Richard Kirwan ( 1733 - 1812 )

Birth: Cloughballymore, County Galway, Ireland (1733) Death: Dublin, Ireland (01 June 1812) Burial: St George's Church, Lower Temple Street, Dublin, Ireland Profession: Barrister Research Field: Chemistry, mineralogy, geology, meteorology Education: Poitiers Career: Entered Jesuit novitiate, St Omer (1754) but left and returned to Ireland when his brother, Patrick, was killed in a duel and he inherited the family estates (1755); renounced Catholic beliefs in order to be able to be called to the Irish bar (1766); stopped practising law and took up science (1768); lived in London (c1769-1772, 1777-1787); well acquainted with Priestley, Horne Tooke, Henry Cavendish, Edmund Burke; correspondent of Bergman, Scheele, Chaptal, Klaproth and Lavoisier; his 'Elements of Mineralogy' (1784) was the first systematic work on the subject in English; best known work was 'An Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids' (1787); awarded Gold Medal Royal Dublin Society for services in acquiring and arranging the Leskean cabinet of minerals (1794); honorary member of the Academies of Stockholm, Uppsala, Berlin, Dijon, Philadephia, the Mineralogical Society of Jena and the Manchester Society Memberships: MRIA 1785 (founder member) President (1799) FRSE (1796) Membership: Fellow Election Date: 24/02/1780 Medals/Prizes: Copley Medal 1782.