Michael Pakenham Edgeworth
| Michael Pakenham Edgeworth | |
|---|---|
| File:Dr. John Adamson (Scottish - Michael Pakenham Edgeworth. - Google Art Project.jpg
Edgeworth c. 1843 - 1845
|
|
| Born | 24 May 1812 County Longford, Ireland |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. 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.
Contents
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[citation needed] (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.[citation needed] In addition to his interest in botany, he also wrote about Indian tongues,[citation needed] 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
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Archived July 17, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Archived March 28, 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- Pictures of Edgeworth National Portrait Gallery
- Pictures of Edgeworthia from:
