1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Broderip, William John

BRODERIP, WILLIAM JOHN (1789–1859), English naturalist, was born in Bristol on the 21st of November 1789. After graduating at Oxford he was called to the bar in 1817, and for some years was engaged in law-reporting. In 1822 he was appointed a metropolitan police magistrate, and filled that office until 1856, first at the Thames police court and then at Westminster. His leisure was devoted to natural history, and his writings did much to further the study of zoology in England. The zoological articles in the Penny Cyclopaedia were written by him, and a series of articles contributed to Fraser’s Magazine were reprinted in 1848 as Zoological Recreations, and were followed in 1852 by Leaves from the Note-book of a Naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Zoological Society of London, and a large collection of shells which he formed was ultimately bought by the British Museum. He died in London on the 27th of February 1859.