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James Joseph Francis Xavier King F.E.S. (1855-1933) was a Scottish entomologist, artist, librarian and lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art and Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. In his entomological publications King is sometimes referred to by his initials as J.J.F.X. King, and his pupils at The Glasgow School of Art gave him the nickname 'Alphabetical King.'

Biography

King was born on 28 August 1855 in Burnside Street, Glasgow, Scotland. King's father George and his mother Catherine (née Kennedy) were both originally from Dublin, Ireland.

In 1871, fifteen-year old king was recorded on the Scotland Census as an Architectural Apprentice.

King became a member of the Glasgow Natural History Society in 1872 at the age of sixteen, and served as the Society's Librarian from 1883.

By 1880 King was teaching general classes at the Glasgow School of Art. One of King's pupils in 1884 for elementary classes in draftsmanship and ornamentation was the young Charles Rennie Mackintosh. King was working as Librarian at the School when the new School building by Mackintosh was nearing completion in 1909. In the Autumn of 1909 King filed a complaint that the new library's large oriel windows made it very difficult to heat the room and comfortably work during cold weather, so radiators were added for the comfort of the students.

King exhibited two landscapes at the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts in 1885 and is recorded as being an active artist between 1885 and 1891.

In 1892 King married Jessie Parker Barr (1864-1933).

In 1896 King's death was erroneously reported in the Dundee Evening Telegraph as having occurred in a hotel at Fochabers on 14 September; King himself wrote to the newspaper to correct them - he had been mistaken for his friend the botanist Thomas King, who had actually died in Fochabers on that date.

King died at Kelvinside, Glasgow, on 5 February 1933.

During his lifetime King had assembled a large collection of British insects (c.500,000 specimens), bird's eggs and natural history books. The bulk of his insect collection was gifted by King to the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow University during his lifetime, and the remaining 10,000 specimens were bequeathed to the university upon his death, along with his oil portrait by David Forrester Wilson (1873-1950). Another oil portrait sketch of King by John Lavery is in the collection of the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC).

Entomological work

Many of King's entomological investigations were conducted in Scotland and Ireland.

In 1876 King contributed a list of western Scottish Lepidoptera to Peter Cameron's list of Insects published in On the fauna and flora of the west of Scotland.

In 1878 King collected a male example of the caddisfly species Limnophilus subcentralis at Aviemore, Inverness-shire, which was the first time that the species had been recorded in the British Isles.

On 27 July 1885 while on his summer holiday and travelling through Glen Tromie near Kingussie, King encountered a cloud of caddisflies of the species Hydropsyche instabilis which he calculated was about five miles in extent, and was dense enough with individuals for King to collect 50-60 insects with one sweep of his insect net. King returned a few days later and found none of the caddisflies remained in the area, and he attributed the phenomenon to changes in the weather.

In August 1887 King was at Killarney, Ireland and spent time visiting lakes to collect freshwater insects, part of the time working with Kenneth J Morton.

At the beginning of 1895 King spent ten weeks at Unst, Shetland, in the company of Percy Bright and William Reid. All three men were searching for Shetland Lepidoptera, but King also collected Trichoptera specimens.

Select publications

1886: Notes on the Neuroptera of Rothiemurchus and Kingussie. Proceedings and Transactions of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, pp 354–365

1891: (with Kenneth J Morton): List of Neuroptera Observed at Rannoch in June, 1889. The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, February 1891, volume 27, pp 45–47

1896: (with Percy Bright and William Reid): Ten Weeks Collecting Lepidoptera in Unst (Shetland): The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, January 1896, volume 32, pp 5–9

1896: Notes on Trichoptera (Including Agrypnia picta, Kol.) Taken in Unst, Shetland, 1895. The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, July 1896, volume 32, pp 151–152

1910: (with James Nathaniel Halbert): A List of the Neuroptera of Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section B: Biological, Geological, and Chemical Science, volume 28 (1908-1910) pp 29–112

References

1. ^ Rawson, George Mansell (1996). Henry Frances Newbery and the Glasgow School of Art [PHD Thesis] (PDF). pp. 80–81, 94 – via The Glasgow School of Art.
2. ^ Rawson, George (Spring 2016). "Mackintosh's Student Career at the Glasgow School of Art" (PDF). Journal: Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society (100): 7 – via Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.
3. ^ "Mr James J.F.X. King, lecturer on economic entomology, writes from the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, Agricultural Department, to say that it is not his death but that of his friend Thomas King which should have been recorded the other day". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 17 September 1896. p. 3 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
4. ^ Dobson, Ronald M (2001). "Prominent Glasgow Natural History Society Zoologists". The Glasgow Naturalist. 23 (6): 108–109 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
5. ^ 1855 KING, JAMES JOSEPH (Statutory registers Births 644/7 821) via Scotland'sPeople.gov.uk
6. "Jas J F X King [James Joseph Frances Xavier King] in the 1891 Scotland Census". ancestry.co.uk.
7. "James J King in the 1881 Scotland Census [King is shown as a Drawing Master and Head of Household, living with his mother Catherine King and his uncle James Kennedy]". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
8. "Catherine King in the 1891 Scotland Census". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
9. "James King in the 1871 Scotland Census". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
10. "Mackintosh Architecture: M134 The Glasgow School of Art: Description [Section S W Wing: Interior]". www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk.
11. "The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler: Biography: James Joseph Francis Xavier King 1855-1933". www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
12. "James Joseph F X King in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
13. "Jessie Parker Barr King in the Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936". ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
14. "Death of a Scientist". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 15 September 1896. p. 2 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
15. "James Joseph King [James Joseph Francis Xavier King] in the Scotland, National Probate Index (Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories), 1876-1936". ancestry.co.uk.
16. "Gifts to Glasgow University". The Scotsman. 10 March 1933. p. 14. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
17. "British Insects. Notable Gift to Glasgow". The Scotsman. 11 May 1929. p. 15. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
18. "Glasgow University: The Hunterian Collections". The Scotsman. 15 March 1934. p. 15. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
19. "J.F.X. King (1855-1933) (Sketch)". art.uk. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
20. Alston, Edward R; Gray, Robert; Cameron, Peter; Ramsay, James; Stirton, J (1876). On the Flora and Fauna of the West of Scotland. Glasgow: Blackie. p. 4 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
21. McLachlan, Robert (1880). "Occurrence of Limnophilus subcentralis, Brauer, in Britain". The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 16: 277 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
22. ^ King, James J F X (1896). "Notes on the Neuroptera of Rothiemurchus and Kingussie". Proceedings and Transactions of the Natural History Society of Glasgow: 354–366 – via Google Books.
23. Morton, Kenneth J (October 1887). "Apatania fimbriata, Pict. a caddis-fly new to the British Isles". The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 24: 118 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
24. ^ King, James J F X; Bright, Percy M; Reid, William (January 1896). "Ten Weeks Collecting Lepidoptera in Unst (Shetland)". The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 32: 5–9 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
25. ^ King, James J F X (July 1896). "Notes on Trichoptera (Including Agrypnia picta, Kol.) Taken in Unst, Shetland, 1895". The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 32: 151–152 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
26. King, J J F X; Morton, K J (1891). "List of Neuroptera Observed at Rannoch in June, 1889". The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. 27: 45–47 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
27. King, James J F X; Halbert, J N (1910). "A List of the Neuroptera of Ireland". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section B: Biological, Geological, and Chemical Science. 28: 29–112. JSTOR 20490940 – via JSTOR.

• 1855 births
• 1933 deaths
• Scottish entomologists
• Scottish artists