Person

MacGillivray, John (1821 - 1867)

Born
18 December 1821
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died
6 June 1867
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Occupation
Natural history collector, Naturalist and Botanist

Summary

John MacGillivray was a naturalist and botanist who participated on three naval expeditions surveying Australian and Pacific waters. The first was as collector for the Earl of Derby on H.M.S. Fly, under the command of Francis Blackwood 1842 - 1845, in the seas of the Australian east coast and New Guinea. MacGillivray's next voyage was on H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1847 - 1850, under the command of Captain Owen Stanley. His fellow naturalists on this occasion were Thomas H. Huxley and James Fowler Wilcox. During this voyage Macgillivray took notes on the languages of the indigenous people he encountered. His last appointment as naturalist was on H.M.S. Herald, commanded by Henry Denham, from 1853. MacGillivray left the expedition in early 1855, apparently because of his intemperence. He remained in New South Wales. In the early 1860s he worked on the shell collection of noted conchologist James C. Cox. In 1864 MacGillivray joined his former shipmate, James Wilcox, in partnership to collect natural history specimens. Most of the specimens MacGillivray collected on his voyages are in the herbarim of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and in the Natural History Museum, London. He was recognised as a skilled collector and field observer.

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Details

Chronology

1842 - 1845
Career position - Botanist and natural history collector for the Earl of Derby, H.M.S. Fly
1847 - 1850
Career position - Naturalist, H.M.S. Rattlesnake
1853 - 1855
Career position - Naturalist, H.M.S. Herald

Related Cultural Objects

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Archives Office of Tasmania

  • John MacGillivray - Records, 1847 - 1849, NS 534; Archives Office of Tasmania. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1860 - 1912, ML MSS 563; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • John MacGillivray - Records, 24 September 1846 - 27 August 1848, A3925; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • John MacGillivray - Records, 1844 - 1849, FM 4/2231; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • John MacGillivray - Records, 1852 - 1855, FM 4/2092; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • John MacGillivray - Records, 1844 - 1855, mfm G 1881; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • John MacGillivray - Records, 1847 - 1849, mfm G 24785; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Goodman, Jordan, The Rattlesnake: a Voyage of Discovery to the Coral Sea (London: Faber and Faber, 2005), 357 pp. Details
  • MacGillivray, John, Narrative of the voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake: commanded by the late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S., etc., during the years 1846 - 1850, including discoveries and surveys in New Guinea, the Louisade Archipelago, etc., to which is added the account of Mr E. B. Kennedy's expedition for the exploration of the cape York Peninsula, 2 vols (London: T. & W. Boone, 1852). Details
  • McKenna, Mark, From the edge: Australia's lost histories (Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press (University of Melbourne Publishing Ltd), 2016), xx, 251 pp. See pages: 85, 95, 102. Details

Book Sections

  • Calaby, J. H., 'MacGillivray, John (1821-1867), naturalist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 167-168. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020144b.htm. Details
  • Ralph, Robert, 'John MacGillivray, 1821-1867' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

  • Goodman, Jordan, 'Losing it in New Guinea: the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake', Endeavour, 29 (2005), 60-5. Details
  • Gould, John, 'A brief account of the researches in natural history of John MacGillivray, Esq, the naturalist attached to H.M. Surveying-Ship the Rattlesnake, on the north-eastern coasts of Australia, New Guinea, etc.', Contributions to ornithology, [3/4] (1850), 92-105. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'The Last Letters of John MacGillvray', The Australian Zoologist, 9 (1937), 40-63. Details
  • MacGillivray, John, 'Ornithological excursion to the north coast of New Holland', Zoologist: a popular miscellany of natural history, 4 (1846), 1481-4. Details
  • MacGillivray, John, 'An account of Raine's Islet, on the N.E. coast of New Holland', Zoologist: a popular miscellany of natural history, 4 (1846), 1473-81. Details
  • MacGillivray, John, 'Notes on Australian natural history', Zoologist: a popular miscellany of natural history, 4 (1846), 1485-91. Details
  • MacGillivray, John, 'Letters from J. MacGillivray, Esq., naturalist to H.M Surveying Ship Rattlesnake, Capt.Stanley, R.N. (Communicated by Professor Edward Forbes.)', Annals and magazine of natural history, series 2, 2 (2) (1848), 21-32. Details
  • Macgillivray, John, 'Letter from John MacGillivray, Esq., naturalist of H.M Surveying-Ship Herald, commanded by Captain Denham; dated Sydney, March 3rd, 1854', Hooker's journal of botany and Kew Garden miscellany, 6 (1854), 353-63. Details
  • Ralph, Robert, 'John MacGillivray - his life and work', Archives of natural history, 20 (2) (1993), 185-95. Details
  • Whitley, G. P., 'Early Naturalist in Queensland [John MacGillivray]', North Queensland Naturalist, 41 (162) (1973), 3-4. Details

Resources

Theses

  • Jensen, Sophie Alice, 'On such a full sea: John MacGillivray (1821 - 1867)', PhD thesis, Australian National University, 2010, 339 pp. Details

See also

  • Bowen, James; Bowen, Margarita, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 454 pp. Details
  • David, Andrew, The Voyage of HMS Herald to Australia and the South-west Pacific 1852-1861 under the command of Captain Henry Mangles Denham (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press at Miegunyah Press, 1995), 549 pp. Details
  • Fagg, Murray, 'MacGillivray, John (1822 - 1867)', Australian Plant Collectors and Illustrators, Council of Heads of Australian Herbaria (CHAH), 2010, https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/macgillivray-john.html. Details
  • Huxley, J., Thomas Henry Huxley's Diary of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake (London: 1935). Details
  • Jukes, J. B., Narrative of the surveying voyage of H.M.S. Fly, commanded by Captain F. P. Blackwood, R.N., in Torres Strait, New Guinea, and other islands of the Eastern Archipelago, during the years 1842 - 1846, 2 vols (London: T. and W. Boone, 1847). Details
  • Lubbock, Adelaide, Owen Stanley, R.N., 1811 - 1850, captain of the Rattlesnake (Melbourne: London: Heinemann, 1968), 298 pp. Details
  • Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Queensland Botanists', Report of the twelfth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 12 (1910), 373-383. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15379603. Details
  • Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 168, 169, 170 - See HMS Fly. Details
  • Van Steenis-Kruseman, M. J., Malaysian plant collectors and collections: being a cyclopaedia of botanical exploration in Malaysia and a guide to the concerned literature up to the year 1950 (Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff NV, 1950), clii, 639 pp. Details
  • West, Francis, 'Stanley, Owen (1811-1850), naval officer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 470-471. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020436b.htm. Details

Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn

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