Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) was an early Irish
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
. She specialised in seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts. She is known for finding many plants new to science, identifying hundreds of species, and for her botanical illustrations in contemporary publications. Many plants were named after her by botanists of the day.
Personal life
Ellen Hutchins was from
Ballylickey
Ballylickey or Ballylicky () is a village on the N71 national secondary road and Bantry Bay near Bantry, County Cork, Ireland. The Ouvane River flows into Bantry Bay at Ballylickey.
Tourism
There is a caravan park at Eagle Point. The Seavie ...
, where her family had a small estate at the head of
Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay ( ga, Cuan Baoi / Inbhear na mBárc / Bádh Bheanntraighe) is a bay located in County Cork, Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km (1.8-to-2.5 mil ...
, County Cork, Ireland. She was born 17 March 1785 at Ballylickey House, the second youngest surviving child of her parents. Her father, Thomas, was a magistrate who died when Ellen was two years old, leaving his widow Elinor and six surviving children (from twenty-one).
She was sent to school near Dublin, and while there, her health deteriorated, largely it appears from malnutrition.
Dr
Whitley Stokes
Whitley Stokes, CSI, CIE, FBA (28 February 1830 – 13 April 1909) was an Irish lawyer and Celtic scholar.
Background
He was a son of William Stokes (1804–1878), and a grandson of Whitley Stokes the physician and anti-Malthusian (1763†...
, a family friend, took her under his and his wife's care in his house in Harcourt Street, Dublin. She regained her appetite and health, and also followed Stokes advice to take up natural history as a healthy hobby. Following her improved health, she returned to her family home to care for her mother and her disabled brother Thomas.
In her correspondence with botanist Dawson Turner, Hutchins often describes her solitude and melancholy as a caretaker for her family in the country.
Hutchins was a passionate letter writer in her life often writing to other botanists and her brothers. She sometimes utilized a style of letter writing called cross-hatching in which she turns the page sideways and continues her letter writing in a horizontal direction over her initial words. Her epistolary collection has been one of the most valuable resources for learning about her life and botanical contributions.
However, her own health declined again and by late 1812 she was seriously ill. She and her mother moved to
Bandon in 1813 to receive medical care. After her mother died there in 1814, she moved back to
Ardnagashel House, close to Ballylickey, to be cared for by her brother Arthur and his wife Matilda. She died on 9 February 1815 after a long illness in which she had been taking mercury for her liver. She was buried in the old Bantry churchyard. Her grave was unmarked, but a plaque was erected in 2002 by the Hutchins family in their private family burial ground.
A public memorial was placed in the old Bantry (Garryvurcha) graveyard in 2015, the bicentenary of her death, by the National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology.
Botanical collecting and illustration
She focused on botany (Stokes' own specialism) and spent much time out of doors accompanied by the indoor occupations of identifying, recording and drawing the plants she collected. She studied plants, specialising in the
Cryptogam
A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...
s such as mosses, liverworts, lichen, and seaweeds.
Nearly all of her collecting was undertaken in the Bantry area and County Cork. The
Lusitanian flora
The Lusitanian flora is a small assemblage of plants that show a restricted and specific distribution in that they are mostly only to be found in the Iberian Peninsula or southwest Ireland. Generally, the plants are not found in England or western ...
of West Cork was comparatively unknown at this time. She learnt quickly and clearly had a gift for plant identification, produced very detailed watercolour drawings, and meticulously prepared specimens. She sent samples to Stokes which he passed on to other botanists. Through Stokes she became acquainted with
James Townsend Mackay, a curator at the Botanic Garden of
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
. He helped her in the classification of the plants she was collecting and she contributed to his ''Flora Hibernica''. In 1807, Mackay sent her specimens to
Dawson Turner
Dawson Turner (18 October 1775 – 21 June 1858) was an English banker, botanist and antiquary. He specialized in the botany of cryptogams and was the father-in-law of the botanist William Jackson Hooker.
Life
Turner was the son of Jam ...
a botanist in Great Yarmouth on the East Anglian coast of England, for his publication ''Fuci''. Turner's 'thank you' note was the beginning of a seven-year correspondence and exchange of specimens and drawings.
A selection of these letters has been published by the National Botanic Gardens Glasnevin, Dublin in 1999.
Twenty four of the surviving letters between Hutchins and Turner during 1811 have been transcribed by Hutchins great-great-grandniece Madeline Hutchins and can be accessed online. This publication also reprints the list of nearly 1100 plants that she prepared between 1809 and 1812 at the request of Dawson Turner for "a complete catalogue of plants of all kinds that you have found in your neighbourhood".
During her searches for specimens she recorded over 400 vascular plant species, around 200 species of algae, 200 bryophytes and 200 lichens. Among the latter two groups she discovered several new species including ''Jubula hutchinsiae'', ''Herberta hutchinsiae'', ''Leiocolea bantriensis'' (Bantry Notchwort), the lichen ''Thelotrema isidiodes'' and three further species of lichen that are named after her. Differences between her species lists and later records from West Cork are also of interest since they help date the decline of some species caused by changes in agricultural practices as well as the arrival of invasive species from other parts of the world.
Her ability to find new plants, and the quality of her drawings and specimens drew admiration from the leading botanists of the day, and her work was featured in many publications.
Although she never published under her own name, she was a major contributor to the new and developing plant sciences of her era. At first refusing to have her name associated with her finds, she soon relented.
The later volumes of ''English Botany'' (1790–1814) from
James Sowerby
James Sowerby (21 March 1757 – 25 October 1822) was an English naturalist, illustrator and mineralogist. Contributions to published works, such as ''A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland'' or ''English Botany'', include his detailed and app ...
and
James Edward Smith James Edward Smith may refer to:
* James Edward Smith (botanist), English botanist and founder of the Linnean Society
* James Edward Smith (murderer), American murderer
* James Edward Smith (politician), Canadian businessman and mayor of Toronto
* ...
included descriptions of her discoveries. The latter wrote of her that "she could find almost anything".
Dawson TTwenty-fouris ''Fuci'' (4 vols., 1808–19)
in 1819, after her death said "that botany had lost a votary as indefatigable as she was acute, and as successful as she was indefatigable." In William Hooker's liverwort monograph '' British Jungermanniae'' (1816), her name was more or less connected with nearly every rare species mentioned within it. Her rare finds included lichens and she contributed to
Lewis Weston Dillwyn
Lewis Weston Dillwyn, FRS (21 August 1778 – 31 August 1855) was a British porcelain manufacturer, naturalist and Whig Member of Parliament (MP).
Biography
He was born in Walthamstow, Essex, the eldest son of William Dillwyn (1743–1824) and ...
's work ''British Confervae'' (1802–09).
She was a keen gardener, and she tended plants including ones sent to her by Mackay, in a field at Ballylickey, known as Miss Ellen's Garden. She was at her happiest in the garden, or out in her little boat, gathering seaweeds, which she then brought home to classify and paint.
Plants named after Ellen Hutchins
One genus of vascular plant was named after her:
*''Hutchinsia'' (now ''
Hornungia
''Hornungia'' is a small genus of plants in the family Brassicaceae. It currently contains three species that have previously been classified as members of other genera, including ''Hutchinsia'' and ''Pritzelago''.Appel, O. and I. A. Al-Shehbaz. ...
'') in the
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The le ...
.
The common name "Hutchinsia" persists in the UK for ''
Hornungia petraea
''Hornungia petraea'' (also ''Hutchinsia petraea'') is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.
It is native to North and South America, Eurasia, Africa, Macaronesia
Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'' ...
'' C. Agardh.
Three species of lichen are named after her:
*''Lecania hutchinsiae''
*''Pertusaria hutchinsiae''
*''Enterographa hutchinsiae''
Several marine algae are named in her honour:
*''Cladophora hutchinsiae'' (Dillwyn) Kützing (= ''Conferva hutchinsiae'' Dillwyn)
*''Dasya hutchinsiae'' Harvey
Two bryophytes that she discovered are named after her:
*''Jubula hutchinsiae'' (common name Hutchins Hollywort)
*''Ulota hutchinsiae'' (common name Hutchins' Pincushion)
In addition, the orange-coloured leafy liverwort ''
Herbertus hutchinsiae'' (Juniper Prongwort) is named after her. It has been considered a subspecies of ''Herbertus aduncus''
as well as a species.
Legacy
![Ellen Hutchins Street Art Memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Ellen_Hutchins_Street_Art_Memorial.jpg)
Her specimens, artwork and documents are in the most significant museum collections in the UK, Ireland and the USA.
She bequeathed her collection of plant specimens to
Dawson Turner
Dawson Turner (18 October 1775 – 21 June 1858) was an English banker, botanist and antiquary. He specialized in the botany of cryptogams and was the father-in-law of the botanist William Jackson Hooker.
Life
Turner was the son of Jam ...
and many are now in the Natural History Museum, London. Her drawings were given by her sister in law, Matilda, to Dawson Turner, and over two hundred of her drawings of seaweeds are now in the archives of the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with some in store at
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
City Museum. Specimens and drawings that had been sent to leading botanists, and featured in their publications, went into their collections. These include collections at Trinity College, Dublin; the Linnean Society, London (Smith collection); and the New York Botanical Garden (William and Lynda Steere Herbarium).
Her letters to Dawson Turner are in Trinity College, Cambridge; and Dawson Turner's letters to her are in Kew Botanical Gardens' library and archives. Kew also has letters from Mackay to Hutchins, and Trinity College Dublin has her letters to him.
An Ellen Hutchins Festival was held in and around Bantry in 2015 and this has now become an annual event.
An exhibition of her life and work was held in the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin February – April 2017.
''Ellen Hutchins (1785-1815) Botanist of Bantry Bay'', published in July 2019, written by Madeline Hutchins and designed by Jenny Dempsey is a short volume about Hutchins' life including her illustrations and photos of the area she lived and studied.
An exhibition of her letters, drawings and botanical publications was held at Kew
Gardens
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
September to November 2019.
In 2020 the book ''A Quiet Tide'' by Marianne Lee was published. It was a fictional account of Hutchins' life.
In September 2022 the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork renamed their building in honour of Ellen Hutchins. At the same time, the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room was unveiled, which contains archival material, pressed seaweed specimens, and books, letters and a drawing by Hutchins.
References
External links
*
Irish Scientist ArticleTranscription of several letters between Ellen Hutchins and Dawson Turner*
*
*
Ellen Hutchins: Ireland's First Female BotanistHeritage Week on West Cork Islands articlein West Cork Times
New York Botanic Garden Library facebook live broadcast12 March 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchins, Ellen
1785 births
1815 deaths
19th-century Irish botanists
People from County Cork
Botanical illustrators
Women botanists
Irish artists
19th-century Irish women scientists
Irish women botanists
Irish women illustrators