Francis Willughby (November 22, 1635 - July 3, 1672) was an English ornithologist and ichthyologist.
He was the son of Sir Francis Willoughby and Cassandra (née Ridgeway), and was born at Middleton Hall, Warwickshire. He studied at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School, Sutton Coldfield and Trinity College, Cambridge.
At Cambridge he was taught by the naturalist John Ray. In 1662 they travelled to the west coast of England to study the breeding seabirds. Between 1663 and 1666 they toured Europe together, travelling through the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. They separated at Naples and Willoughby returned home via Spain. On returning to England they made plans to publish the results of their studies. Willughby died during the preparation of this work, but Ray published Willughby's Ornithologia libri tres in 1676, with an English edition two years later. This is considered the beginning of scientific ornithology in Europe, revolutionizing ornithological taxonomy by organizing species according to their physical characteristics. Ray also published Willughby's De Historia piscium (1686). The note from Willughby reproduced in Derham's Collection of Philosophical Letters (John Ray's correspondence) relates in part to Willughby's study of fishes.
In 2003 Willughby's scientific study of games was published (under the name Francis Willughby's Book of Games), making generally available for the first time in-depth descriptions of a number of seventeenth century games. It was the first such work in the English language, and is comparable to the Spanish Libro de los juegos. His early account of football is particularly noteworthy as he refers to football by its correct name and is the first to describe the following: goals and a pitch ("a close that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals"), tactics ("leaving some of their best players to guard the goal"), scoring ("they that can strike the ball through their opponents' goal first win") and the way teams were selected ("the players being equally divided according to their strength and nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a law of football: "They often break one another's shins when two meet and strike both together against the ball, and therefore there is a law that they must not strike higher than the ball". His account of the ball itself is also very informative: "They blow a strong bladder and tie the neck of it as fast as they can, and then put it into the skin of a bull's cod and sew it fast in". He adds: "The harder the ball is blown, the better it flies. They used to put quicksilver into it sometimes to keep it from lying still".
A common mistake in the literature is to call Willughby 'Sir Francis'. He was never knighted, but his son, Francis IV was knighted at an early age, apparently in honour of his father. He died before he was 20. His sister Cassandra was a spinster until she became the second wife of Lord Chandos in her middle years. He was her cousin, he became the Duke of Chandos and Cassandra his Duchess. She compiled two volumes drawn from the 'papers in her brothers library', which were the family correspondence The second of the volumes is concerned with the family from the time of her great grandfather, Percival Willoughby and finishes with her second brother, Thomas, who became the first Lord Middleton. The chapter devoted to her father is reproduced in full.
Willughby and Ray's natural history collection of stuffed animals and birds was created at Middleton Hall, which was
Francis Willughby's home. In the eighteenth century the family adopted Wollaton Hall as their main residence; it has been
owned by the City of Nottingham since 1924/5. Nothing remains of the collection made by Willughby and Ray, contrary to
claims from several sources. Wollaton Hall does serve as the Natural History Museum for Nottingham.
There is a plaque in Southwell Minster honouring Francis Willughby It claims him as a Nottinghamshire man. He is shown as being of Wollaton. He did own Wollaton, but visited only rarely in the six years by which he survived his father, who also made Middleton his home.
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