1635-1672

English Natural Historian

Francis Willughby was a gifted amateur observer and collector of natural history specimens. His work in zoology, particularly with insects and vertebrates, together with his moral and financial support, constituted a major contribution to the pioneering work of John Ray in biological systematics.

Francis Willughby was born the third child and only son of Sir Thomas Willughby and his wife, country gentry living in the county of Warwickshire. Willughby was educated at Sutton Coldfield School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. There he met John Ray (1628-1705), eight years his senior and a lecturer at the college, who later became a pioneering biological systematist. Following his graduation in 1656 Willughby continued his studies at Cambridge and through extensive private reading of natural history at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University. In the early 1660s Willughby and Ray undertook a series of collecting expeditions through various...