Michael Pakenham Edgeworth
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Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (24 May 1812 – 30 July 1881) was an Irish
botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
who specialized in
seed plant A seed plant or spermatophyte (; New Latin ''spermat-'' and Greek ' (phytón), plant), also known as a phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or a phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte (i.e. la ...
s and
fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...
s, and spent most of his life working in India. He was also a pioneer of
photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...
.


Early life and family relations

Edgeworth was born in Edgesworthstown,
County Longford County Longford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Longford. Longford County Council is the Local government in the Republic ...
, Ireland on 24 May 1812, one of twenty-four children of
Richard Lovell Edgeworth Richard Lovell Edgeworth (31 May 1744 – 13 June 1817) was an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor. He had 22 children. Biography Edgeworth was born in Pierrepont Street, Bath, England, son of Richard Edgeworth senior, and great ...
(1744–1817) and his four wives. His mother, Frances Beaufort, was the fourth wife. His older half-sister
Maria Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth (1 January 1768 – 22 May 1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish novelist of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and a significant figure in the evolution of the novel i ...
, 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 and a second, Christina, who died in infancy.


Education

He attended
Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...
in England from September 1823 where his schoolmates included
William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
and H.G. Liddell. He later studied oriental languages and botany at University of Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1827. A relative, Lord Carrington offered his mother a cadetship for one of her sons. From 1829 - 30 he was at the East India College, Haileybury, ending with appointment to the East India Company on 30 April 1831 as a writer.


Travels

Although he is known to have had an estate of in County Longford, Ireland, he joined the
Bengal Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...
of the British Colonial regime in India. He was initially based at Ambala, Muzaffarnagar, then Saharanpur and finally Banda until 1850 in a series of judicial and administrative posts covering an area from
Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...
to
Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...
. Being possessed of a curious spirit, Edgeworth travelled widely especially in northern India where he collected plants and made notes. In June 1849 he was appointed as one of the Commissioners in The
Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
. In addition to his interest in botany, he also wrote about Indian languages, culture, topography, and antiquities. But he was not always in India; he maintained a connection with scientific societies, being elected to the Linnean Society in 1842. On a return voyage to India in 1846 he took advantage of a short stop at Aden to collect plants. Of the 40 specimens, eleven turned out to be previously undescribed species that he reported in a scientific journal. A letter from
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...
to J.D. Hooker mentions a conversation held between himself, Edgeworth and biologists John Lubbock and
George Charles Wallich George Charles Wallich (16 November 1815 – 31 March 1899) was a British medical doctor, marine biologist and professional photographer. He was born in Calcutta where his father, the Danish naturalist Nathaniel Wallich, was Superintendent of the ...
, at a meeting of the
Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...
(18 April 1861) less than two years after the publication of Darwin's ''
On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...
'' (22 November 1859). Unfortunately, very little of the content of this conversation is revealed in the letter. Edgeworth experimented with the use of photographic techniques in botany from 1839, making daguerreotypes and photogenic drawings, some of which survive.


Death

He retired in 1859, returning to London. Edgeworth died suddenly on 30 July 1881 on the island of
Eigg Eigg ( ; ) is one of the Small Isles in the Scotland, Scottish Inner Hebrides. It lies to the south of the island of Isle of Skye, Skye and to the north of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. Eigg is long from north to south, and east to west. With ...
, in the Scottish
Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...
. Edgeworth was married to Christina daughter of Dr Macpherson of King's College, Aberdeen in 1846.


Published works

He published thirteen papers on botany, climatology and his travels. In the field of botany, Edgeworth wrote: * ''Descriptions of Some Unpublished Species of Plants from North-Western India'' (R.Taylor, 1851) * ''Catalogue of Plants found in the Banda district, 1847–49'', pp. 60.8 (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta 1852, Vol. xxi.) * ''Pollen'' (Hardwicke + Bogue, 1877) His meticulous diaries from the years 1828 (just a few years before going to India) to 1867, was compiled in the weighty, 8,000-page publication 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.


Botanical names

The plant genus ''
Edgeworthia ''Edgeworthia'' (paper bush) is a genus of plants in the family Thymelaeaceae. When the genus was first described, it was published twice in the same year (1841), in two separate publications: '; and ''Denkschriften der Regensburgischen Botanisch ...
'' was dedicated to him, and to his half-sister, the writer Maria Edgeworth. Numerous other plants including ''Primula edgeworthii'', ''Rhododendron edgeworthii'', ''Impatiens edgeworthii'' and ''Platanthera edgeworthii'' were named after him.


References


External links


Pictures of Edgeworth
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...
* Pictures of ''Edgeworthia'' from: ::The Potomac Valley Chapter North American Rock Garden Society
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The Harvard University Herbarium
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''Pollen'' (1877)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham 19th-century Irish botanists 1812 births 1881 deaths
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People from Edgeworthstown Scientists from County Longford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh