SKETCHES OF DECEASED MEMBERS. PIERS. XC111 



JOHN ROBERT WILLIS, conchologist. Born at Philadelphia, 

 U. S. A., 14th February, 1825, son of John and Elizabeth 

 Willis, of Irish extraction; died at Halifax, 31st March, 1876. 

 He came to Halifax when a child and was educated there at 

 the National School of which in 1846 he became a teacher. 

 In 1863 was appointed superintendent of an industrial school 

 on its establishment at Halifax, and resigned from the National 

 School. In 1865 he took an active part in the efforts to 

 establish a Provincial Museum at Halifax and was a candidate 

 for the position of curator, but in the same year became secre- 

 tary of the Board of School Commissioners, Halifax, and in 

 1875 retired, being thereafter in poor circumstances. About 

 1850 he began to study our mollusca, thus becoming the first 

 Nova Scotian conchologist, and in 1857 his first known list of 

 our shells appeared in an obscure publication, supposed to 

 have been "The Church Record', followed by two other lists, 

 all of which are very rare. He made a large and very fine col- 

 lection of shells, both native and foreign, said to have consisted 

 of over 8000 specimens,but the location of the local part is un- 

 known,and the foreign portion is in ruins. Corresponded largely 

 with noted conchologists of the time, and large numbers of his 

 Nova Scotian specimens are in the great museums of the 

 United States and elsewhere, and a small collection is in the 

 museum of King's College, Windsor, but in a dilapidated 

 state. In 1862 he was elected a corresponding member of 

 the Liverpool (Eng.) Natural History and Microscopical 

 Society, and in the next year a corresponding member of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History. Though he possessed 

 his weaknesses, yet he was a man who was much liked for his 

 good qualities. He had been connected with the old N. S. 

 Literary and Scientific Society of Halifax; and was one of the 

 original members of the Institute of Natural Science, and was 

 elected one of its first joint-secretaries, but seems not to have 

 acted, and must have resigned the position before 4th May ; 



PROC. & TRANS. N. S. INST. Sci., VOL. fXIU-1 PROC. G. 



