Patrick Matthew (20 October 1790 – 8 June 1874) was a Scottish grain merchant, fruit farmer, forester, and landowner, who contributed to the understanding of horticulture, silviculture, and agriculture in general, with a focus on maintaining the British navy and feeding new colonies. He published the basic concept of natural selection as a mechanism in evolutionary adaptation and speciation in 1831 (i.e. resulting from positive natural selection, in contrast to its already, widely known, negative role in removal of individuals in the Struggle for Survival), but did not further develop or publicize his ideas. Consequently, when Charles Darwin later published On the Origin of Species in 1859, he and Alfred Russel Wallace were regarded by their scientific peers as having originated (independently of each other) the theory of evolution by natural selection; it has been suggested that Darwin and/or Wallace had encountered Matthew's earlier work, but there is no hard evidence of this. After the publication of On the Origin of Species, Matthew contacted Darwin, who in subsequent editions of the book acknowledged that the principle of natural selection had been anticipated by Matthew's brief statement, mostly contained in the appendices and addendum of his 1831 book On Naval Timber and Arboriculture. Life Patrick Matthew was born 20 October 1790 at Rome, a farm held by his father John Matthew near Scone Palace, in Perthshire. His mother was Agnes Duncan, a relative of Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan.—Patrick Matthew took over the management of Gourdiehill Estate and began in earnest to plant his orchards that would eventually grow to over 10,000 apple and pear trees and would become some of the finest in the entire British Empire . In 1807 after coming of legal age and through the close relationship of his Mother Agnes Duncan Gourdiehill was inherited by Patrick Matthew from Agnes Duncan's close relative... Admiral Adam Duncan the first Viscount Duncan of Camperdown who died in 1804. Admiral Duncan inherited Gourdiehill, Auchmuir and Seaside estates upon the death of his older brother Alexander Duncan who previously inherited these 3 estates near the small village of Errol from his parents Helan Haldane of Gleneagles and Alexander Duncan, Laird of Lundie, Provost of Dundee and in whose family it had been...including his second oldest son Admiral Adam Duncan... for more than two hundred years. -->He was educated at Perth Academy and the University of Edinburgh, but did not graduate, as