William Wright (botanist)

William Wright was a Scottish physician and botanist, born in march 1735 in Crieff in the Scottish Perthshire and deceded the 19 September 1819 in Edinburgh.

He studied at Edinburgh's University and got a medecine physician title in St Andrews. He learnt surgery in Falkirk in Scotland.

He embarked as a navy surgeon in 1760. He became Dr Gray's assistant in Jamaica in 1764. He stayed on the island until 1777. In 1778, he became a Royal Society fellow, and was member to numerous societies as the Linnean Society of London (he became associated member in 1807), the London Royal School of Medicine (that he lead in 1801).

He enrolled in the British Navy in 1779 and was captured by the French.

He returned to Jamaica in 1782 and became the following year, the Chief-physician of the colony. He came back to Edinburgh in 1785. He joined an expedition lead by Sir Ralph Abercromby (1734-1801) from 1796 to 1798 exploring the Caribbean.

He published numerous medecine articles and collected in Jamaica an important collection in natural history. Notably, he described more than 750 plant species.

William Roxburgh (1759-1815) dedicated him the Wrightea gender of the Palmae family. Dawson Turner (1775-1858) dedicated the Fucus wrightii species (now Gracilaria wrightii) of the Gracilariaceae family.

Source

 * Ray Desmond (1994). Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists includins Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers. Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum (Londres).

William Wright William Franklin Wight