William Wright (botanist)

William Wright (March, 1735 – 19 September 1819) was a Scottish physician and botanist.

Born in in Crieff in the Scottish Perthshire, he studied at the University of Edinburgh and got a medical 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, was member to numerous societies as the Linnean Society of London (he became associated member in 1807), the Wernerian Natural History Society (was a founder member in 1808), the London Royal School of Medicine (that he led 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 led by Sir Ralph Abercromby (1734–1801) from 1796 to 1798 exploring the Caribbean.

He published numerous medicine 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 including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers". Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum (Londres).