Life History

Notes

• Francis was the only son of Sir Francis Willoughby and his wife Cassandra.
  The alternative spelling of 'Willughby', by which he is generally known, is not the official spelling of the family name.
  He grew up at Middleton in Warwickshire and was educated at Sutton Coldfield School and Trinity College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1652.
  He was awarded a M.A. in 1659.
  He was a noted mathematician and natural historian.
  He was a very early associate of the Royal Society, proposed for membership by John Wilkins in November 1661.
  He was admitted on 4 December 1661, seven months before the date of the Society's first charter on 15 July 1662.
  Willughby was elected as a Fellow of the Society on 20 May 1663.
  The Middleton archive includes illustrations of birds, fishes and flowers collected by him and by his Cambridge tutor, friend and colleague, the scientist John Ray (1627-1705).
  They travelled within Britain and abroad in the 1660s, and the taxonomical system they developed forms the basis of current classification of plants and animals.
  Herbarium specimens are preserved within some volumes.
  Willughby also did much work, along with Ray, in sorting and classifying the family archives.
  He died at Middleton on 3 July 1672.
• Sir William Willoughby
  Monument in Wollaton church, Nottinghamshire, with the following inscriptionin black capitals, on a white marble:
  _____________________________________________________________
  This monument is here placed in memory of Sir William Willoughby of Selston, in the county of Nottingham, to his kinsman, Francis Willoughby, of Wollaton, Esq; By whole order of his will, this is here set up by Sir Thomas Willoughby, his son, that Sir William's kindness therein may be ever acknowledged by the family.
  He married Margaret, the sole daughter of George Abbot, Esq; by whom he left no issue.
  He died at Selston Feb. 10, 1670, in the 50th year of his age.