John Lightfoot (biologist)

{{Short description|English priest and biologist (1735–1788)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox scientist | name = John Lightfoot | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date text|9 December 1735}} | birth_place = Newent, Gloucestershire, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1788|2|20|1735|12|9}} | death_place = | spouse = | field = Botany, Conchology | training = | awards = Fellow of the Royal Society, 1785 }} thumb|Title page of ''Flora Scotica'', 1777, by the Reverend John Lightfoot The Reverend '''John Lightfoot''' (9 December 1735 – 20 February 1788) was an English parson-naturalist, spending much of his free time as a conchologist and botanist. He was a systematic and effective curator of the private museum of Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. He is best known for his ''Flora Scotica'' which pioneered the scientific study of the plants and fungi of Scotland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his scientific work.

{{blockquote|He was an excellent scholar in many branches of literature; but after the study of his profession, he addicted himself chiefly to that of botany and conchyliologie [sic]. He excelled in both.|Thomas Pennant<ref name=Watsonia>{{cite journal | url=http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/Wats18p437.pdf | title=Book Reviews: John Lightfoot, by J. K. Bowden | author=Banks, R.E.R. | journal=Watsonia | year=1991 | volume=18 | pages=437–438}}</ref>}}

==Life and work==

Lightfoot was born in Newent, Gloucestershire. His father Stephen Lightfoot was a yeoman farmer.<ref name=DNB>Boulger, George Simonds. DNB, 1885–1900, Volume 33: Lightfoot, John</ref> He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He gained a BA in 1756 and an MA in 1766. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1785.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27lightfoot%27%29 | title=Fellow details: Lightfoot; John (1735–1788) | publisher=The Royal Society | access-date=16 April 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Portland Vase BM Gem4036 n4.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The Roman cameo glass "Portland Vase" from about AD 25 is the most famous object in the collection that Lightfoot curated.]] Lightfoot was Rector of Gotham, and the chaplain and librarian for Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. He was also curate of Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire and then of Uxbridge, Middlesex, a position he held for the rest of his life.<ref name=DNB/> With plenty of free time from his light duties as a clergyman, he curated the Duchess's museum collection or "Cabinet of Curiosities" expertly,<ref name=ScottishFungi>{{cite web | url=https://sites.google.com/site/scottishfungi/biographies | title=Mycologist Profiles – the heroes that shaped mycology in Scotland and beyond... | publisher=Scottish Fungi | access-date=20 April 2013}}</ref> leading ultimately to a detailed and accurate inventory and description of her private "Portland Museum", published as an auction catalogue after her death.<ref>{{cite book | title=A catalogue of the Portland Museum, lately the property of the Dutchess Dowager of Portland, deceased : which will be sold by auction by Mr. Skinner and Co. on Monday the 24th of April, 1786, and the thirty-seven following days ... at her late dwelling-house, in Privy-garden, Whitehall : by order of the acting executrix. | url=https://archive.org/details/b28759254 | publisher=Skinner & Co. (auctioneers) |author1=Lightfoot, John |author2=Portland, Margaret | year=1786}}</ref> Among the collection that Lightfoot had curated was the ancient "Portland Vase" now named after her family.<ref name=ScottishFungi/>

By 1770 Lightfoot had a close and useful friendship with the leading botanist in England at the time, Joseph Banks, and with a pupil of the Swedish botanist Carl von Linné (Linnaeus), Daniel Solander. It was an age for scientists to go on journeys of carefully documented discovery: Banks and Solander accompanied Captain James Cook on a voyage of exploration to the Pacific Ocean.<ref name=ScottishFungi/> Lightfoot travelled from Chester to Scotland with the Welsh author Thomas Pennant and the Rev. J. Stewart; the journey led to an acclaimed book by Pennant, and provided most of the materials for Lightfoot's ''Flora Scotica'' (2 vols, 1777), which he published at his own expense.<ref name=DNB/><ref>Jardine, 1833. pp.18–27</ref> Apart from Banks and Solander, Lightfoot also knew many of the other founders of the Linnaean Society, including William Hudson, James Dickson, James Edward Smith, Gilbert White, John Sibthorpe and James Bolton;<ref name=ScottishFungi/> Lightfoot lived just long enough to see the society founded in 1788.<ref name=DNB/><ref name=ScottishFungi/>

Apart from the ''Flora Scotica'', for which he is chiefly remembered, Lightfoot wrote ''An Account of Some Minute British Shells, Either not Duly Observed, or Totally Unnoticed by Authors'' (1786), and described a number of species including the reed warbler in 1785.<ref name=DNB/> He travelled in Wales at the instigation of Joseph Banks, but his manuscript on the Welsh flora was never published.<ref name=Watsonia/>

In November 1780 Lightfoot married the daughter of William Burton Raynes, a wealthy miller from Uxbridge. They had two sons and three daughters.<ref name=DNB/> He died in Uxbridge and is buried at Cowley, Middlesex.<ref name=DNB/> His considerable library was auctioned by the publisher and bookseller Benjamin White and Son in 1789.<ref>{{cite book | title=A catalogue of the libraries of Peter Calvert, LL.D., late official principal of the Arches Court, and commissary of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury; of the Rev. Thomas Bagshaw, A.M., late of Bromley and rector of Southfleet, Kent; and also of the Rev. John Lightfoot, A.M., late chaplain to the dutchess dowager of Portland, and author of the Flora Scotica, with several other collections ... : The sale will begin on Monday, February 9, 1789, by Benjamin White, and Son, booksellers, at Horace's Head, in Fleet Street, London. | publisher=Benjamin White and Son |author1=White, Benjamin |author2=Calvert, Peter |author3=Bagshaw, Thomas |author4=Lightfoot, John | year=1789}}</ref> Part of his plant collection survives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.<ref name=ScottishFungi/>

==''Flora Scotica''== [[File:Lobelia dortmanna (Griffiths).jpg|thumb|upright|''Lobelia dortmanna'' from Lightfoot's 1777 ''Flora Scotica'', painted by Moses Griffith and engraved by Peter Mazell]]

The ''Flora Scotica: or, a systematic arrangement, in the Linnaean method, of the native plants of Scotland and the Hebrides'', published in London in 1777 as a bulky book of two volumes for a total of 1151 pages, is Lightfoot's greatest work. Many of the illustrations are drawn by Pennant's artist, Moses Griffith, and engraved by Peter Mazell; some are both drawn and engraved by Mazell.

As well as flowering plants, the "Cryptogamia", including ferns ("filices"), mosses ("musci"), algae and fungi, are covered,<ref name=DNB/> starting on page 643. Lightfoot covers the liverworts, recognising only the genera ''Marchantia'', ''Jungermannia'', ''Targionia'', ''Riccia'' and ''Ryssus'', but including also "Lichen" as "Algae Terrestres", terrestrial algae.

Only nine genera of fungi are recognised in the book: ''Agaricus'', ''Boletus'', ''Hydnum'', ''Phallus'', ''Helvella'', ''Peziza'', ''Clavaria'', ''Lycoperdon'', and ''Mucor'' (listed on page 645); a tenth fungal genus, ''Tremella'' is covered, but included among his algae. ''Scottish Fungi'' note that "While his classification might be a bit wonky by today's understanding, most of the species he recorded can be traced to modern taxa", and that he provided the first British records for the chanterelle and the summer truffle.<ref name=ScottishFungi/>

The book has an "English and Scotch Index of the Names of Plants" which however is entirely in English, the "Erse Index" of Gaelic names following the list of English ones. There is also a Latin index to the genera (but not to individual species).

==Species named in his honour==

The plant genus ''Lightfootia'', in the Campanulaceae (bellflower family), was named after him by the French botanist Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle.<ref name=DNB/>

The World Register of Marine Species lists the following species named after individuals named Lightfoot <ref>[http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxlist WoRMS: Species named after Lightfoot]. Retrieved 20 April 2013.</ref> but none is named after John Lightfoot.

* ''Epinephelus lightfooti'' Fowler, 1907: synonym of ''Alphestes afer'' (Bloch, 1793) commemorated Benjamin H. Lightfoot who collected fishes in late 1800s in Caribbean. The following were named after Robert M. Lightfoot of the South African Museum (Cape Town): * ''Terebra lightfooti'' E. A. Smith, 1899: synonym of ''Euterebra lightfooti'' (E. A. Smith, 1899) * ''Zafrona lightfooti'' (E. A. Smith, 1901) (and synonyms ''Anachis lightfooti'', ''Columbella lightfooti'')

==References==

===Further reading=== {{wikisource|works=or}}

* {{cite book | title=John Lightfoot, his work and travels : with a biographical introduction and a catalogue of the Lightfoot Herbarium | publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | author=Bowden, Jean | year=1989}} * {{cite book |title=Ornithology: Humming-birds: Memoir of Pennant |last=Jardine |first=Sir William |year=1833 |publisher=Lizars, Stirling and Kenney |location=Edinburgh }}

==External links== * [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/62654#page/5/mode/1up Biodiversity Heritage Library: ''Flora Scotica''] (facsimile, with OCR) * [https://books.google.com/books?id=ao5KAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79 The Critical Review, or Annals of Literature, Volume 67: Some Account of the Life of Mr. John Lightfoot. (Given to the Purchasers of the Flora Scotica.) 1789] * [http://www.linnean.org/index.php?id=62 The Linnean Society of London] * [http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/Wats18p437.pdf Watsonia: Book Reviews: ''John Lightfoot: his work and travels, with a biographical introduction and a catalogue of the Lightfoot Herbarium.'' J.K. Bowden.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lightfoot, John}} Category:1735 births Category:1788 deaths Category:People from Newent Category:English zoologists Category:British conchologists Category:Teuthologists Category:Parson-naturalists Category:British fellows of the Royal Society