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John MacGillivray (December 18, 1821 – June 6, 1867) was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of ornithologist William MacGillivray.

MacGillivray took part in three of the Royal Navy's surveying voyages in the Pacific. In 1842 he sailed as naturalist on board HMS Fly, despatched to survey the Torres Strait, New Guinea, and the east coast of Australia, returning to England in �1846.

In the same year he was appointed as botanist on the voyages of HMS Rattlesnake (Captain Owen Stanley), collecting in Australian waters at Port Curtis, Rockingham Bay, Port Molle, Cape York, Gould Island, Lizard Island and Moreton Island in Queensland, Port Essington (Northern Territory) and visiting Sydney (New South Wales) on several occasions. The expedition was in Hobart, Tasmania, in June 1847 and also surveyed in Bass Strait, and on the southern coast of New Guinea and the Louisiade Archipelago.

In 1852 he sailed on HMS Herald, which visited, inter alia, Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Dirk Hartog Island and Shark Bay, Western Australia. He left the voyage early after a dispute with the captain Henry Mangles Denham, and settled in Australia.

MacGillivray died in Sydney, New South Wales, on 6 June 1867. He is commemorated in the name of the Fiji Petrel Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi.

References

• A.E.Orchard (1999) 'A History of Systematic Botany in Australia', in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS.)