Anna Maria Walker
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Anna Maria Walker (née Patton) (c. 1778–1852) and her husband Colonel George Warren Walker (1778–1843) were
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
botanists This is a list of botanists who have Wikipedia articles, in alphabetical order by surname. The List of botanists by author abbreviation is mostly a list of plant taxonomists because an author receives a standard abbreviation only when that aut ...
in Ceylon (now
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
) who made extensive collections of plants between 1830 and 1838. Several species of ferns and orchids were named after them by Sir
William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botany, botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew Gardens, Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botan ...
with whom they corresponded. They also corresponded with and collaborated with other botanists in the region such as
Robert Wight Robert Wight (6 July 1796 – 26 May 1872) was a Scottish surgeon in the East India Company, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading ...
. Anna Maria was also an excellent botanical artist who illustrated many species of
orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...
s.Noltie, H.J. (2013). The Botanical Collections of Colonel and Mrs Walker: Ceylon, 1830 – 1838. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Plant species named after them include '' Vanilla walkeriae'', '' Liparis walkeriae'' and '' Thrixspermum walkeri''.


Biographies

Anna Maria Patton was probably born in 1778 at Kinaldy,
Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...
, in
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. She was the third daughter (of ten) of the 17 children of Constantia Adriana Sally Mapletoft and Colonel Robert Patton. Patton had been Military Secretary to three Governors-General of India, the last being
Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-gener ...
, and made enough money to buy Kinaldy, returning to family roots – his father Philip Patton was a friend of
Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...
,Crimmin, P.K. (2004). Patton, Philip (1739–1815) ith notes on his brothers Charles and Robert in H.C.G. Matthew & B. Harrison (eds) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 43: 123–5. OUP. having been Collector of Customs at Kirkcaldy. In 1797 the Pattons moved to Castle Street, Edinburgh, where they entered literary society and Anna attended the sermons of Rev.
Sydney Smith Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English wit, writer, and Anglican cleric. Besides his energetic parochial work, he was known for his writing and philosophy, founding the ''Edinburgh Review'', lecturing at the Royal Inst ...
. His finances depleted, Kinaldy was let out and Colonel Patton was appointed Governor of the south Atlantic island of St Helena in 1801; Anna Maria and her sisters Sarah and Jessy, accompanied him as housekeepers. There the sisters met distinguished passers-by including Lord Valentia and his artist Henry Salt;Valentia, George, Viscount (1809). Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt, in the years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806. Vol 1 f 3 London: W. Miller. her father appointed
William John Burchell __NOTOC__ William John Burchell (23 July 1781 – 23 March 1863) was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist, and author. His thousands of plant specimens, as well as field journals from his South African expedition, are held by Kew ...
as the island's botanist – so Anna Maria may well have got some early botanical and artistic training in St Helena. Her sister Sarah married an army officer who was later to be Sir Henry Torrens while another sister Jessy married John Paterson son of George Paterson, a Madras
Nabob A nabob is a conspicuously wealthy man deriving his fortune in the east, especially in India during the 18th century with the privately held East India Company. Etymology ''Nabob'' is an Anglo-Indian term that came to English from Urdu, poss ...
who owned Castle Huntly, near Dundee. Hoping to follow their example Anna Maria went to India where she married Captain Walker, and in 1819 they moved to Ceylon. In 1820 Anna Maria climbed
Adam's Peak Adam's Peak is a conical sacred mountain located in central Sri Lanka.Capper, Daniel (2022), ''Roaming Free Like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World,'' Cornell University Press. It is well known for the ''Sri Pada'' (; ), a rock formati ...
, supposedly the first white woman to do so. George Warren Walker,Walker, G.W. r.(1902). Some Account of Philip Patton, Merchant and Bailie of Anstruther, and his Descendants. Privately published ‘for the information of relatives’; printed by Butcher, Weymouth. was born on 25 March 1778, the sixth son of the Rev. Benjamin Walker, Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire and Isabella (née Warren). He entered the British Army in 1799 and was commissioned Lieutenant in the 8th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (the King's Royal Irish) in 1801 and went with them to India the following year. He saw active service under General Lake in the
Second Anglo-Maratha War Second Anglo-Maratha War (from 1803 –1805) was a large conflict within the Maratha Confederacy, Maratha Empire involving the British East India Company. It resulted in major loss of territory for the Marathas, including regions around Delhi a ...
, and under Major-General Sir
Robert Rollo Gillespie Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Sir Hugh Robert Rollo Gillespie (21 January 1766 – 31 October 1814Dictionary of Indian Biography; Charles E Buckland p166 (1906)) was an officer in the British Army. The Army's historian Sir John ...
in the Anglo-Gurkha War. On 20 July 1809 he married Anna Maria Patton at
Chunar Chunar is a city located in Mirzapur district of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is nearby Mirzapur city. The railway tracks passing through Chunar Junction railway station leads to major destinations of India, including Howrah, Delhi, Ta ...
in present-day Uttar Pradesh. Promoted Lt. Colonel in 1818, the following year he was appointed Deputy Adjutant General of Ceylon; the Walkers moved there and remained there (apart from a furlough in Britain 1826–9) until October 1838. Walker was then appointed to command the 21st Regiment of North British Fusiliers, which he took over in Madras and accompanied to Bengal. In 1840 he was appointed Brigadier in command of the
Meerut Meerut (, ISO 15919, ISO: ''Mēraṭh'') is a city in the western region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Located in the Meerut district, it is northeast of the national capital, New Delhi, and is ...
Station (by which time he held the rank of Major General on the East Indies establishment), until 1843 when the 21st were transferred to the Madras Presidency. While awaiting a new command he died on 4 December 1843, at St Thomas Mount, Madras, where he was buried. His widow erected a mural tablet in Northallerton church.


Edinburgh furlough

After about six years, the Walkers returned to Britain on furlough, and rented a house in the newly built Carlton Street, close to the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. They must have been looking for a pastime to occupy their time productively on their return to Ceylon and met both Robert Graham, the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
Professor of Botany and
Regius Keeper of the Botanic Garden The Royal status of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is intrinsically linked to the issue of a Royal Warrant to the first Intendant of the Gardens in 1699. Since that date, the appointment of each new Director of RBGE has required the as ...
, and
William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botany, botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew Gardens, Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botan ...
, the Glasgow Professor of Botany. This contact probably induced the couple to take up the task on return of supplying herbarium specimens, seeds, and living plants for the Edinburgh Botanic Garden and for Graham's and Hooker's private herbaria. Colonel Walker who returned first to Ceylon wrote to Anna to learn botanical drawing so that she could record fragile specimens when they started to explore and collect.


Collecting in Ceylon

The Walkers soon started to send large amounts of material back to Edinburgh and Glasgow. These donations are recorded in the letters that accompanied the expensive transmission of specimens, which depended on the goodwill of ships' captains. Hooker and Graham were not generous in acknowledging their contributions although Hooker later gave them books and a microscope in return. The Walkers were based mainly in Colombo, the British HQ on the coast of Ceylon, but had frequent periods at Kandy, in the botanically much more interesting centre of the island. At this time huge road-building activities were being undertaken, as the Kingdom of Kandy had only recently fallen to British control – this allowed access to rich collecting areas, especially around the developing hill station of
Nuwara Eliya Nuwara Eliya ( ; ) is a city in the hill country of the Central Province, Sri Lanka. Its name means "city on the plain (table land)" or "city of light". The city is the administrative capital of Nuwara Eliya District, with a picturesque landsc ...
. The Walkers made two major expeditions: a two-week trip to, and ascent of,
Adam's Peak Adam's Peak is a conical sacred mountain located in central Sri Lanka.Capper, Daniel (2022), ''Roaming Free Like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World,'' Cornell University Press. It is well known for the ''Sri Pada'' (; ), a rock formati ...
in 1833, and a nine-week tour around the south-west of the Island in 1837. Mrs Walker sent journals of both excursions to Hooker, which he published.


Taxonomic work on collections

Hooker and Graham were too busy to work on the collections of Walker and that work was delegated to
George Arnott Walker-Arnott George Arnott Walker Arnott of Arlary (6 February 1799 – 17 April 1868) was a Scottish botanist. He collaborated with botanists from around the world and served as a Regius Professor of Botany (Glasgow), regius professor of botany at the Uni ...
, a 'free-lance' botanist to write up the new species of the Walkers' earliest collections. These were published in Latin under the title ''Pugillus Plantarum Indiae Orientalis'', in an obscure German periodical, but first issued as a preprint around April 1837. Several of the new species he described were named after Colonel Walker including ''Desmodium walkeri'' (now '' Desmodium cajanifolium''), ''Sykesia walkeri'' (now ''Gaertnera walkeri''), ''Plectranthus walkeri'' (now '' Isodon walkeri'' ), ''Doronicum walkeri'', ''Senecio walkeri'' (now ''Cissampelopsis spelaeicola''), ''Dipsacus walkeri'', ''Hedyotis walkeri'', ''Zornia walkeri'' and ''Crotalaria walkeri''. Arnott also published a monograph on the many attractive ''Impatiens'' discovered by the Walkers, and a paper on ''
Osbeckia ''Osbeckia'' is a genus of plants in the family Melastomataceae. It was named by Carl Linnaeus for the Sweden, Swedish explorer and naturalist Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805). Distribution Osbeckias are native to Eastern Asia — China, Japan, Malay ...
'' and ''
Sonerila ''Sonerila'' is a genus of plants in the family Melastomataceae. This genus is characterized the by presence of three petals (along with the genera ''Stussenia'' and '' Lithobium'') as opposed to five in the other members of the family. Most memb ...
'', genera of the family
Melastomataceae Melastomataceae () is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs ...
. Hooker published a few of the Walker novelties, and the German botanist
Christian Nees von Esenbeck Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Linnaeus. He des ...
their members of the family
Acanthaceae Acanthaceae () is a Family (biology), family (the acanthus family) of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are Tropics, tropical Herbaceous plant, herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are epip ...
, especially of the genus
Strobilanthes ''Strobilanthes'' is a genus of about 350 species of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Acanthaceae, mostly native plant, native to tropical Asia and Madagascar, but with a few species extending north into temperateness, temperate r ...
in which the Walkers were particularly interested because of its habit of synchronous flowering after gaps of many years. The Walkers' friend
Robert Wight Robert Wight (6 July 1796 – 26 May 1872) was a Scottish surgeon in the East India Company, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading ...
, an East India Company surgeon based in South India, who visited them in Ceylon in 1836, also published some of Mrs Walker's drawings, and based new species on their specimens. Other than her two journals Mrs Walker published nothing, and she must have been disappointed that Hooker did nothing with her extremely accurate orchid drawings.
Henry Noltie Henry Noltie (born 1957) is a British botanist. He worked as a curator and taxonomist at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Life and career Education and work Noltie studied botany at the University of Oxford, and Museum Studies at Leicester. H ...
catalogued the type specimens (at RBGE, Kew and Geneva), Mrs Walker's drawings (at RBGE, Kew and the Natural History Museum), and published transcriptions of all the Walker letters to Hooker written between 1829 and 1851 in 2013.


Last days in India

General Walker spent the two years of his military postings in the plains of northern India, and their botanical interests were reduced and their occasional ventures included an excursion to Mussoorie in the Himalayan foothills in June 1841. From here they sent specimens to Hooker, but these were probably of well-known species as Hooker did nothing with then and did not publish her long letter about this excursion. After General Walker's death, Anna Maria remained in India where four of their seven children were based – her sons in military or civil employment. Her last days were spent in Mangalore, on the Malabar Coast, with her son Warren, where she died, aged 74, on 8 September 1852; her tomb survives in the graveyard of St Paul's church.


Publications

* * Walker, A.W rren(1840). Journal of a tour in Ceylon. Journal of Botany 2: 223–56.


References


External links

* Letters to Hooker
123
* Book on the lives of the Walkers
Colonel and Mrs Walker: Ceylon 1830–1838
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Anna Maria Scottish women botanists People from British Ceylon 1770s births 1852 deaths People from Fife 19th-century Scottish botanists 19th-century Scottish women scientists British botanical illustrators Scottish illustrators Scottish women illustrators Scottish plant collectors