Maltby Genealogy

American Lineage

V.340. Rev. James Harvey Linsley, A.M., b. May 5, 1787 (Sarah 4, Benj.3, Dan.2, Wm.1). Following from Major Ray Keyes Linsley's "Linsley Genealogy," p. 82:

"Clergyman, naturalist, born near Branford, Ct., on the farm at Northford; taught school at Guilford and elsewhere; entered Yale College, Sept. 1813, graduated from Yale Sept. 1817; taught in Acad- emy in New Haven, studied French language, and read the theological works, studied at Andover, ordained Baptist preacher, June 9, 1831, his first pastorate being Milford and Stratfield; delegate to Bap- tist tercennial convention at Richmond, 1835, established the first Baptist church in Bridgeport, in 1836; ill health forced his retire- ment from the active duties of the ministry and he visited South Carolina in 1837, devoted his remaining years to the study of natural history, received degrees A.B. and A.M. from Yale. Died Dec. 26,1843, at Stratford, buried in New Haven, Ct. He mar. Miss Sophia Brainerd Lyon, at New Haven, Feb. 1, 1818; b. Mar. 17, 1782, at New Haven; d. Jan. 31, 1866, at Stratford, Dau. of Col. William Lyon and Lois Mansfield.

     Children:
VI.915.  Elizabeth Lyon Linsley, b. Mar. 1, 1821, at New Cannan, Ct.,
                                 d. unmar., Mar.1,1896, in New York
                                      City; buried New Haven.
VI.916.  Sophia Emilia    "      b. Nov. 16, 1823; mar. S. D. Phelps.

"To remain inactive was impossible, and he yielded to the best of his tastes, with a desire to be useful, although he was removed from the more active employments of life. He was often heard to remark upon the great benefit to be derived from studying the glorious Creator and His works of inexpressible beauty and wisdom, and the devotional feelings which an acquaintence with their wonders, as they were developed in a scientific investigation inspired. Orni- thology was the first branch he took up, having obtained a few spcei- mens during his sojourn in the South. Once having entered the lists, he pursued the subject with an unconquerable perseverance, and enthusiasm which all bodily infirmities were unable to abate.

Delighted with the pursuit yet more and more, as he advanced, with new objects of absorbing interest continually unfolding to his view, what he accomplished in the few years devoted to the subject is truly astonishing. In May, 1837, after his return from the South, he was made a member of Yale Natural History Society. Sometime subsequently as his labors became more conspicuous: of the Conn. Academy of Arts and Sciences; of the Hartford Natural History Society and of the Boston society of Natural History.

In the department of ornithology, he collected a cabinet of great beauty, comprising more than three hundred species, all of which, with a very few exceptions, were elegantly prepared by his own hands.

He ascertained more species of birds in Conn. than were found by Wilson, the distinguished ornithologist, in the United States. Then he devoted his time to Mammalia, in which department he discov- ered several more species in Conn. then had been found elsewhere in New England, one entirely new; to amphibia and reptiles in which he also detected some species not found elsewhere in New England; and to shells, in which he ascertained as native to his own State, more than double the number, supposed by other naturalists to be resident

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