Michael Pakenham Edgeworth

{{Short description|Irish botanist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Michael Pakenham Edgeworth | image = Dr._John_Adamson_(Scottish_-_Michael_Pakenham_Edgeworth._-_Google_Art_Project.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Edgeworth {{circa}} 1843–1845 | birth_date = 24 May 1812 | birth_place = County Longford, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1881|7|30|1812|5|24|df=y}} | death_place = Eigg Island, Scottish Inner Hebrides, Scotland | citizenship = Irish | nationality = | ethnicity = | fields = botany | workplaces = | alma_mater = University of Edinburgh | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = Edgew. | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature =  | signature_alt = | partners = Christina (née Macpherson) | footnotes = }} '''Michael Pakenham Edgeworth''' (24 May 1812 – 30 July 1881) was an Irish botanist who specialized in seed plants and ferns,<ref name=huh>{{ cite web |url=http://asaweb.huh.harvard.edu:8080/databases/botanists?id=102372 |title=Index of Botanists: Record number 102372 |work=Harvard University Herbaria |publisher=President and fellows of Harvard College |date=April 7, 2008 |accessdate=May 20, 2009}}</ref> and spent most of his life working in India. He was also a pioneer of photography.

==Early life and family relations== Edgeworth was born in Edgesworthstown, County Longford, Ireland on 24 May 1812,<ref name=oxf-dnb/> one of twenty-four children<ref name=ifv>{{ cite web |url=http://www.irelandforvisitors.com/articles/longford_loveliest_county.htm |title=Longford: Loveliest County of the Irish Plain |publisher=Ireland for Visitors |accessdate=March 24, 2009}}</ref> 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 and a second, Christina, who died in infancy.<ref name=bod>{{ cite web |last=Priestman |first=Judith |author2=Mary Clapinson |author3=Tim Rogers |title=Catalogue of the papers of Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849), and the Edgeworth family, 17th-19th century |publisher=University of Oxford, Bodleian Library |year=1993 |url=http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/edgeworth/edgeworth.html |accessdate=June 8, 2013}}</ref>

==Education== He attended Charterhouse School in England from September 1823 where his schoolmates included William Makepeace Thackeray and H.G. Liddell. He later studied oriental languages and botany at University of Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1827.<ref name="oxf-dnb" /> 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.<ref name="oxf-dnb" />

==Travels== Although he is known to have had an estate of {{convert|1,659|acre}}<ref name=igp>{{ cite web |url=http://www.igp-web.com/longford/landown1.htm |title=County Longford Landowners 1870s |publisher=Ireland Genealogy Projects |accessdate=March 24, 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827223303/http://www.igp-web.com/longford/landown1.htm |archivedate=August 27, 2008 }}</ref> in County Longford, Ireland, he joined the Bengal Civil Service 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 to Madras.<ref name=amp>{{ cite web|last=Edgeworth |first=Michael Pakenham |url=http://www.ampltd.co.uk/collections_az/IndiaEdg/highlights.aspx |title=INDIA IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE: The Journals of Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881) from the Bodleian Library, Oxford |publisher=Adam Matthew Publications |accessdate=February 20, 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717101319/http://www.ampltd.co.uk/collections_az/IndiaEdg/highlights.aspx |archivedate=July 17, 2012 }}</ref> Being possessed of a curious spirit, Edgeworth travelled widely especially in northern India<ref name = amp/> where he collected plants and made notes. In June 1849 he was appointed as one of the Commissioners in The Punjab.<ref>London evening standard 4 June 1849, p.3</ref> In addition to his interest in botany, he also wrote about Indian languages,<ref>Grammar and Vocabulary of the Cashmiri Language. Journ. Asiatic. Soc. Bengal 1841, pp. 1038—1064</ref> culture, topography, and antiquities.<ref name=amp/>

But he was not always in India; he maintained a connection with scientific societies, being elected to the Linnean Society in 1842.<ref name="oxf-dnb" /> 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.<ref name="JAsiaSocBengal">{{cite journal|last1=Edgeworth|first1=Michael Pakenham |title=Two hours' herborization at Aden|journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|date=1847|volume=16|page=1211}}</ref> A letter <ref name=dcp>{{ cite web |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-3098 |title=Darwin, C.R. to Hooker, J.D., 23 [April 1861] |work=Darwin Correspondence Project |publisher=University of Cambridge |accessdate=January 28, 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref name=dcp/>

Edgeworth experimented with the use of photographic techniques in botany from 1839, making daguerreotypes and photogenic drawings, some of which survive.<ref name="oxf-dnb" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Jacob|first=Michael G.|date=2000-06-01|title=Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–81)|journal=History of Photography|volume=24|issue=2|pages=169–174|doi=10.1080/03087298.2000.10443388|s2cid=190920817|issn=0308-7298}}</ref>

== Death == He retired in 1859, returning to London. Edgeworth died suddenly on 30 July 1881 on the island of Eigg, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides.<ref name=oxf-dnb>{{cite ODNB |last1=Jackson|first1=Benjamin Daydon |last2=and Grout|first2=Andrew |title=Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |date=May 2010 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/8477 |quote=Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham (1812–1881), botanist and East India Company servant, was born on 24 May 1812 at Edgeworthstown, co. Longford, Ireland}}</ref> Edgeworth was married to Christina daughter of Dr Macpherson of King's College, Aberdeen in 1846.<ref name=":0" />

==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)<ref name=ol>{{ cite web |url=https://openlibrary.org/a/OL5486636A/Michael-Pakenham-Edgeworth |title=Michael Pakenham Edgeworth |publisher=Open Library |date=October 17, 2008 |accessdate=March 24, 2009}}</ref> * ''Catalogue of Plants found in the Banda district, 1847–49'', pp. 60.8 (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta 1852, Vol. xxi.)<ref name=arc>{{ cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/catalogueofbooks02brit/catalogueofbooks02brit_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Catalogue of the books, manuscripts, maps and drawings in the British Museum (Natural History)" |date=April 23, 1904 |accessdate=March 24, 2009}}</ref> * ''Pollen'' (Hardwicke + Bogue, 1877)<ref name=ol/><ref>{{cite book|author=Edgeworth, M. P.|title=Pollen|year=1877|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001993095}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Pollen'' by M. P. Edgeworth|journal=Nature|date=11 October 1877|volume=16|page=499|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001485753;view=1up;seq=507}}</ref>

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.<ref name = amp/>

==Botanical names== The plant genus ''Edgeworthia'' 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== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== {{DNB Poster|Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham}} * [http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php?linkID=mp60178 Pictures of Edgeworth] National Portrait Gallery * Pictures of ''Edgeworthia'' from: ::[http://www.pvcnargs.org/Edgeworthia%20chrysantha.jpg The Potomac Valley Chapter North American Rock Garden Society]  [http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/FloraData/1001/Images/Thymelaeaceae/Thymelaeaceae-Edgeworthia%20papyrifera-111.jpg The Harvard University Herbarium] * [https://archive.org/details/pollen__00edgerich ''Pollen'' (1877)] {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham}} Category:19th-century Irish botanists Category:1812 births Category:1881 deaths Category:De Beaufort family Category:People from Edgeworthstown Category:Scientists from County Longford Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh