Agnes (née Thomson) Ibbetson (1757–1823) was an English plant physiologist.

Life

She was the daughter of Andrew Thomson Esq., of Roehampton, a London merchant, and was born in London in 1757 and educated at home. In 1783 she married James Ibbetson at Bushey in Hertfordshire. He was the eldest son the Rev. James Ibbetson, rector of Bushey and Archdeacon of St. Albans. James, junior, was a barrister and amateur antiquary who had been admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1771, but he died in 1790 aged 35 leaving Agnes a widow. Sometime after James's death she moved to Devon where she lived for the rest of her life. She died on 9 February 1823 in

Exmouth Exmouth is a harbor, port town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and seaside resort situated on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe, southeast of Exeter. In 2011 it had a population of 34,432, making Exmouth the List of settl ...

, aged 66. Her nephew was Charles Poulett Thomson, who was a politician and become the first Governor of Canada, being raised to the peerage as Baron Syndenham. Ibbetson was left with an annuity and comfortable financial circumstances.

Work

Though isolated from the contemporary scientific community, Ibbetson began publishing her plant physiology in her fifties, and approached her work with an observational and experimental bent. Ibbetson made extensive use of microscopes, plant dissection, and other technology to pursue her studies, and believed that plant functions had mechanical explanations. Between 1809 and 1822 Mrs. Ibbetson contributed more than fifty papers to ''

Nicholson's Journal ''A Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts'', generally known as ''Nicholson's Journal'', was the first monthly scientific journal in Great Britain. William Nicholson (chemist), William Nicholson began it in 1797 and was the edito ...

'' and the ''

Philosophical Magazine The ''Philosophical Magazine'' is one of the oldest scientific journals published in English. It was established by Alexander Tilloch in 1798;John Burnett"Tilloch, Alexander (1759–1825)" Dictionary of National Biography#Oxford Dictionary of ...

'' on the microscopic structure and physiology of plants, including such subjects as air-vessels, pollen, perspiration, sleep, winter-buds, grafting, impregnation, germination, and the Jussieuean method. In the

botanical 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 ...

department of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

are preserved some specimens of woods and microscopic slides prepared by her, with a manuscript description stating that they represent twenty-four years' work, and illustrating her erroneous belief that buds originate endogenously and force their way outward.

Legacy

The leguminous genus ''Ibbetsonia'' was dedicated to her by John Sims, but is now considered identical with the ''

Cyclopia Cyclopia (named after the Greek mythology characters cyclopes), also known as alobar holoprosencephaly, is the most extreme form of holoprosencephaly and is a congenital disorder (birth defect) characterized by the failure of the embryonic prosen ...

'' of Ventenat.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibbetson, Agnes 1757 births 1823 deaths Scientists from London English physiologists British plant physiologists 18th-century English women scientists 19th-century British women scientists