Francis Willoughby

Francis WILLOUGHBY or WILLUGHBY 1635-72

Biographical Note

Of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire; member of a long-established gentry family that included another Francis Willoughby (1614-65). Entered Trinity College, Cambridge as a fellow-commoner in 1653. BA 1655-6, MA 1659. Willoughby was a noted naturalist and associate of John Ray; the pair travelled across England, Wales and the continent, studying local animals and plants and gathering specimens. Willoughby was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society in 1661. He married Emma (1644–1725), daughter of Sir Henry Barnard in 1668. They had three children, Francis (1668–1688), Cassandra (1670–1735), and Thomas Willoughby, 1st Baron Middleton (1672-1729). Willoughby was created a baronet in 1677.

Books

The Willoughby family library was continuously developed from the 14th century onwards (some of the medieval manuscripts survive and are today in Nottingham University Library). The library was reorganised and catalogued at Wollaton in the 1690s by Willoughby’s son, Thomas Willoughby).

Sources

• Hanna, R. & T. Turville-Petre (eds), The Wollaton medieval manuscripts, 2010.