DRURY, Dru

Born in Wood Lane, London, the son of Dru Drury (b.1688), a silversmith, and his wife Mary, nee Hesketh. Seven other children all died young. Assisted his father in the business and took it over himself on 7 June 1748. It was at this time that he married Esther Pedley, a daughter of his father's first wife by her former husband, and in doing so acquired several freehold properties in London and Essex which brought him an annual income of between £250-300. In 1771 he purchased a silversmith's stock and shop at 32 Strand. Here he made £2,000 per annum for several years, but failed, apparently through no fault of his own, in 1777. He behaved honourably towards his creditors, however, and with their assistance and the support of the Queen, he described himself as 'Goldsmith to the Queen' at this time, he was able to recommence business shortly after. He had seventeen children before his wife died in 1787, but only three, Mary (b.1749), William (b.1752), and Dru (b. 1767) succeeded him. Drury had long been interested in entomology and in 1789 he retired from silversmithing in order to devote more time both to this and to his other interests of gardening, angling and wine making. During this period he is also recorded to have speculated in the search for gold, engaging many travellers including Lewin, in his projects, most of which failed. At length he removed to Turnham Green where he died. He is buried in St. Martins in the Fields. Drury was one of the best known British entomologists of his day. He corresponded amongst others with Pallas, Haworth, Linnaeus, Kirby and Fabricius, and the last three held him in high enough esteem to name insects after him. T.D.A.Cockerell, whose father was sufficiently friendly with Drury's great grandson to name his own son Dru after him, discovered a volume of Drury's letter copies in the possession of the family at Funchal, Madeira, extracts from which he published in The Scientific Monthly, January 1922, pp.67-82. (This volume is now in the NHM). These reveal that Drury was not only indefatigable in seeking to enlarge his collection but also tried hard to persuade his correspondents to study insects and their life histories and to record their findings. They also contain various references to beetles and to entomological practices of the time, eg: 4 January 1762 to Robert Killingley in Antigua: 'The Beetles which were in ye spirits among the other things were very acceptable and exceeding pretty, insomuch that I cannot help placing them in ye foremost rank of all the specimens you have now sent, indeed insects I must confess do really afford me the greatest pleasure of all animals...'. 13 May 1767 to Mr Devereux Jarratt in Virginia: 'in my letter of July 12th I described ye method of killing of insects by dipping a needle in Aqua Fortis and sticking it into them, but I cannot neglect ye present opportunity of informing you that all that trouble my be saved and the insects may easily be killed by sticking them on ye end of a piece of board and holding them to ye fire...'. 19 July 1770 to Mr Storm, Principal Gardener to the Hortus Medicus in Amsterdam: 'In England we are very fond of other insects besides Butterflies and Moths, and a small Beetle sometimes is more acceptable than a large butterfly'. Apart from his activities as a collector Drury also wrote an important book on entomology: Illustrations of Natural History, wherein are exhibited upwards of 240 figures of Exotic Insects, 3 vols, 1770-1782, subsequently revised by J.O.Westwood as Illustrations of Exotic Entomoloqv containing upwards of six hundred and fiftv figures and descriptions of Foreign Insects, 1837. Drury also published a three page pamphlet: Directions for Collecting Insects in Foreign Countries, c.1800, which he sent all over the world and which was translated into several different languages. The plates in the Illustrations were drawn and coloured by Moses Harris. Drury's collections including more than 11,000 insects were sold by King and Lochee between 23-25 may 1805 in 305 lots with 38 lots of bookcases, books, equipment, etc.. The catalogue, prepared by Edward Donovan (see above) was titled 'Superb collection of insects, elegant cabinets... A Catalogue of the most capital assemblage of insects probably ever offered for public sale'. The Coleoptera seem to have accounted for a little under a quarter of the total, for Westwood notes that in 1788 when Drury had acquired 9,578 specimens representing 8,370 species, 2136 were beetles. C.M.F. von Hayek 'On the type material of the species of Coleoptera described from the Drury Collection by D. Drury and J.C.Fabricius with notes on some Coleoptera from the Milne collection preserved in the British Museum (Natural History' in Archives of Natural History, 12, 1958, 143-52 provides more information about the sale and the present whereabouts of the specimens included. She lists 3 species of Coleoptera named by Drury based on specimens in the collection of J. Fothergill; 56 species named by Drury from specimens in his own collection, and a further 44 named by Fabricius in his Systema Entomlogiae, 1775, also based on material in Drury's collection. A 20 drawer cabinet associated with Drury is preserved in the Dorset County Museum at Dorchester, but this does not include beetles and none of the specimens appears to have any data attached. Smith (1986) records another cabinet in the HDO. Apart from the letter book mentioned above, the NHM also has two small paper covered notebooks numbered 27 and 28 which belonged to Drury. Von Hayek records that they contain all manner of notes 'from instructions on how to paper the drawers of his cabinets, his state of health ... records of the sale of his books, to the condition of his home made wine'. The last entry is dated 3 December 1803. Harvey et al (1996) list two diaries covering the period July 1794-April 1796 and 1801-1805 but it is not clear whether these are the two volumes referred to by Von Hayek. They also list a number of other items including a genealogical table of the Drury family c.1800, a volume of miscellaneous papers including a correspondence collection. A second volume containing copies of letters 1761-1783 is also in the Museum. The letters are listed in full by C.D.Sherborn in JournalSBNH 1(4), 1937, pp.109-111. Smith (1986) records four notebooks of exotic insects in Drury’s collection in the HDO, an advertisement of a sale in May 1788 and a sale catalogue May 1805. Drury was President of the Society of Entomologists of London 1780-82. The main works on Drury apart from those mentioned above are C.H.Smith, 'Memoir of Dru Drury, with a portrait' in The Naturalist's Library; DNB; and H.B.Weiss, 'Dru Drury, Silversmith and Entomlogist of the Eighteenth Century' in Ent.News, 38, 1927, pp.208-214. (MD 9/02)