A Compendium of Irish Biography/Threlkeld, Caleb
Threlkeld, Caleb, M.D., author of Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum … The first Essay of the kind in the Kingdom of Ireland (Dublin, 1727), was born in Cumberland, 31st May 1676. After studying at Glasgow, where he acquired a taste for botany, he settled near his birth-place as a dissenting clergyman. In 1712 he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Edinburgh, and next year, "having a straight income, and a large family, he removed to Dublin, and settled there in the united character of divine and physician." He ultimately devoted himself entirely to medicine, and became a successful and respected practitioner. He died in Mark's-alley, Dublin, 28th April 1728, aged 51, and was buried in "the new burial ground, belonging to St. Patrick's." His botanical work, above mentioned, which claimed to be the first essay of the kind attempted in Ireland, was published in Dublin the year before his death. Dr. Pulteney, in his Sketches of Botany, from which this notice is taken, says: "Threlkeld's Flora … does not contain more than 535 species. The author appears to have been better acquainted with the history of plants than with plants themselves, and seems not to have studied botany in a systematic way." [1]
- Authorities
- ↑ Botany, Historical and Biographical Sketches of, in England. Richard Pulteney, M.D. 2 vols. London, 1790.