| AdminHistory | Alexander MacLeay FRS FLS, was an entomologist (principally interested in lepidopterology) and a colonial statesman in Australia. He was born on June 24th 1767 in Ross-shire, Scotland and died in Sydney on June 18th 1848. MacLeay became a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1794, and was secretary from 1798-1825. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1809. MacLeay was Colonial Secretary of New South Wales 1825-37, and first Speaker of the Legislative Council 1843-46, and First President of the Australian Museum at Sydney, founded in 1836. Robert Brown named the genus Macleaya, (Bocconia), belonging to the poppy family, after MacLeay. He possessed a fine collection of insects and by 1825 it was said to be the best of any private individual.
William Sharp MacLeay, eldest son of Alexander MacLeay, was a scholar and naturalist, born on 21 July 1792 in London and died in Sydney on 26 January 1865. In 1818 he became secretary to the board for liquidating British claims in France on the peace of 1815; commissary judge in Havana, 1830-1837; went to New South Wales, 1839, where he enlarged his father's entomological collection. His chief work was Horae Entomologicae, propounding the circular or quintary system of classification. |