Robert Kaye Greville

Infobox Person
name = Robert Kaye Greville


image_size = 240px
caption = Robert Kaye Greville in a detail from an 1840 painting. [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp00224&rNo=0&role=sit The Anti-Slavery Society Convention] , 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon, accessed 19 July 2008]
birth_name =
birth_date = 1794
birth_place = Bishop Auckland, Durham
death_date = 1866
death_place = Murrayfield, Edinburgh
death_cause =
resting_place = Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh
resting_place_coordinates =
residence = Ormelie Villa
nationality =British
other_names =
known_for = Polymath
education = London and Edinburgh
employer =
occupation = Academic
title =
term =
predecessor =
successor =
party =
boards =
spouse = Dorothy Eden
children = yes
parents = Rev. Robert Greville
relatives =
religion = Church of England


website =
footnotes =

Robert Kaye Greville (December 13 1794 – June 4 1866) was a Scottish mycologist, bryologist, and botanist. He was an accomplished artist and illustrator of natural history. In addition to science he was interested in political causes like abolitionism, capital punishment, keeping Sunday special and the temperance movement. He has a mountain in Queensland named after him.

Biography

Greville was born at Bishop Auckland, Durham, but was brought up in Derbyshire as his father, Robert Greville, became the rector of the small village of Edlaston and its nearby hamlet of Wyaston. [ [http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/bbs/Learning/Bryohistory/Bygone%20Bryologists/ROBERT%20KAYE%20GREVILLE.pdf Robert Kaye Greville] , Mark Lawley] Greville had an interest in these natural history since he was very young, but he originally studied medicine. Realising that he did not need an income he discarded his medical education and concentrated on Botany.

Greville was awarded a doctorate by the University of Glasgow in 1824. [http://jcs.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/s2-6/23/199 Obituary] , accessed 5 August 2008] He gave a large number of lectures in the natural sciences and built up collections that were bought by the University of Edinburgh.

Greville married Dorothy Eden in 1816. In 1823 he began the illustration and publishing of the journal "Scottish cryptogamic flora" and also contributed other articles in the field. In addition to science he was interested in political causes like abolitionism, capital punishment, keeping Sunday special and the temperance movement.

In 1828 he received an honour when Mount Greville in Queensland was named in Greville's honour by a fellow botanist, Allan Cunningham. Mount Greville became part of an Australian National park in 1948 and is now part of Moogerah Peaks National Park. The aboriginal name for Mount Greville and the area around it (including "Cunningham Gap") is Moogerah which gave its name to the Park. [http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/parks_and_forests/find_a_park_or_forest/moogerah_peaks_national_park/moogerah_peaks_national_park__nature_culture_and_history/?format=print Moogerah Peaks National Park] at Queensland site.]

In 1835 Greville published some piano music for a sacred melody written by Rev. W. H. Bathurst. [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/robert-bathurst/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Robert%20Bathurst&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ARobert%20Bathurst&page=2 Amazon] , sale, accessed 5 August 2008] In the following year he served as President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh for the first time. [http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/namedefs/namedef-1981.html Darwin Project biography] , accessed 5 August 2008]

In 1840, Greville was one of the four vice-presidents at the World's anti-slavery convention at Freemason's Hall in London on 12 June 1840. The picture above shows him in a detail from a painting made to commemorate the event which attracted delegates from America, France, Haiti, Australia, Ireland, Jamaica and Barbados. [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp00224&rNo=0&role=sit The Anti-Slavery Society Convention] , 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon, accessed 19 July 2008] The painting now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Greville was a member of a number of learned societies including being honorary secretary of the Biological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Howard Society [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nV_dLKouVwwC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=%22Robert+Kaye+Greville%22&source=web&ots=Ue-SbdHIvJ&sig=mM_TN7qJdHl9mfj9rKVZZUZ_f8A&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA185,M1 The Punishment of Death] , Society for the Diffusion of Information on the Subject of Capital Punishments, 1837] as well as being a corresponding member of natural history societies including Brussels, Paris, Liepzig and Philadelphia. He was secretary of the Sabbath Alliance and a compiler of the Church of England hymn-book (1838).

In 1856 he was elected MP for Edinburgh. [ [http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0503greville.html Papers of Robert Kaye Greville] ] Towards the end of his life he created landscape painting which were exhibited.

In 1866 Greville served as President of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh for the second and last time. He died at his home in Murrayfield, Edinburgh on 4 June 1866 whilst still taking an active interest in his work having new papers in preparation for publication.

Family

Greville and Dorothy Greville had a son, Eden Kaye Greville and three daughters. Charlotte Dorothea Greville married the Rev. David Hogarth on 3 April 1857. [ [http://www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-03/hogarth2.htm baronage.co.uk] ]

Journals

* "Flora Edinensis" (1824)
* "Tentamen methodi Muscorum" (1822–1826)
* "Icones filicum" or "Figures and Descriptions of Ferns" (1830) (with Sir W.J.Hooker) [ [http://www.botanicus.org/title/b1220304x Icones Filicum] , by Greville and Hooker, whole book on-line, accessed 5 August 2008]
* "Scottish cryptogamic flora" (1822–1828)
* "Algae britannicae" (1830)
* "Facts illustrative of the drunkenness of Scotland with observations on the responsibility of the clergy, magistrates, and other influential bodies" (1834) [http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0503greville.html Bio of R.K.Greville] , Archives Hub, accessed 5 August 2008]
* "Slavery and the slave trade in the United States of America; and the extent to which the American churches are involved in their support". [Drawn up at the request of the committee of the Edinburgh Emancipation Society] , 1845, Edinburgh

References