22 



submitted to the meeting, that out of respect to the memory of Mr. Kirby, all scientific 

 business sbould be adjourned, which was unanimously agreed to. 



Kirby afterwards became a great favourite with his majesty George III., and received, 

 through his patronage, the office of comptroller of the works at Kew. The celebrated 

 Mrs. Trimmer was his daughter, and consequently first-cousin to the subject of this 

 memoir. 



" Mr. Kirby was born in the year 1759, at Witnesham Hall, in the county of Suf- 

 folk, the residence of his father, who was by profession a solicitor ; he was educated at 

 the Grammar School in Ipswich, whence he removed, in his 17th year, to Caius Col- 

 lege, Cambridge. Here he pursued his studies with diligence, and laid so good a 

 foundation, that he subsequently earned the reputation of being a sound and accurate 

 scholar. In the year 1781, he took the degree of B.A. ; iu the year 1782 he was ad- 

 mitted into Holy orders, having been nominated by the Rev. Nicholas Bacon to the 

 joint curacies of Barham and Coddenham. By his exemplary conduct in the dis- 

 charge of his parochial duties, he so gained the esteem of Mr. Bacon, that he left 

 him by his will the next presentation to the rectory of Barham ; to this he was in- 

 ducted in the year 1796, so that for sixty-eight years he exercised his ministry in the 

 same charge, residing also in the same parsonage-house." 



Mr. Kirby's first taste for Natural History was excited, as he told Mr. Spence (see 

 address to the Entomological Society, January 22nd, 1849, p. 10), by his mother 

 having been accustomed to lend him, when a child, occasionally as a treat, some of the 

 foreign shells in her cabinet to look at and admire. This early admiration of the 

 works of creation led him, soon after he entered on his curacy at Barham, to direct 

 his attention to Botany, and he closely studied and made a collection of all the pha»- 

 nogamous plants in his neighbourhood. When these were exhausted, his attention 

 was turned to Entomology, as he has himself so interestingly related (Introd. to Ent. 

 Vol. II., p. 227), by the circumstance of observing on his window, a yellow cow-lady 

 (Coccinella 22-punclata), his admiration of which, led him to collect other insects, and 

 as great events often arise from trifling causes, the whole of his Entomological career 

 probably depended on his having been struck by this insect. 



" The energies of his powerful mind were with equal diligence directed to the 

 study of Theology. In the year 1829, he published a volume of Sermons, partly (to 

 use his own language) to show that while he devoted so much of his time to the study 

 of God's works, he had not been negligent of his word. Mr. Kirby was appointed to 

 write one of the ' Bridgewater Treatises,' which he published in the year 1835. The 

 manner in which he executed this task, although in his 76th year, is too well known 

 to need any comment ; his earnest desire was to see God in all things here, his fervent 

 hope was ' to see all things in God hereafter.' " 



Mr. Kirby was twice married, but left no issue. Besides being Honorary Presi- 

 dent of this Society, Mr. Kirby was President of the Ipswich Museum, Fellow of the 

 Royal, Linnean, Zoological and Geological Societies, and Honorary Member of se- 

 veral foreign societies. "He was interred on Thursday (the 11th*), in the chancel 

 of Barham Church. The funeral, in compliance with his expressed wish, was as 

 private as possible, but a great number of friends, nearly the whole of his own, and 

 many of the adjoining parishes, attended to pay the last tribute of respect to deserving 

 worth." 



