Robert Kerr (writer)

For other people named Robert Kerr, see Robert Kerr (disambiguation).

The grave of Robert Kerr, Greyfriars Kirkyard

Robert Kerr FRSE FSA FRCSE (1759 – 11 October 1813) was a Scottish surgeon, scientific writer and translator.

Life

Kerr was born in Bughtridge, Roxburghshire, the son of a jeweller. 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 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. 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 did the remaining two volumes.)

In 1794 he left his post as a surgeon to manage a paper mill. 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 is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in central Edinburgh against the eastern wall. His stone is added to a much earlier (1610) ornate stone monument.

Selected writings

• • Volume 01
  • Volume 02
  • Volume 03
  • Volume 04
  • Volume 05
  • Volume 06
  • Volume 07
  • Volume 08
  • Volume 09
  • Volume 10
  • Volume 11
  • Volume 12
  • Volume 13
  • Volume 14
  • Volume 15
  • Volume 16
  • Volume 17
  • Volume 18

References

•  

Further reading

• - The introduction by Douglas McKie has information on Robert Kerr, the book's translator.

External links

• Works by Robert Kerr at Project Gutenberg
• Contemporary review of the "Essays on the Theory of the Earth"
• Significant Scots: Robert Kerr from ElectricScotland.com.