John Stevens Henslow (February 6, 1796 - May 16, 1861) was an English botanist and geologist. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio Year 1796 ( MDCCXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Events 1204 - Baldwin IX Count of Flanders is crowned as the first Emperor of the Latin Empire. Year 1861 ( MDCCCLXI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Botany, plant science(s, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of Biology and is the scientific study of plant Life A geologist is a contributor to the Science of Geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system
Henslow was born at Rochester, the son of a solicitor John Prentis Henslow, who was the son of Sir John Henslow. Rochester is a town in Kent, England. It is located within the Unitary authority area of Medway and is at the lowest bridging point of the Sir John Henslow ( 9 October 1730 - 22 September 1815) was Surveyor to the Navy ( Royal Navy) between 1774 and 1806 in the He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge where he graduated as 16th wrangler in 1818, the year in which Adam Sedgwick became Woodwardian Professor of Geology. St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a At the University of Cambridge, a Wrangler is a student who has completed the third year (called Part II) of the Mathematical Tripos with First-class Adam Sedgwick ( 22 March 1785 &ndash 27 January 1873) was one of the founders of modern Geology. The Woodwardian Professor of Geology is a professorship at the University of Cambridge. He married Harriet Jenyns (1797–1857), daughter of George Leonard Jenyns and sister of Leonard Jenyns in 1823. George Leonard Jenyns ( 19 June 1763 –1848 was an English clergyman Leonard Jenyns, later known as Leonard Blomefield ( 25 May 1800 &ndash 1 September 1893) was a Clergyman - naturalist Their daughter Frances Harriet married Joseph Dalton Hooker. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, OM, GCSI, MD, FRS (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911 was an English Botanist and Explorer
Contents |
Early career
Having graduated in 1818, Henslow was soon appointed a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a He developed a passion for natural history which largely influenced his career, and he accompanied Sedgwick in 1819 on a tour in the Isle of Wight where he learned his first lessons in geology. Natural history is the Scientific research of Plants or Animals leaning more towards the Observational than Experimental methods The Isle of Wight is an English Island and county in the English Channel between three and five miles (8 km from the south coast of the He also studied chemistry under Professor James Cumming and mineralogy under Edward Daniel Clarke. Chemistry (from Egyptian kēme (chem meaning "earth") is the Science concerned with the composition structure and properties Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the Chemistry, Crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of Minerals Edward Daniel Clarke ( June 5, 1769 - March 9, 1822) English Mineralogist and traveller was born at Willingdon In the autumn of 1819 he made valuable observations on the geology of the Isle of Man (Trans. Year 1819 ( MDCCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar in the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year The Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn or Mann (Mannin) is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical Geol. Soc. , 1821) and in 1821 he investigated the geology of parts of Anglesey, the results being printed in the first volume of the Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (1821), the foundation of which society was originated by Sedgwick and Henslow. Year 1821 ( MDCCCXXI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year History There are numerous Megalithic monuments and Menhirs present on Anglesey testifying to the presence of mankind in prehistory
Meanwhile, Henslow had studied mineralogy with considerable zeal, so that on the death of Clarke he was in 1822 appointed Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge. Two years later he took holy orders. Botany, however, had claimed much of his attention, and to this science he became more and more attached, so that he gladly resigned the Chair of Mineralogy in 1825, to become Regius Professor of Botany. Regius Professorships are "Royal" Professorships at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen As a teacher both in the classroom and in the field he was eminently successful. He was a correspondent of John James Audubon who in 1829 named Henslow's Sparrow after him, and to Henslow, Darwin largely owed his attachment to natural history, and also his introduction to Captain Fitzroy of HMS Beagle. John James Audubon ( April 26 1785 – January 27 1851) was an American ornithologist, naturalist, hunter For the game see 1829 (board game. Year 1829 ( MDCCCXXIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display The Henslow's Sparrow, Ammodramus henslowii,is a small American sparrow. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy ( 5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS ''Beagle'' First Voyage On 27 September 1825 Beagle docked at Woolwich for repairs and fitted out for her new duties at a total cost of £5913 Henslow founded the Cambridge University Botanic Garden in 1831. The Cambridge University Botanic Garden is a Botanical garden located in Cambridge, England. Year 1831 ( MDCCCXXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a
A country clergyman
In 1832 Henslow was appointed vicar of Cholsey-cum-Moulsford in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). Cholsey is a large Village and Civil parish, two miles (3 km from Wallingford, in the district of South Oxfordshire in the English Moulsford is a Village and Civil parish in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire) Berkshire (ˈbɑːkʃə or /ˈbɑːkʃɪə/ say Baak-shuh/-sheer sometimes abbreviated to Berks) is a Home County in the South History See also History of Oxfordshire The county of Oxfordshire was formed in the early years of the 10th century and is broadly situated in the He continued to live in Cambridge, only visiting the parish during vacations; no doubt he appointed a Curate to conduct services and parish business during term-time. From the Latin curatus (compare Curator) a curate is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'' ''of souls'' of a
However, his appointment in 1837 to the remunerative Crown living at Hitcham, Suffolk marked a turning-point in his life. Hitcham is a village and Civil parish in Suffolk, England. Located on the B1115 between Hadleigh and Stowmarket, it is part of This time, in 1839, he moved to the parish, and as Rector of Hitcham he lived at the Old Vicarage. He worked there, endearing himself to all who knew him, until the close of his life. His energies were devoted to the improvement of his parishioners, but his influence was felt far and wide. Botany at Cambridge suffered, attendance at lectures fell, and we have records of complaints made within the university. [1] Henslow did not resign his Chair, and continued to give lectures, set and mark exams, and take part in university affairs. Nevertheless, his influence there was naturally much reduced.
Henslow's work in Hitcham, over and above the normal duties of a Rector, can be summarised as follows: [2]
- 1. The Parish School and other charities. Hitcham was a poor parish, and most people would have been illiterate. Education had to be paid for, and so Henslow both raised funds and donated his own money to support a school. The school was founded in 1841, and Henslow himself gave a series of volunteer classes on Monday afternoons for some of the older children. Botany and general scientific thinking were part of the fare. The botanical curriculum was printed: it was rather heavy with morphology and technical terms.
The botany taught in this school had effects throughout Britain, because important people at the centre, such as Prince Albert and Lyon Playfair kept in touch and rightly regarded Henslow as an authority on the subject. Lyon Playfair 1st Baron Playfair, GCB, PC, FRS ( May 1, 1818 &ndash May 29, 1898) was a Scottish - 2. Adult education in the Village. The Hitcham Labourers' and Mechanics' Horticultural Society was the vehicle used by Henslow to 'improve' the labouring and agricultural workers in the village and its surounds. Competitions, shows and excursions were the attractions, and the intent was practical, to improve agriculture by improving the parishioners. Again Henslow made use of gifts and facilities provided by his friends.
- 3. Tackling the farmers. Surprising to us now, in those days the farmers were something of an obstacle to progress. The had not yet caught on to the advances made by Justus von Liebig in Germany, who began to apply chemistry to the needs of agriculture. Justus von Liebig ( May 12, 1803 &ndash April 18, 1873) was a German Chemist Despite this, Henslow pressed on with ideas about field experiments which would try out various fertilisers and measure resultling product. Questions such as "Should gypsum be added to manure heaps to fix the ammonia?" were proposed, no doubt to much muttering sotto voce, and head-shaking from the farmers. Sotto voce (pronounced /'sotːo 'votʃe/, sot -toh voh -che (literally "under voice" an Italian expression means to speak It is only fair to add that Henslow did eventually get a good deal of help and acceptance for his ideas.
- 4. Museums. The big town of Ipswich is twelve miles from Hitcham. As a result of his Cambridge experiences, Henslow believed in the value of museums as vehicles for education. The museum at Ipswich, which was established in 1847, owed much to Henslow, who was elected President in 1850. Ipswich Museum is a registered Museum of culture history and natural heritage located in Ipswich, the County Town of the English county of Suffolk The museum was based on natural history, construed in the broadest sense. A conflict between the Curator, a Dr Clarke, and the "vile and disorderly mob that contaminates our room on public nights" with their "obscene conversations [and] indelicate and blasphemous retorts" reminds us that delivering education to the people can be a challenging undertaking!
Alongside this work he remained an inquiring scientist at heart. In 1843 he discovered nodules of coprolitic origin in the Red Crag at Felixstowe in Suffolk, and two years later he called attention to those also in the Cambridge Greensand and remarked that they might be of use in agriculture. A Coprolite is Fossilized animal dung Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in The Gelasian is a stage whose belonging to either the Pliocene or the Pleistocene Epochs is currently discussed Felixstowe is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, England. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture Although Henslow derived no benefit, these discoveries led to the establishment of the phosphate industry in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire; and the works proved lucrative until the introduction of foreign phosphates. A phosphate, an Inorganic chemical, is a salt of Phosphoric acid. History Cambridgeshire is noted as the site of some of the earliest known Neolithic permanent settlement in the United Kingdom, along with sites at Fengate
Henslow died at Hitcham. His publications included A Catalogue of British Plants (1829; 2nd ed 1835); Principles of Descriptive and Physiological Botany (1835); Flora of Suffolk (with E. Skepper) (1866).
Sources
- Nora Barlow {ed). 1967. Darwin and Henslow: The Growth of an Idea. Letters, 1831–1860. Murray, London.
- L. Jenyns, Memoir of the Revd John Stevens Henslow (London 1862)
- S. J. Plunkett, Ipswich Museum Moralities in the 1840s and 1850s, in C. Harper-Bill et al. (ed) East Anglia's History: studies in honour of Norman Scarfe (Boydell, Woodbridge 2002), 309-332. ISBN 0-85115-878-1
- Jean Russell-Gebbett, Henslow of Hicham, botanist, educationalist and clergyman (Lavenham 1977).
- S. M. Walters and E. A. Stow, Darwin's Mentor (Cambridge University Press 2001). ISBN 0-521-59146-5
- Image source: Portraits of the Honorary Members of the Ipswich Museum (Portfolio of 60 lithographs by T. H. Maguire) (George Ransome, Ipswich, 1846-1852)
Websites
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic