Louisa Elizabeth Collings (''née'' Lukis; 4 June 1818 or 1828 – 24 March 1887) was an amateur lichenologist and natural history collector from the
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
Collings was born either on 4 June 1818 or in 1828 as the eldest of the three daughters. Her parents were the
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...
naturalist, collector and antiquarian
Frederick Lukis
Frederick Corbin Lukis (24 February 1788 – 15 November 1871) was a British archaeologist, naturalist, collector, and antiquarian.
Background
Lukis was born in La Grange, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey. He was the youngest of the four child ...
by his wife and first cousin Elizabeth (née Collings). Due to the early 19th-century views on female education, Collings and her sisters probably did not receive any formal schooling. Her interest in
lichens
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus, fungi species in a mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship. her brother, William Collings Lukis, also shared their father's interests. Collings swapped her specimens with other collectors, including the family friend, Charles du Bois Larbalestier of
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...
, eventually amassing a collection of over 1,300 lichens held in a set of 32 folders and small box files. She also took time in 1862 to compile a list of 150 species of lichens that appear on the island of
Guernsey
Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency.
It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...
, and presented it to the geologist
David T. Ansted
David Thomas Ansted FRS (5 February 181413 May 1880) was an English professor of geology and author of numerous books on geology. His role as a teacher at Addiscombe Military Seminary, where future East India Company army officers were trained ...
, who was working on a book about the Channel Islands.
Family
Louisa Lukis married her cousin, William Thomas Collings, on 15 June 1847. The ceremony was conducted by her brother, William Collings Lukis, at St Saviour's Church. They had four daughters and two sons,William Frederick (1852–1927) and Henry de Vic (1855–1872). On the death of her mother-in-law Marie the next year, her husband became Seigneur of Sark. She was widowed in 1882, when the
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...
of Sark passed to her son; the seigneur from 1974, Michael Beaumont, is her descendant. Collings decided to pay a visit to her eldest daughter, Mary Edmeades, who lay ill in
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
. She died there on 24 March 1887, having suffered from bronchitis for three days, shortly after her daughter. She had outlived all her children except for the Seigneur; her other daughters died respectively in 1851, 1859 and 1871. Her collection passed to Guernsey's newly established Guille-Allès Museum. It is considered one of the city's most important natural history collections.