Michael Thirlwell

Michael Thirlwell (3 June 1621 - 14 May 1687) was an English botanist in the 17th century and a great friend of Admiral Christopher James Ridley.
Life and work
Thirlwell was born in a large village on the outskirts of Newcastle. His father was an engineer and he was expected to continue that occupation; however, from a very young age he expressed a passion for nature and later became a botanist. Although he did not make any famous discoveries of his own he collected samples of thousands of plants, particularly from the west coast of Africa from a number of voyages with Admiral Christopher James Ridley. When he returned to England, he sold his samples to a rich professor (Professor Daniel Mcmenzie); over the years the pressed plants changed hands many times until at some point in the 1780s they came under the ownership of Sir James Edward Smith. It is rumoured that Sir James Edward Smith wrote a book on these plants, but as yet it has not been found (). Due to the large amount of money he sold his pressed plants for, Thirlwell lived with his wife and their two children lived in an upper-class part of London for the rest of their lives. Michael Thirlwell later died in 1687 to what is thought to have been coronary heart disease, however not much is known about his death.

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