Michael Pakenham Edgeworth

Michael Pakenham Edgeworth

Edgeworth c. 1843–1845
Born 24 May 1812
County Longford, Ireland
Died 30 July 1881(1881-07-30) (aged 69)
Eigg Island, Scottish Inner Hebrides
Residence India
Citizenship Irish
Fields botany
Author abbrev. (botany) Edgew.
Partners Christina (née Macpherson)

Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (24 May 1812 – 30 July 1881) was an Irish botanist who specialized in seed plants and ferns,[1] and spent most of his life and work in India.

Early life and family relations

He was born in County Longford, Ireland on 24 May 1812,[2] one of twenty-four children[3] of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817) and his four wives. His mother, Frances Beaufort, was the fourth wife. His older half-sister Maria Edgeworth, born to his father's first wife Anna Maria Edgeworth (née Elers), became a novelist. Among his other siblings were Honora (half-sister), Fanny (sister), Lucy (sister), and Francis (brother). With his wife Christina, whom he married in 1842, Michael had a daughter named Harriet.[4]

Travels

Although he is known to have had an estate of 1,659 acres (671 ha)[5] in County Longford, Ireland, at a young age he left for India in 1831 to join the Indian Civil Service of the British Colonial regime. Edgeworth's post encompassed an area from Lahore to Madras.[6] Being possessed of a curious spirit, Edgeworth travelled widely throughout India[6] and the island of Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) where he collected plants and made notes. In 1850 he was made the Chief of Police of the English settlement Punjab. In addition to his interest in botany, he also wrote about Indian tongues, culture, topography, and antiquities.[6]

But he wasn't always in India; as a correspondence[7] from Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker mentions a conversation held between himself, Edgeworth and biologists John Lubbock and George Charles Wallich, at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London (18 April 1861) less than two years after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (22 November 1859). Unfortunately, very little of the content of this conversation is revealed in the letter.[7]

Death

Edgeworth died suddenly on 30 July 1881 on the island of Eigg, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides.[2]

Published works

In the field of botany, Edgeworth wrote:

Descriptions of Some Unpublished Species of Plants from North-Western India (R.Taylor, 1851)[8]
Catalogue of Plants found in the Banda district, 1847–49, pp.60.8 (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta 1852, Vol. xxi.)[9]
Pollen (Hardwicke + Bogue, 1877)[8]

He also kept meticulous diaries from the years 1828 (just a few years before going to India) to 1867, compiled in the weighty, 8,000-page volume entitled India in the Age of Empire - The Journals of Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881). It chronicles the broadening of British imperial influence in the Indian territories and is principally of cultural and political interest.[6] It was published after his death in 1881.

Botanical names

The plant genus Edgeworthia was dedicated to him.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Index of Botanists: Record number 102372". Harvard University Herbaria. President and fellows of Harvard College. April 7, 2008. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Jackson, Benjamin Daydon; and Grout, Andrew (May 2010). Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online version). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8477. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved February 20, 2015. Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham (1812–1881), botanist and East India Company servant, was born on 24 May 1812 at Edgeworthstown, co. Longford, Ireland
  3. ↑ "Longford: Loveliest County of the Irish Plain". Ireland for Visitors. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  4. ↑ Priestman, Judith; Mary Clapinson; Tim Rogers (1993). "Catalogue of the papers of Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849), and the Edgeworth family, 17th-19th century". University of Oxford, Bodleian Library. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  5. ↑ "County Longford Landowners 1870's". Ireland Genealogy Projects. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham. "INDIA IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE: The Journals of Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881) from the Bodleian Library, Oxford". Adam Matthew Publications. Retrieved February 20, 2015. Archived July 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. 1 2 "Darwin, C.R. to Hooker, J.D., 23 [April 1861]". Darwin Correspondence Project. University of Cambridge. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  8. 1 2 "Michael Pakenham Edgeworth". Open Library. October 17, 2008. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Full text of "Catalogue of the books, manuscripts, maps and drawings in the British Museum (Natural History)"". Archive.org. April 23, 1904. Retrieved March 24, 2009.
  10. ↑ "Edgeworthia chrysantha". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved June 30, 2011. Archived March 28, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ IPNI.  Edgew.
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