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47-407: Swainson is a family name of English origin. It may refer to: People [ edit ] Charles Swainson (naturalist) , (1841-1913), Rector of High Hurst Wood and later of Old Charlton, author of books on birds, weather and folk-lore Charles Anthony Swainson (1820–1887), English theologian Gina Swainson (born 1958), Bermudan first runner-up in

94-870: A B.A. degree from Christ Church, Oxford , in 1863 and was ordained a deacon in 1864, spending less than a year at Wilton in Wiltshire, not far from Salisbury. He was ordained a priest in 1865, and moved to Crick to serve his father's parish as curate. He married Isabel Augusta Gossip at Doncaster, Yorkshire, in April 1865, and they had four children: Isabel, George, Harriet and Charles. He took an M.A. degree in 1866 and remained in Crick until 1871, when his father died. In 1872 he moved to High Hurstwood in Sussex, near Buxted and Uckley, where he remained for two years and published his first work, on weather-lore, in 1873. In 1874 he

141-653: A collection of over 20,000 insects , 1,200 species of plants, drawings of 120 species of fish , and about 760 bird skins. Swainson was a member of learned societies, including the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh . He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society after his return from Brazil on 14 December 1820, and married his first wife Mary Parkes in 1823, with whom he had four sons (William John, George Frederick, Henry Gabriel and Edwin Newcombe) and

188-513: A contract with the London publishers Longman to produce fourteen illustrated volumes of 300 pages in this series, one to be produced quarterly. In 1819, William Sharp Macleay had published his ideas of the Quinarian system of biological classification , and Swainson soon became a noted and outspoken proponent. The Quinarian System fell out of favour, giving way to the rising popularity of

235-481: A correspondent to the Ceylon Observer to collect from local people some dialect names and folk-lore about Sri Lanka's birds, which were noted in the journal Nature. Swainson drew on sources from as far afield as Norway, Iceland, France, Germany, and Russia; relied on the great ornithological histories of Bewick and Yarrell; referred to the poetry of John Clare and the works of Shakespeare; drew examples from

282-653: A daughter (Mary Frederica). His wife Mary died in 1835. Swainson remarried in 1840 to Ann Grasby, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1841. Two of their daughters were married in 1863: Edith Stanway Swainson married Arthur Halcombe , and Lucelle Frances Swainson married Richmond Beetham . Swainson was involved in property management and natural history-related publications from 1841 to 1855, and forestry -related investigations in Tasmania , New South Wales , and Victoria from 1851 to 1853. Swainson died at Fern Grove, Lower Hutt , New Zealand, on 6 December 1855. Swainson

329-424: A dictionary, nor an etymology, may not have been able to include references to Yarrell's 4th edition (which was published as he was preparing his own book for publication, and was in ill-health), and had no compunction about including "book-names" as part of the record. The English Dialect Society gave a mixed review to Swainson's work upon its publication in 1886. While acknowledging that "the list of local names

376-532: A dictionary. As Swainson avers in his Preface, his work follows the classification and nomenclature of the List of British Birds set out by a Committee of the British Ornithologists' Union, London, 1883. Swann also offers his view that Swainson does not attempt to deal with the important matter of book-names of species. Swainson's provincial and vernacular names are all grouped under the heading of

423-654: A fellow of the Linnean Society in 1815. In 1816, he accompanied the English explorer Henry Koster to Brazil . Koster had lived in Brazil for some years and had become famous for his book Travels in Brazil (1816). There he met Dr Grigori Ivanovitch Langsdorff , also an explorer of Brazil, and Russian Consul General . They did not spend a long time on shore because of a revolution, but Swainson returned to England in 1818 in his words "a bee loaded with honey", with

470-599: A goose. Joseph Maiden described Swainson's efforts as an exhibition of reckless species-making that, as far as I know stands unparalleled in the annals of botanical literature. He had studied the flora of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania before his return to New Zealand in 1854 to live at Fern Grove in the Hutt, where he died the following year. In 1856, a poem was written by the New Zealand poet William Golder in his memory. His standard botanical abbreviation

517-418: A nationwide network of almost a thousand volunteers to assist and contribute to this massive cultural undertaking. Swainson's work on weather-lore and on provincial birds' names and folk-lore was included in the massive undertaking which became The English Dialect Dictionary , published in six volumes between 1898 and 1905. It was dedicated to Professor Skeat, who had contributed so much to its inception. "It

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564-399: A short chapter on birds. As Rector of St Luke's, Old Charlton , Kent , from 1874 to 1908, he published his best-known and most influential work, Provincial Names and Folk-Lore of British Birds , which collected the vernacular and regional names of British birds together with an array of British and European folklore related to birds. The 1885 edition ( Provincial Names and Folk-Lore... )

611-519: A theologian. Swainson was born on 27 December 1840 in Crick, Northamptonshire , England to Rev. Charles Litchfield Swainson, who was then Rector of St Margaret of Antioch, Crick, and Harriet Littledale (née France). His parents married in 1838; his mother was the widow of George Decimus Littledale of Sandown House, near Liverpool, who died in 1826 leaving her with three children. He was educated at Harrow School from September 1854 to December 1859, took

658-422: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Charles Swainson (naturalist) Charles Swainson (1840–1913) M.A. was an English cleric and naturalist. He was rector of High Hurst Wood , Sussex , from 1872 to 1874, from where he published his Handbook of Weather Folk-Lore which also included folklore and mythology relating to elements of nature and

705-457: Is the best yet published", they expressed the reservation that Swainson apparently had not consulted any of the Society's own publications, and they concluded that many local or dialect names may have been omitted. They expressed a hope that his work would be built upon. In the same year the Society's founder and president, Professor Walter William Skeat , (author of an etymological dictionary on

752-578: The American Ornithological Society in his 2017 article Bird Names Then and Now credits Charles Swainson with compiling "the names of common birds from both folklore and regional dialects across England and Scotland, and several books have since been published on the sources of common names in use today". Articles published in journals which refer to Swainson's works include: William John Swainson William John Swainson FLS , FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855 ),

799-727: The Antipodes . 'for the great crime of burdening zoology with a false though much laboured theory which has thrown so much confusion into the subject of its classification and philosophical study'. In 1839, he became a member of the committee of the New Zealand Company and of the Church of England committee for the appointment of a bishop to New Zealand, bought land in Wellington , and gave up scientific literary work. He married his second wife, Anne Grasby, in 1840. He

846-728: The Oxford English Dictionary , 1884-1933, and its Supplement , 1972-, with its rich documentation reaching back to the earliest period of the language... Next, the English Dialect Dictionary , 1898-1905, a great repository of local names known to have been in use since 1700; it incorporates the collection found in Swainson's Provincial Names ... of British Birds , 1885." Lockwood also references Swainson's work in his etymological research, for example in "The Philology of 'Auk' and related matters" in

893-889: The 1979 Miss Universe contest Isaac Swainson (1746–1812), English patent medicine entrepreneur John Swainson (1925–1994), American politician William John Swainson (1789–1855), English naturalist William Swainson (lawyer) (1809–1884), English lawyer Places [ edit ] The Swainson Island Group , which includes Swainson Island , Tasmania, Australia Biology [ edit ] Birds Swainson's flycatcher , Myiarchus swainsoni Swainson's francolin , or Francolinus swainsonii Swainson's hawk , Buteo swainsoni Swainson's sparrow , Passer swainsonii Swainson's thrush , Catharus ustulatus Swainson's warbler , Limnothlypis swainsonii Butterflies Swainson's crow , Euploea swainson Plants Swainsona , large genus of flowering plants native to Australia Topics referred to by

940-552: The Anglo-Saxon roots of the English language, and one of the leading philologists of his time), initiated a fund mainly from his own resources in order to set up a new project which would bring the work of the Society to its fulfilment. All 80 published volumes of the Society would be included in The English Dialect Dictionary , and its compiler, Joseph Wright , a self-taught philologist, would involve

987-532: The Birds of the Air , and by Stephen Moss Mrs Moreau's Warbler; How Birds Got Their Names which treats principally of eponymous bird names, and of the people these names refer to. Moss also includes lengthy quotations which he attributes erroneously to Charles Swainson; these are in fact attributable to William John Swainson (on Latham and the merits of his works and of his memory, p 144 and p 320). Bob Montgomery of

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1034-796: The Redbreast article (pp 13–18) in Swainson, which consists of original detailed research which is attributed, analysed and contextualised. Swann, in the Preface to his dictionary, describes Swainson as sourcing and describing the meanings of over 2000 bird names, where Alfred Newton, an authority on ornithology, and a member of the ornithological "establishment", had described "a great many less" in his Dictionary of Birds (1893). Kirke Swann claims to have covered about 5000 names in his own 1913 dictionary, but admits that this number includes variations or alternative spellings. Swann offers his view that Swainson's work suffers somewhat by not being laid out like

1081-685: The accepted name for each species, as listed by the authoritative BOU. In his Bibliography of Ornithology from the Earliest Times to the End of 1912 , Kirke Swann pens a biographical note about Swainson and on pp 566–567 says "his 'Provincial Names and Folk-Lore of British Birds' has always been held in high esteem as a valuable contribution to the literature of ornithology". William Burley Lockwood , in his Oxford Dictionary of Bird Names goes so far as to name his two main sources in this way: "The following books have been our chief sources: Firstly,

1128-944: The age of 67 and moved to a residence nearby, spending time in Torquay with his daughter Harriet in 1911. He died on 30 December 1913 at the age of 72. Swainson was a member of the English Dialect Society , and of The Folklore Society , took Notes and Queries , and communicated with one of the ornithological luminaries of his day, John Alexander Harvie-Brown . He drew on regional English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish dialects and traditions as well as from continental European cultures and languages - particularly German and French - and from other world cultures for his collection of vernacular names and common beliefs about aspects of natural history, particularly birds. In his introduction to Birds he thanks G Laurence Gomme (of The Folklore Society and English Dialect Society) for reading

1175-608: The father becoming Collector at Liverpool. William, whose formal education was curtailed because of an impediment in his speech , joined the Liverpool Customs as a junior clerk at the age of 14. He joined the Army Commissariat and toured Malta and Sicily He studied the ichthyology of western Sicily and in 1815, was forced by ill health to return to England where he subsequently retired on half pay. William followed in his father's footsteps to become

1222-416: The first illustrator and naturalist to use lithography, which was a relatively cheap means of reproduction and did not require an engraver. He began publishing many illustrated works, mostly serially. Subscribers received and paid for fascicles, small sections of the books, as they came out, so that the cash flow was constant and could be reinvested in the preparation of subsequent parts. As book orders arrived,

1269-460: The first part of his introduction, and subsequently mentions other major works he has made use of, from Turner (1544) to Ray and Willughby (1678). He refers throughout his work to Swainson's names and derivations, and paraphrases parts of Swainson's original collection in his dictionary, published in the year of Swainson's death in 1913. An example of this practice is given in his article on the Redbreast (pp 189–190), where he briefly summarises parts of

1316-665: The geographical theory of Hugh Edwin Strickland . Swainson was overworked by Dionysius Lardner, the publisher of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia and both Swainson and Macleay were derided for their support of the Quinarian system. Both proponents left Britain; Swainson emigrated to New Zealand and Macleay to Australia. An American visiting Australasia in the 1850s heard to his surprise that both Macleay and Swainson were living there, and imagined that they had been exiled to

1363-492: The journal Neuephilologische Mitteilungen vol. 79, no.4 (1978) which explores the roots of the word "auk" and related names of the Alcidae family (guillemots, razorbills and auks). Swainson is still widely referenced today as an authoritative and reliable source, for example by Francesca Greenoak in her British Birds; their Folklore, Names and Literature (1997) which was originally published by Andre Deutsch in 1979 as All

1410-669: The lives of the saints and the legends of the Middle Ages; and referred widely to local English, Scottish and Irish glossaries and collections or provincial names for the birds. Many proverbs, songs and sayings illuminate and illustrate the natural history, which in turn gives substance and meaning to the folklore and rituals he describes. The whole is a treasure trove of much culture and wisdom, now lost, and of much superstition, now superseded by science. Some anonymous criticisms in these reviews were taken up by Harry Kirke Swann and to some extent addressed in his own Dictionary; mainly ,

1457-521: The monochrome lithographs were hand-coloured, according to colour reference images, known as 'pattern plates', which were produced by Swainson himself. It was his early adoption of this new technology and his natural skill of illustration that in large part led to his fame. When in March 1822 Leach was forced to resign from the British Museum due to ill health, Swainson applied to replace him, but

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1504-503: The most influential of which was the second volume of Fauna Boreali-Americana (1831), which he wrote with John Richardson . This series (1829–1837) was the first illustrated zoological study to be funded in part by the British government. He also produced a second series of Zoological Illustrations (1832–33), three volumes of William Jardine's Naturalist's Library , and eleven volumes of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia ; he had signed

1551-577: The nightjar's connection to the Gabriel Hounds or Gabble Ratchet myths. Two major works on birds' names followed which cite Swainson as a major source: Harry Kirke Swann's dictionary of bird names, folk-names and lore (1913), which cites Swainson's work ahead of all other sources as "the first work approaching the scheme of the present volume", and Lockwood's Oxford dictionary of bird names (1984), which cites The English Dialect Dictionary , and Swainson's list of provincial names which it contains, as

1598-400: The possibility of dialect words having been omitted, the inclusion of "book-names", the lack of precise reference to Yarrell's 4th edition (edited by Alfred Newton and Howard Saunders in 1885), and the lack of etymological consistency, in that the root or meaning of all names are not worked out to their origins. The criticisms were mainly unwarranted in that Swainson did not set out to write

1645-410: The post was given to John George Children . Soon after his first marriage in 1823, Swainson visited Paris and formed friendships with Georges Cuvier , Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , and other eminent French naturalists. Upon his return to London, he was employed by Messrs. Longman as editor for the natural history departments of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia . Swainson continued with his writing,

1692-445: The proofs and assisting with the publication of the work, and acknowledges Harvie-Brown for information, comments and corrections relating to Scottish birds. He modelled the scheme of his Birds book on Rolland's La Faune Populaire de la France . His work was reviewed in the respected scientific and literary journals The Athenaeum, Nature, and The Academy in 1887, and the interest excited by his newly published work prompted

1739-413: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Swainson . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Swainson&oldid=1023811723 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1786-569: The second of its chief sources. Charles Swainson's original and compendious research formed the foundation of several subsequent major works of ornithological literature, including Harry Kirke Swann 's A Dictionary of English and Folk-Names of British Birds; with their History, Meaning and First Usage, and the Folk-Lore, Weather-Lore, Legends Etc Relating to the More Familiar Species . Swann pays tribute to Charles Swainson in

1833-680: Was an English ornithologist , malacologist , conchologist , entomologist , and artist. Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London , the eldest son of John Timothy Swainson the Second (1756–1824), an original fellow of the Linnean Society . He was cousin of the amateur botanist Isaac Swainson . His father's family originated in Lancashire , and both grandfather and father held high posts in Her Majesty's Customs,

1880-822: Was an officer in a militia against in the Māoris in 1846. During these times he was largely dependent on his half pay. In 1851, Swainson sailed to Sydney and he took the post of Botanical Surveyor in 1852 with the Victoria Government, after being invited by the Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe to study local trees. He finished his report in 1853 in which he claimed a grand total of 1520 species and varieties of Eucalyptidae . He identified so many species of Casuarina that he ran out of names for them. While having quite some expertise in zoology , his untrained foray into botany

1927-527: Was apparently the first Fellow of the Royal Society to move to New Zealand. He was later made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Tasmania . Together with most of his children from his first marriage, they sailed for New Zealand in the Jane , reaching Wellington, in the summer of 1841. The trip was not without incident, as the boat suffered damage en route and was in such a poor state that there

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1974-440: Was at times quite critical of the works of others and, later in life, others in turn became quite critical of him. Apart from the common and scientific names of many species, it is for the quality of his illustrations that he is best remembered. His friend William Elford Leach , head of zoology at the British Museum , encouraged him to experiment with lithography for his book Zoological Illustrations (1820–23). Swainson became

2021-637: Was legal action on arrival. He purchased 1,100 acres (445 ha) in the Hutt Valley from the New Zealand Company, and established his estate of "Hawkshead". Not coincidentally, this name was shared by an ancestral home in Hawkshead , Lancashire, of the Swainson family, which was the birthplace of Isaac Swainson . After a few months, this estate was claimed by a Māori chief, Taringakuri , which led to years of uncertainty and threat. He

2068-608: Was no longer necessary to carry on the work of the English Dialect Society", as Wright says in his preface to the dictionary, and so, in 1896, it was disbanded. Walter William Skeat also references Swainson's work in his "Magic Rites Connected With The Several Departments of Nature", a chapter in the book "Malay Magic: Being an Introduction to The Folklore and Popular Religion of the Malay Peninsula", published in 1900, where he quotes Swainson's research on

2115-409: Was not well received. William Jackson Hooker wrote to Ferdinand von Mueller : In my life I think I never read such a series of trash and nonsense. There is a man who left this country with the character of a first rate naturalist (though with many eccentricities) and of a very first-rate Natural History artist and he goes to Australia and takes up the subject of Botany, of which he is as ignorant as

2162-530: Was presented to the parish of St Luke's, Old Charlton , near Greenwich, east of London, where he remained until 1908 and where he prepared the manuscript for his seminal book on the Provincial Names and Folk-Lore of British Birds (1885-6). He contributed to his local Society of Antiquities in Woolwich on the subject of the treasures in his Old Charlton parish of St Luke's. In 1908 he left Charlton at

2209-586: Was published within the Dialect Society's blue cover papers, and the 1886 edition ( The Folk-Lore and Provincial Names... ), with the title slightly changed for emphasis, was published in the Folk-Lore Society's brown cloth covers. Charles Swainson has been confused with his relative William John Swainson , a zoologist and ornithologist after whom several species of birds were named (e.g. Swainson's thrush), and with Charles Anthony Swainson ,

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