William Kirby

William Kirby (1759–1850) was an English clergyman and entomologist, often called the father of British entomology. Born at Witnesham in Suffolk and educated at Cambridge, he was rector of Barham, near Ipswich, for sixty-eight years. His Monographia Apum Angliae of 1802 described more than two hundred species of English bees, and with the Hull merchant William Spence he wrote An Introduction to Entomology, published in four volumes between 1815 and 1826, the first general treatise on insects in English. He was a founder of the Entomological Society of London and its first honorary president.