Dr William Andrew Shoolbred (1852 - 1928)

Biographical notes

William Andrew Shoolbred is best known as an active botanist with a particular interest in Hieraceum. He was the first son of John and Ann Shoolbred of Tettenhall Wood, Wolverhampton. His grandfather, a native of Dunfermline, had moved to England early in the century and many related Shoolbreds were in the tailoring trade in London and Wolverhampton.

After studying medicine in Edinburgh and St Bartholomew's, London, he became assistant to Dr Frederick George White of Castle House, 4 Bridge Street, Chepstow. He remained a Chepstow surgeon and resident until his death half a century later.

Although no firm evidence has yet been discovered, it seems likely that Shoolbred may have been an associate, and perhaps even a protégé of Dr John Fraser (1820 - 1909) who lived in the same part of Wolverhampton and who's family had business connections to the Shoolbreds. This could account for the large number (over 140) specimens in the Hull University Herbarium HLU which incorporated John Fraser's personal herbarium. Shoolbred's extensive personal herbarium was donated to the National Museum of Wales and his collectings appear in many other herbaria as a result of his exchange club activities.

Residence

Societies

• Linnean Society
• Botanical Exchange Club
• Royal Horticultural Society
• ?Cotteswold Field Club
• English Place Name Society

Associates

• ?Dr John Fraser
• Rev E S Marshall
• Rev A Ley

Additional links

• Annotated family tree of the Shoolbreds of Wolverhampton.
  
  
• The Herbaria at Home project has catalogued almost 500 of his specimens in various British harbaria.
• Chronological list of specimens in HLU collected by W A Shoolbred.
  
  
• Price W Carter (1898 - 1971) prepared papers on the botanical history of all 13 Welsh counties. His treatment of Monmouthshire was published posthumously (after preparation by Gwynn Ellis). BSBI Welsh Bulletin no 66, Winter 1999 18 - 30. It provides some useful biographical information of W A Shoolbred.
  [Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland]

Timeline

1852 March 11: Birth	William was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, son of John and Ann Shoolbred. His father was a tailor employing several men.
1868: Entomology -	The Entomologist 1869 4 p 136 "Larva of Acronycta alni near Wolverhampton - I found a larva of Acronycta alni near here on July [sic] 28th. It was on the decayed trunk of an alder-bush in a hedge. It was apparently descending to spin up. I took it home, and on the 27th it had spun up inside a small piece of rotten willow wood. It was of a velvety black colour, with an oblong yellow patch on the back of each segment, and from each segment long spines isued, clubbed and flattened at the end, somewhat like a butterfly's antennae. - W. A. Shoolbred, jun.; Tettenhall Wood, Compton, Wolverhampton, July 28, 1868."
1872 June 6: First HLU specimen	His first dated specimen in the Hull University Herbarium is of Ajuga reptans collected in Shropshire.
1874: Gold Medal	Medical News - 1874 July 11 MEDICAL NEWS At the competitive examination for the prize in botany given annualy by the apothecaries' Society to medical students, the gold medal has been awarded to William Andrew Shoolbred, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital ..."
1877 March 31: Medical Registration	First registered as a medical practitioner. He had become Mem. R. Col. Surg. Eng. and Lic. Soc. Apoth. Lond. the previous year.
1878 May: Chepstow	His first specimen in HLU from the Chepstow area is Veronica arvensis from Sedbury.
1888 September 13: Chepstow The British Association	¹Bristol Mercury - 1888 September 14 THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. BATH MEETING. EXCURSIONS YESTERDAY. CHEPSTOW, WYNDCLIFF, AND TINTERN. A party numbering 59, conducted by Messrs J.S. Turner, J.P., B.H. Watts, J.S. Bartrum, J.P., J. Yeats, LL.D., &c., the Rev E.J. Hensley, M.A., the Rev W.E. Rosedale, M.A., and Dr Shoolbred, arrived at Chepstow about eleven ..."
1889 May: Italy	HLU has a specimen of Aristolochia clematitis collected in Northern Italy.
1894: Publication	Botanical Trip to Co. Antrim. The Irish Naturalist 3 146-9, 167-9. [Biodiversity Heritage Library]
1895: Publication	Plants observed in the Outer Hebrides in 1894. Journal of botany 33, 237-249. [Biodiversity Heritage Library]
1902: FLS	William Andrew Shoolbred elected a fellow of the Linnean Society.
1907 July 13: New York	William sailed fron Liverpool to New York on the SS Devonian. He is described as 5' 11½" tall, with fair hair and complexion and grey eyes.
1914 July 4: New York	Dr William Andrew Shoolbred (62) of Chepstow, sailed from Southampton to New York. He was visiting his brother, J N Shoolbred, in Waynesville, North Carolina. He is described as having fair hair and complexion with grey eyes. He had previously travelled to the US in 1906 Travelling on the same ticket is Lucy Shoolbred (17) who is described as a wife but in another part of the manifest he is described as single. She is listed elsewhere as Mary Lucy Shoolbred born 1897.10.17 in Elizabethton Tennessee, returning to her father in Waynesville - it was his niece. William arrived back in Southampton on 1914 August 1.
1920: Publication	The Flora of Chepstow Taylor and Francis, London.
1928 January 25: Death	¹Western Daily Press - 1928 January 31 CHEPSTOW. A Doctor's Funeral. The interment of Dr Schoolbred at Chepstow Cemetery was preceded by a service in the Parish Church where the deceased was formerly Churchwarden. There was a large and representative gathering, and the officiating clergy were the Revs. D. Hughes (Vicar), J.D. Hughes (Cardiff), B.G. Williams (Undy), and R.A. Sluman (curate), with Mr Chapman (lay preacher). The principal mourners were Mr and Mrs John Shoolbred (brother and sister-in-law), Miss Ryder and the indoor and outdoor staff at St Ann's. The pallbearers were the two Churchwardens (Messrs C.H. Clarke and C.E. Edmonds). Mr G.C. Francus, Mr J.E.G. Lawrence, Dr. Drapes and Dr. Thompson.

¹ Transcription reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive