PENNANT, THOMAS (1726-1798)

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 104 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PAS-PER

PENNANT, THOMAS (1726-1798) , British naturalist and antiquary, was descended from an old Welsh family, for many generations

resident

RESIDENT

at Downing, Flintshire, where he was born on the 14th of June 1726. He received his early education at Wrexham, and afterwards entered Queen's College, Oxford, but did not take a degree. At twelve years of age he was inspired with a passion for natural history through being presented with Francis

Willughby

WILLUGHBY, FRANCIS (1635—1672)

's Ornithology; and a tour in

Cornwall

CORNWALL

in 17461747 awakened his strong

interest

INTEREST

in minerals and fossils. In 1750 his account of an earthquake at Downing was inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, where there also appeared in 1756 a

paper

PAPER
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)

on several coralloid bodies he had collected at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. In the following year, at the instance of Linnaeus, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Upsala. In 1766 he published the first part of his British

Zoology

ZOOLOGY (from Gr. Nov, a living thing, and ?byos, theory)

, a

work

WORK

meritorious rather as a laborious compilation than as an

original

ORIGINAL

contribution to science. During its progress he visited the continent of Europe and made the acquaintance of Buffon, Voltaire, Haller and Pallas. In 1767 he was elected F.R.S. In 1771 was published his Synopsis of Quadrupeds, afterwards extended into a History of Quadrupeds. At the end of the same year he published A Tour in Scotland in 1769, which proving remarkably popular was followed in 1774 by an account of another journey in Scotland, in two volumes. These works have proved invaluable as preserving the record of important antiquarian relics which have now perished. In 1778 he brought out a similar Tour in Wales, which was followed by a Journey to Snowdon (pt. i. 1781; pt. ii. 1783), afterwards forming the second volume of the Tour. In 1782 he published a Journey from Chester to London. He brought out Arctic

Zoology

ZOOLOGY (from Gr. Nov, a living thing, and ?byos, theory)

in 1785-1787. In 1790 appeared his Account of London, which went through a large number of editions, and three years later he published the Literary Life of the

late

LATE

T. Pennant, written by himself. In his later years he was engaged on a

work

WORK

entitled Outlines of the Globe, vols. i. and ii. of which appeared in 1798, and vols. iii. and iv., edited by his son David Pennant, in 1800. He was also the author of a number of

minor

works, some of which were published posthumously. He died at Downing on the 16th of December 1798.

End of Article: PENNANT, THOMAS (1726-1798)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/PAS_PER/PENNANT_THOMAS_1726_1798_.html">
PENNANT, THOMAS (1726-1798)
</a>

(Previous)
PENN, WILLIAM (1644-1718)

(Next)
PENNAR, or PENNER

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email