Fereday, Rev. John   (1813 - 1871)

Born 8 November, 1813, at the Ellowes, [Sedgley], Staffordshire, England; died 8 April, 1871, George Town, Tasmania.

John was born to ironmaster John Turton Fereday and his wife Ann Cecelia Hamming, the second of their ten children.

He was educated at Oxford, and trained for the Anglican ministry. He obtained a Master of Arts and was Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford.

In December 1836 at Gumley, Leicestershire, he married artist Susan Apthorpe.

In 1846, with their five children, they left England on the Tamar and arrived in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), where Fereday was soon appointed to St Mary Magdalene Church in George Town on the eastern bank of the Tamar River mouth.

From the Memoir of W. H. Harvey, p. 282, 1854:

"The Rev. Mr. Fereday, the Episcopalian Clergyman at George Town, Tasmania, an enthusiastic lover of natural history, especially of algae. He had a boat and dredge, and at once volunteered himself as a firm ally and assistant."

"To the Rev. John' Fereday, M.A., of George Town, Tasmania, who has cultivated several branches of natural history, and to Mrs. Fereday, an accomplished and successful collector of algae, the fourth volume of the "Phycologia Australica" is inscribed in grateful memory of many kindnesses conferred on the author during his stay at George Town."

"During my residence at George Town. Tasmania. the Rev. J. Fereday rendered me the most efficient aid in prosecuting my researches. His boat and strong arm were almost daily at my service, and many thousands of specimens were collected under his auspices. He knew all the best localities on the Tamar, and was continually my guide to them. Without his able guidance and active assistance my visit to George Town would have proved comparatively unfruitful, instead of yielding me a rich harvest of specimens. To Mrs. Fereday I am indebted for many beautifully preserved specimens, and for aid in "laying out" and drying the tubsful of delicate algae which we almost daily brought home."

Cladophora feredayi Harv. [vol. 1: pl. XLVII (1858), named for Rev. John Fereday]
Dasya feredayae Harv. [vol. 3: pl. CLXXIII (1860), named for Mrs Susan Fereday]

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1909) Records of Tasmanian botanists. Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for the year 1909. pp. 14-15.
https://citscihub.s3.amazonaws.com/FEREDAY_Cladophora_feredayi_.pdf
Portrait Illustration: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115048706

Collecting localities for 'Fereday, J.' from AVH (2024)

Data from 249 specimens