Joseph Barclay Pentland was born at Ballybofey, County Donegal He attended school at Armagh Academy following which hestudied at the Polytechnic and Mining schools of the University of Paris. He worked for a time with the eminent French zoologist Georges Cuvier. A geographer, natural scientist, and traveller he surveyed a large part of the Bolivian Andes between 1826 and 1827 with Woodbine Parish. He was appointed secretary at the consulate-general in Peru in 1827 and consul-general to Bolivia from 1836 to 1839. After 1845, he lived most of the time in Italy where he became an expert in Roman antiquities and published guides to Rome and northern and southern Italy. He died in London and is buried in Brompton Cemetery.

Born:	17 January 1797
Died:	12 July 1873