John Berkenhout

John Berkenhout (b. July 8, 1726 in Yorkshire - d. April 3, 1791) was an English physician, naturalist and miscellaneous writer.

Berkenhout was the son of a Dutch merchant, John Berkenhout Snr, who had settled in Yorkshire and Anne Kitchingman. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and served in the Prussian and English armies before finishing his education at Edinburgh University and Leyden, where he took a Doctor of Physic (medicine) in 1765. While at Edinburgh he published "Clavis Anglicat Linguae". He published several works on natural history, including "Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland" (1769) and "Synopsis of the Natural History of Great Britain and Ireland" (1789). It was in these works that Berkenhout, not Linnaeus as is often claimed, named the brown rat as the Norway Rat ("Rattus norvegicus"). He served as a British agent in the colonies during the American Revolution.