Robert Kerr (writer)
{{short description|Scottish surgeon and writer (1757–1813)}}
{{Other people|Robert Kerr}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2013}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
File:The grave of Robert Kerr, Greyfriars Kirkyard.jpg
Robert Kerr (20 October 1757 – 11 October 1813) was a Scottish surgeon, writer on scientific and other subjects, and translator.
Life
Kerr was born in 1757{{cite ODNB|first=Thomas|last=Seccombe|author-link=Thomas Seccombe|title=Kerr, Robert (1757–1813)|editor=McConnell, Anita|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15466|edition=Online|access-date=2016-02-18|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/15466}} in Bughtridge, Roxburghshire, the son of James Kerr, a jeweller, who served as MP for Edinburgh 1747–1754,{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=12 February 2017|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}} and his wife Elizabeth. He was sent to the High School in Edinburgh.
He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and practised at the Edinburgh Foundling Hospital as a surgeon. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1788. His proposers were Alexander Fraser Tytler, James Russell and Andrew Dalzell. At this time, he lived at Foresters Wynd off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1784-90
He translated several scientific works into English, such as Antoine Lavoisier's work of 1789, Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, published under the title Elements of Chemistry in a New Systematic Order containing All the Modern Discoveries, in 1790.{{cite book|first=Antoine|last=Lavoisier|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30775|title=Elements of Chemistry|year=1790}} In 1792, he published The Animal Kingdom, the first two volumes of a four-tome translation of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae, which is often cited as the taxonomic authority for a great many species. (He never translated the remaining two volumes.)
In 1794, he left his post as a surgeon to manage a paper mill at Ayton in Berwickshire which he had purchased. He lost much of his fortune with this enterprise. Out of economical necessity he began writing again in 1809, publishing a variety of minor works, for instance a General View of the Agriculture of Berwickshire. His last work was a translation of Cuvier's Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupedes, which was published after Kerr's death under the title "Essays on the Theory of the Earth".
His other works included a massive historical study entitled A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels in eighteen volumes. Kerr began the series in 1811, dedicating it to Sir Alexander Cochrane, K.B., Vice-Admiral of the White. Publication did not cease following Kerr's death in 1813; the latter volumes were published into the 1820s.
He died at home, Hope Park House,Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1813 east of the Meadows in Edinburgh, where he had lived since 1810, and is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in central Edinburgh against the eastern wall. His stone is added to a much earlier (1610) ornate stone monument. His son, David Wardrobe Kerr (1796–1815) lies with him.
Selected writings
- {{cite book | author = Kerr, Robert | title = A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time | url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SsE6AAAAIAAJ | year = 1824 | publisher = William Blackwood | location = Edinburgh }}
See also
Notes
{{Notelist}}{{Reflist|30em}}
References
- {{cite DNB|wstitle=Kerr, Robert (1755-1813)|display=Kerr, Robert (1755–1813)|volume=31}}
Further reading
- {{cite book|author=Lavoisier, Antoine|title=Elements of Chemistry|url=https://archive.org/details/elementsofchemis00lavo|url-access=registration|year=1965|publisher=Dover|location=New York}}- The introduction by Douglas McKie has information on Robert Kerr, the book's translator.
External links
- {{Gutenberg author |id=3594| name=Robert Kerr}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=Robert Kerr |birth=1755 |death=1813}}
- [http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/cuvier3.htm Contemporary review] of the "Essays on the Theory of the Earth"
- [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/other/kerr_robert.htm Significant Scots: Robert Kerr] from ElectricScotland.com.
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Category:Scottish science writers
Category:19th-century Scottish historians
Category:Scottish travel writers
Category:Scottish male writers
Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Translators from French
Category:Writers from the Scottish Borders
Category:Burials at Greyfriars Kirkyard
Category:18th-century Scottish scientists
Category:18th-century British zoologists
Category:19th-century British zoologists
Category:19th-century Scottish non-fiction writers
Category:19th-century Scottish male writers
Category:19th-century Scottish writers
Category:19th-century Scottish scientists
Category:18th-century Scottish male writers
Category:19th-century Scottish translators