Thomas was the eldest son of Archibald Jerdon of Bonjedward, near Jedburgh, and was born at Biddick House in County Durham.

[2] Thomas joined Edinburgh University in 1828 as a literary student but attended classes in natural history by Professor Robert Jameson.

In 1841 he visited the Nilgiri Hills on leave and in July of the same year he married Flora Alexandrina Matilda Macleod, niece of General Lewis Wentworth Watson.

At Nellore, he interacted with the Yanadi tribes and obtained information on local names of birds and studied the natural history of the area.

Around 1861 a mission to Tibet was to be conducted by Captain E. Smythe and Jerdon was to accompany the group (which included Dr Stewart of the Saharanpur botanical garden; Capt.

Around the same time Lord Canning enabled him to take special duty that would allow him to work on the publication of a series of books on the vertebrates of India.

[11] While still in Gauhati, Assam he suffered a severe attack of fever and moved to Calcutta to convalesce but his condition deteriorated leading to his return to England in June 1870.

Jerdon trusted his own identifications from then on, publishing A Catalogue of the Birds of the Indian Peninsula for the Madras Journal of Literature and Science (1839–40).

At the present, it is necessary to search through voluminous transactions of learned Societies, and scientific Journals, to obtain any general acquaintance with what has been already ascertained regarding the Fauna of India, and, excepting to a few more favorably placed, even these are inaccessible.

The volumes on Mammals and fishes are both nearly ready for the press, and if the author's special duty is continued, will be commenced immediately, and finished, he hopes, by the end of 1864.This work was not without its critics.

[18][19] Jerdon's opinion on Darwin's theory was that it "perhaps, lays too much stress on external and fortuitous circumstances as producing varieties, and not enough on the inherent power of change."

He had a wide interest in natural history and his studies include descriptions of plants, ants, amphibians, reptiles, birds as well as mammals.

R. A. Sterndale mentions a note from Jerdon on an otter that he kept as a pet (probably at Tellicherry)[23] As it grew older it took to going about by itself, and one day found its way to the bazaar and seized a large fish from a moplah.

That same evening, about nine whilst in the town about one and a-half miles from my own house, witnessing some of the ceremonials connected with the Mohurrum festival, the otter entered the temporary shed, walked across the floor, and came and lay down at my feet!His work on the reptiles of India was not completed and it was only after his death that the proofs were sent to his home.

Wight notes that:[2] I am indebted to Mr. Jerdon for this interesting little plant (Jerdonia indica R. W.), which, as forming the type of a new genus, I have much pleasure in dedicating to the discoverer; an honour well merited by his extensive researches in all branches of organic natural history.

Though botany is the last to which he has given his attention, it has already reaped considerable advantage from his energetic application to the study of plantsIn his personal matters he was said to be careless and forgetful.