ED\VARDS, GEOBG•, a celebrated naturalist, was i,orn at Stratford, a village in Essex, in the year 1693; and, after receiving an ordinary school education, was put apprentice to a tradesman in Fenchurch-street, Lon don ; but before the term of his engagement was half expired, his attention was diverted, by an accidental oc currencc, into a course of study altogether foreign from commercial pursuits. The library of a deceased phy sician, a relation of his master, having been removed into the apartment of the young apprentice, he embraced, with avidity, this unexpected opportunity of acquiring knowledge; and spent all his leisure through the day, and frequently a considerable part of the night, in pe rusing treatises on natural history, astronomy, antiqui ties, &c. Losing all relish for business, lie adopted the resolution, at the expiration of his servitude, to improve his mind and enlarge his knowledge, by travelling in foreign countries. In 1716, he visited the principal towns of the United Provinces; and, about two years afterwards, spent a considerable time in examining the natural productions of Norway. In the year 1719, he went to Paris, with a view to enlarge his acquaintance with natural history ; but, finding the menagerie almost totally neglected, he applied his attention to the works of sculpture and painting ; and made several journeys on foot to different parts of France, with no small hazard of being sent as a vagrant to the colonies on the Missis sippi. Upon his return to England, he employed him self in drawing and colc.uring animals, particularly birds; and, by his assiduity and skill in this pursuit, he at once acquired a decent subsistence, and a number of valuable friends. By the recommendation of Sir Hans Sloane, he was in 1733 appointed Librarian to the College of Phy sicians, an office which afforded him the best opportu nities of pursuing his favourite studies ; and, by a dili gent improvement of these advantages, he soon became the most eminent ornithologist of the age in which lie lived. In the years 1743, 1747, 1750, and 1751, lie published his " History of Birds," in four volumes, with coloured plates and descriptions, in French and English.
The last of these volumes he dedicated to the Supreme Being ; an act in which his piety may be acknowledged, but of which the example is not to he imitated. Resu ming his labours, lie published in 1758, 1760, and 1763, three additional volumes, tinder the title of " Gleanings of Natural History," consisting of coloured plates of birds, fishes, insects, and plants ; and thus completed a work containing engravings and descriptions of more than 600 subjects in natural history. As an artist, he was remarkable for his scrupulous exactness in copying nature. lie communicated occasional papers to the Royal Society, of which he was chosen a member ; and, in 1770, he published, in one volume octavo, several es says, which had been prefixed to his larger volumes, containing instructions in drawing and painting in wa ter colours, etching on copperplate, &c. He was ad mitted a member of several academies in different parts of Europe ; and, besides the friendship and correspon4 deuce of the great Linnaeus, enjoyed the patronage of the principal promoters of the arts and sciences in his native country. In 1769, he retired from all public employments to a small house at Plaistow, and devoted the evening of his life to the conversation of a few se lect friends, and the perusal of a few favourite books. During his latter years, lie was greatly afflicted by the stone, and by a cancer in one of his eyes; but remark ably patient. Emaciated with age and sickness, he died in 1773, and was interred in his native parish of West Ham, where a stone is erected over his grave, with a plain inscription, to perpetuate his skill as a zoologist. He was a man of middle stature, inclining to corpulence, of a benevolent disposition and cheerful temper ; an en tertaining and communicative companion to persons of congenial taste with himself; but,' from his diffidence and humility, little calculated to shine in general con versation. See Biog. Brit. ; Memoirs of the Life of Geo. Edwards ; ?lnecdotes of Bowyer ; and Xew Biog. Diet. (q)