John Lightfoot (biologist)

John Lightfoot
Title page of Flora Scotica, 1777, by the Reverend John Lightfoot. Illustration of Ranunculus reptans drawn by Moses Griffiths, engraved by Peter Mazell.
Born	9 December 1735
Died	20 February 1788(1788-02-20) (aged 52)
Nationality	English
Fields	Botany, Conchology
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society, 1785

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 became a Fellow of the Royal Society for his scientific work.

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.

Lightfoot was born in Newent, Gloucestershire. His father Stephen Lightfoot was a yeoman farmer. 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.

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. With plenty of free time from his light duties as a clergyman, he curated the Duchess's museum collection or "Cabinet of Curiosities" expertly, leading ultimately to a detailed and accurate inventory and description of her private "Portland Museum", published as an auction catalogue after her death. Among the collection that Lightfoot had curated was the ancient "Portland Vase" now named after her family.

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 Linne, 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. 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. 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; Lightfoot lived just long enough to see the society founded in 1788.