William Swainson, FRS, FLS

"Swainson gained fame as a prolific writer and illustrator of natural history, producing many well-illustrated encyclopaedic books, particularly on birds, but also mammals, molluscs, insects and fishes. He developed his skills as a naturalist on deployment to Sicily, Malta, Italy and Greece with the British Army Commissariat between 1808 and 1815, but his participation in a scientific exploration of Brazil from 1817-1818 was transformational for his career, resulting in him producing The Birds of Brazil published in parts from 1834, and also collecting many of the specimens that formed part of the material purchased by the Museum. Swainson was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Linnean Society." Source: University of Cambridge.

"Swainson was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1816 and of the Royal Society, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, in 1820, and he was also a member of many foreign academies. By his first wife, a daughter of John Parkes of Warwick, whom he married in 1825, he had five children, of whom four sons survived him, and by his second wife, who also survived him, he had three daughters. An engraved portrait of him by Edward Francis Finden, from a drawing by Mosses, forms the frontispiece to his volume on ‘Taxidermy’ in the ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia.’ His collection of Greek plants is in the herbarium of the Liverpool botanical garden. As a zoological draughtsman Swainson combined accuracy with artistic skill, and his papers in the ‘Memoirs of the Wernerian Society,’ Tilloch's ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ the ‘Journal of the Royal Institution,’ Loudon's ‘Magazine of Natural History,’ the ‘Magazine of Zoology and Botany,’ the ‘Entomological Magazine,’ and the ‘Papers of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land,’ of which thirty-six, dealing with ornithology, conchology, entomology and trees, are enumerated in the Royal Society's ‘Catalogue’ (viii. 893), contain descriptions of many species new to science." Source: George Boulger (Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900).

"Swainson was a notable naturalist, an extremely skilful botanical draughtsman, and a competent artist with water colours. He was too gentle a man to be a successful colonist, and seems to have felt isolated and unhappy in New Zealand. Insecurity of all kinds, and tension between stepmother and stepdaughters in his household also contributed to making his later years sombre ones. He was survived by four sons and a daughter by his first wife, and three daughters by his second, whom he also predeceased." Source: A. H. McLintock (Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand).

"In 1839, he became a member of the committee of the New Zealand Company and of the Church of England committee for the appointment of a bishop to New Zealand, bought land in Wellington, and gave up scientific literary work.[5] He married his second wife, Anne Grasby, in 1840. He was apparently the first Fellow of the Royal Society to move to New Zealand. He was later made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Tasmania. Together with most of his children from his first marriage, they sailed for New Zealand in the Jane,[22] reaching Wellington, in the summer of 1841. The trip was not without incident, as the boat suffered damage en route and was in such a poor state that there was legal action on arrival. He purchased 1,100 acres (445 ha) in the Hutt Valley from the New Zealand Company, and established his estate of "Hawkshead". Not coincidentally, this name was shared by an ancestral home in Hawkshead, Lancashire, of the Swainson family, which was the birthplace of Isaac Swainson. After a few months, this estate was claimed by a Māori chief, Taringakuri, which led to years of uncertainty and threat. He was an officer in a militia against in the Māoris in 1846. During these times he was largely dependent on his half pay." Source: Wikipedia.

Sources

1. Boulger, George Simonds (n.d.). Swainson, William (1789-1855). In Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_18...).
2. McLintock, A. H. (1966) SWAINSON, William, 1789–1855', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/swainson-william-1789-1855 (accessed 31 Dec 2024).
3. University of Cambridge: William Swainson (1789-1855) https://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/collections-research/collections-u....
4. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Swainson.