Thomas Hopkirk
Thomas Hopkirk (1785–1841) was a Scottish botanist and lithographer.
The Hopkirks
He was descended from a gentry family who came from
James Hopkirk (1749–1838), Thomas's father
In 1754, Thomas senior bought the lands of
Thomas's education and first publication
He amassed an extensive collection in his garden in
Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow
In 1816 he joined with others to form a society, later including
Flora Anomoia and Darwin
In 1817 he published Flora Anomoia – a general view of the anomalies in the vegetable kingdom, describing "the anomalies which take place amongst vegetables. It lists the variations under Anomalies of the Root, Stem and Branches, Leaf, and Flower. He notes such unusual developments as an oblong turnip, the different kinds of Holly leaf, a bluebell with 20 stamens, and so on. Lithographic illustrations were by his co-worker James Hardie.
He was known to Charles Darwin, who quoted from Hopkirk's publications in his The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. (John Murray, London 1868), especially with regard to Convolvulus tricolor.
Lithography
Partly as a consequence of his botanical publications, he became interested in lithography. He helped prepare the lithographic plates for The Glasgow Looking Glass, of which he became editor in 1825.
Later life and death
In 1835, the University of Glasgow made him honorary Doctor of Laws. In 1837, he published the popular gardening book, called The Juvenile Calendar of a Natural History of the Year. He moved to Ireland, where he helped in geological surveys for the Irish Ordnance Survey. He presumably married there, but we know little about his wife, who died before him, or their daughter. He died in Belfast on 24 August 1841 and is buried there in Clifton Cemetery.
Bibliography
- Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) ISBN 0-19-861395-4
- Hopkirk, Thomas Flora Glottiana; a catalogue of the indigenous plants on the banks of the River Clyde, and in the neighbourhood of the City of Glasgow. 8 vols Glasgow 1813
- Hopkirk, Thomas. (1817) updated by Martin Cragg-Barber in Flora anomoia updated Chippenham : That Plant's Odd, 1999.
- Mackenzie, Peter. Old Reminiscences of Glasgow. Glasgow, 1890 ii, 33
- Turner, Robert. Thomas Hopkirk of Dalbeth: a sketch of his life and botanical work. Transactions of the Natural History Society of Glasgow. 27 January 1885
- Biographical note on James Hopkirk. By David Murray. In A Statistical Account of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, with the principal transactions of the Heritors for the last forty years, 1827, manuscript by James Hopkirk. Line drawings by unknown artist.