that as these languages were ofCeltic origin, those who spoke them were Celts. From the 18th century, peoples of Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales were known increasingly as Celts. They are seen to this day as modernCeltic nations.[22][23]
On his travels, Lhuyd developedasthma, which eventually led to his death frompleurisy in Oxford in 1709.[11] He died in his room in the Ashmolean Museum, aged just 49, and was buried in the Welsh aisle of the church ofSt Michael at the Northgate.[24]
TheCretaceousbryozoan speciesCharixa lhuydi[25] (originally described asMembranipora lhuydi) is named in his honour.[26] The Snowdon lily (Gagea serotina) was for a time calledLloydia serotina after Lhuyd.
Cymdeithas Edward Llwyd, the National Naturalists' Society of Wales, is named after him. On 9 June 2001 a bronze bust of him was unveiled byDafydd Wigley, a formerPlaid Cymru leader, outside theUniversity of WalesCentre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies inAberystwyth, next to theNational Library of Wales. The sculptor wasJohn Meirion Morris; the inscription on the plinth, carved by Ieuan Rees, reads "EDWARD LHUYD 1660–1709 IEITHYDD HYNAFIAETHYDD NATURIAETHWR" ("linguist, antiquary, naturalist").[27]
