William Borlase

William Borlase ( born February 2, 1695 in Pendeen, Cornwall, † August 31, 1772 ) was an English naturalist and ancient and came from an old Cornish family, their lineage back to the time of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William I. could trace. The French ancestors were originally called Taillefer, but called themselves as was customary after the area in which they settled in Cornwall, borlas.

Borlase studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and was ordained a priest in 1719. From 1722 he supervised the parish of Ludgvan and took over 1732 in addition the Parish of St Just The area in the former Penwith District of Cornwall was known for its copper deposits, which have been promoted in an intensive mining to light, and equally numerous fossils and minerals. Borlase put to an appropriate collection and began to deal with the prehistory and early history of the county.

In 1750 Borlase was elected to the Royal Society. In 1754 he published Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall his first work, and writes that he treated the antiquities of his country, because he could not take trips to Greece. 1756 followed Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, and Their Importance to the Trade of Great Britain. 1758 brought out Borlase Natural History of Cornwall. 1769 published by Bowyer and Nichols in London, the second amended and expanded edition of Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall.

All his works Borlase equipped with self-made etchings. Among them are early pictorial representations of the following well-known megalithic sites:

Borlase presented at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford a variety of fossils and artifacts from which he had found in Cornwall and described in his works. To thank him, the doctorate was awarded by the University.

Borlase knew most of the leading writers of this time in person. With Alexander Pope he maintained a regular correspondence for a long time and made for the artificial grotto in Twickenham most of the fossils and minerals ready. Even with the Welsh zoologist and antiquary Thomas Pennant was Borlase in close contact.

Publications

  • Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall, Oxford 1754
  • Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, Oxford 1756
  • The Natural History of Cornwall, Oxford 1758
  • Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall, 2nd edition, Bowyer and Nichols, London 1769
Antiquarian Norman conquest of England Parish church St Just in Penwith Counties of England Brane Barrow
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