> [!cite] BHL link: this entry starts at [page 469](https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33066809) of TL-2 Vol. VII > Author links: [IPNI](https://www.ipni.org/a/11884-1) LSID 11884-1, [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q726447) QID Q726447 > Support pages: [[Abbreviations|abbreviations]], [[Layout key|layout key]], [[Cite TL-2|cite TL-2]] ### Author Wright, William (1735-1819), British physician and botanist; studied medicine at Edinburgh University; to Greenland 1757; surgeon's mate in the British navy 1758-1763, visiting e.g. Jamaica; MD St. Andrews; practicing physician on Jamaica 1764-1777; in London 1777-1779; regimental surgeon in the Jamaican regiment 1779; in Spanish captivity 1779-1781; again in Jamaica 1781-1785, ultimately as physician-general; settled in Edinburgh 1788 (1786?); visited Barbados 1796-1798; from 1798 again in Edinburgh. **Abbreviated name**: *W. Wright* \[standard form in IPNI: *W.Wright*\] #### Herbarium and types [[Collection BM|BM]] (major set in herb. Banks), [[Collection E|E]] (3 vols.), and [[Collection LIV|LIV]] (1 vol.). – Further material in [[Collection BR|BR]] (identified by J.R. Brown), [[Collection G|G]], [[Collection K|K]], [[Collection OXF|OXF]]. – *Letters* [[Collection BM|BM]], DTC. #### Bibliography and biography Backer p. 629; Barnhart 3: 524 (b. Mar 1735); BB p. 336; BM 5: 2365; Clokie p. 268; CSP 6: 446; Dawson p. 882; Desmond p. 679-680 (d. 19 Sep 1819); DNB 63: 136-137; Dryander 3: 463, 476, 499, 513; Hortus 3: 1207; Plesch p. 464; PR 10411, ed. 1: 11366; Rehder 5: 933; Tucker 1: 755. #### Biofile - Anon., Memoir of the late William Wright, M.D., Edinburgh and London 1828, 456 p. (copy at Natl. Libr. Medicine, Washington, D.C.). - \[Cockerell, T.D.A.\], J. Inst. Jamaica 2(2): 183. 1895 (text on portrait in Jamaica Portrait Gallery). - Fawcett, W., J. Bot. 60: 330-334. 1922 (biogr. sketch, colls.). - Hall, T.B., Naturalist 4: 399. 1839 (plants from Jamaica in Liverpool Bot. Gard.). - Miller, H.S., Taxon 19: 545-546. 1970 (coll.; Lambert material, now at G?). - Stafleu, F.A., et al., *in* CL. L'Héritier, Sertum angl., facs. ed. 1963, p. lix, lxxiv, 6. - Stearn, W.T., J. Arnold Arb. 46: 272. 1965. - Stearns, R.P., Osiris 8: 116-117. 1948. - Urban, I., Symb. ant. 1: 59, 178-179. 1898, 3: 144-145. 1902 (coll.), 7(1): 77. 1911 (on erroneously labeled Barbados plants at BM and K). #### Note - (1) See e.g. Urban, (1898) for the still relevant botanical publications by Wright on Jamaican plants: (a) *Description of the Jesuits bark tree of Jamaica and the Caribbees*, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London 67: 504-506, *pl. 10.* 1777. (b) *Descriptions and use of the Cabbage-bark tree of Jamaica*, id. 67: 507-512, *pl. 10.* 1777. (c) *An account of the medicinal plants growing in Jamaica*, London med. J. 8(3): 217-295. 1787. – Reprinted in *Mem. late William Wright*, London & Edinburgh 1828, p. 183-245; *Essai sur les plantes usuelles de la Jamaïque*, J. Phys. Hist. nat. 32(1): 347-361. Mai 1788, 401-419. Jun 1788. (d) *A botanical and medical account of the Quassia Simaruba*,... Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh 2: 73-81, *pl. 1-2.* 1790, text also in London med. J. 11: 91-102. 1790. - (2) A manuscript "*Plants of Jamaica* by Willm Wright M.D. F.R.S." is kept in the Local History Section of the Liverpool city Libraries. The introduction is dated London 29th May 1786; the text is accompanied by 42 dried specimens (inf. Edmondson 25 Nov 1985). #### Eponymy *Wrightea* Roxburgh (1832); *Wrightia* R. Brown (1810).