John Fleming, D.D.

Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia

John Fleming, D.D. son of Alexander Fleming, born Jan. 10, 1785, at Kirkroads near Bathgate in Linlithgowshire, died in Edinburgh, Nov. 18, 1857.

At the wish of his mother, he studied for the ministry, but he discovered at an early age an intense love of nature. In 1807 his work in minerology attracted the attention of Sir John Sinclair who asked him to make a mineralogical survey of the north. On his survey tour he became acquainted with the ministers of Shetland, and was offered a position in the parish of Bressay in 1808. The survey resulted in a paper titled Economical Mineralogy of the Orkney and Zetland Islands and he also wrote On the Narwal or Sea-Unicorn communicated to the Wernerian Society. In 1810 he was transferred to Flisk in Fifeshire.