Thomas Horsfield

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Thomas Horsfield, M. D., (1773–1859) was an American physician and naturalist.

Writing on Horsfield's Catalogue of the mammals in the East India Company Museum on a copy to Theodore Edward Cantor

Horsfield was born in Philadelphia and studied medicine. He worked as a doctor in Java for many years. The East India Company took control of the island from the Dutch in 1811, and Horsfield began to collect plants and animals on behalf of his friend Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. In 1819 he was forced to leave the island due to ill health and became keeper and later curator of the East India Company's museum in Leadenhall Street, London.

Horsfield was appointed assistant secretary of the Zoological Society of London at its formation in 1826.

Horsfield wrote Zoological Researches in Java and the Neighbouring Islands (1824). He also classified a number of birds with Nicholas Aylward Vigors, most notably in their A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities (Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1827)).

In 1833, he was a founder of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London.

The Horsfield's Tortoise or the Russian Tortoise "Testudo horsfieldii" is named after him.

The Horsfield's Goshawk or the Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis is also named after him.

In the last years of his life Dr. Horsfield lived at these addresses: Norfolk Street; Castle Street, Holborn;2 Raymond Buildings,, Gray's Inn; and from 1835-1849 at 20 Stonefield Street, Islington Street. He was interred in the Moravian Church buriel ground at Chelsea on July 29, 1859. His grave in the western plot still survives. His natural history notes, papers and diaries were all destroyed by executors of his will. His personal library was removed by the executors from the India Museum. The sum of 53 pounds was set aside for the India office to buy back from the booksellers some works, but most went into public and private collections. (Quote from ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN JAVA AND THE NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS-memoir by John Bastin) Dr. Thomas Horsfield died at his home, 29 Chalcot Villas, Adelaide Road, Camden Town, London. Research so far has not revealed the maiden name of his wife or the marriage of his daughter or possible grandchildren. His son died young. Thomas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1828. The initials FRS appear after his name on his gravestone.

Burial: 1859, Moravian Cemetery, Chelsea, London, England. Doctor of Medicine: May 22, 1798, University of Pennsylvania