Ray, John

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Ray, John (1607–1705). Naturalist. The son of an Essex blacksmith, Ray was enabled to study at Cambridge, where he subsequently taught for thirteen years. Although ordained episcopally in 1660, he declined to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity, so lost his fellowship in 1662. Supported by prosperous friends, he then pursued his career as a naturalist, attempting a systematic description of all living things. His expeditions around Europe as well as Britain recorded antiquities, local customs, and institutions in addition to flora and fauna. Botany remained his first love, however, and he laid the foundation for a system of classification based on all structural characteristics, setting out many of the natural orders now employed by botanists. His three-volume masterwork Historia plantarum (1686–1704) and his precision of terminology have led to him being regarded as the father of natural history in Britain.

A. S. Hargreaves

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