Lucas Barrett (14 November 1837 – 19 December 1862) was an English naturalist and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

. He was the director of the Jamaican Geological Survey from 1859 to 1862. He was a young member of the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

and became England's Government Geological Inspector to the West Indies. His untimely death was caused by drowning while investigating a sea-bottom near

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

Early life and education

Barrett was born in London on November 14, 1837, the firstborn son of an unidentified mother and George Barrett, an iron founder who designed iron work for the

London Kings Cross Railway Station King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United King ...

. He completed his preliminary education in

Royston, Hertfordshire Royston is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Hertfordshire, District of North Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated on the Prime meridian (Greenwich), Greenwich Meridian, which brush ...

. On March 8 1859, Alice Maria Barrett married Lucas Barrett at

Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge St Mary the Great is a Church of England parish and university church at the north end of King's Parade in central Cambridge, England. It is known locally as Great St Mary's or simply GSM to distinguish it from " Little St Mary's". It is one of t ...

. Sources do not indicate Alice Maria Barrett's career nor the story of their meeting. Alice Maria Barrett's parents were Maria Reed and Robert Barrett. The marriage was recorded in the Cambridge section of the ''Bury and Norwich Post'' on March 15, 1859. Barrett was educated at University College School. In 1853, he went to Ebersdorf, near Lobenstein, Vogtland, Germany to study

botany 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 w ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

for a year.

Geology career

On May 2, 1855, at the age of 18 years old, Barrett became a member of the

. In 1855, he accompanied

Robert MacAndrew Robert MacAndrew (born 22 March 1802 in Wandsworth, London, died 22 May 1873 in Isleworth, Middlesex) was a British merchant and ship-owner, marine dredger, Fellow of the Royal Society, naturalist and collector of shells. Early life Robert Ma ...

on a dredging excursion from the

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

to Norway, Finland, and beyond the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

. He subsequently made other cruises, to

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

and to the coast of Spain. These expeditions laid the foundations of an extensive knowledge of the distribution of marine life. Circa 1858 in Norway, Barrett and R. MacAndrew discovered '' Geodia barretti'', a massive deep-sea sponge, on the coast of Norway. British naturalist

James Scott Bowerbank James Scott Bowerbank (14 July 1797 – 8 March 1877) was a British naturalist and palaeontologist. Biography Bowerbank was born in Bishopsgate, London, and succeeded in conjunction with his brother to his father's distillery, in which he was ...

named it ''Geodia barretti'' to honor Barrett. In 1855, he was engaged by

Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick (; 22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on W ...

to assist in the

Woodwardian Museum The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. During the following three years, he aided the professor by delivering lectures. He discovered bones of birds in the Cambridge Greensand, and he prepared a geological map of Cambridge on the one-inch

Ordnance map Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense *Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Unite ...

. In 1859, when he was twenty-two, he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of Jamaica. There, he determined the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

age of certain rocks that contained ''

Hippurites ''Hippurites'' is an extinct genus of rudist bivalve mollusc from the Late Cretaceous of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Species *'' Hippurites atheniensis'' *'' Hippurites colliciatus'' *'' Hippurites cornucopiae'' ...

''. S. P. Woodward named the new genus '' Barrettia'' after him. Barrett also collected many fossils from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

and newer

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

West Indian Geological Survey

In 1857, the Colonial Office in London set up the West Indian Geological Survey, a geology research team. The first area of interest was the island of

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. The Director of the group was George Parks Wall, assisted by James Gay Sawkins, an American working as a copper miner in Jamaica. In 1859, Wall resigned following the completion of the Trinidad research. British geologist

Roderick Murchison Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scotland, Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigat ...

was displeased with the results of the Trinidad survey and refused to nominate the next director. As a result, Colonial Office administrator

Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer Sir Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer, (11 December 1836 – 30 September 1914), the nephew of Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer and brother to Edward Earle Gascoyne Bulwer, was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. Bulwer was educated at Charterh ...

approached Professor John Phillips at Oxford for a recommendation. Phillips recommended Barrett, who became leader. On April 1st, 1859, James G. Sawkins and his wife Octavia "Rosa" Sawkins arrived at St. Thomas, Jamaica via a mail steamer; they had sailed from the

Port-of-Spain Port of Spain (Spanish: ''Puerto España''), officially the City of Port of Spain (also stylized Port-of-Spain), is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago and the third largest municipality, after Chaguanas and San Fernando. The city has a municip ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. Sawkins brought scientific instruments used in his geological survey of Trinidad. The Barrett couple and Sawkins couple met for the first time. During this meeting, Mr. Sawkins learned that the pay he would receive would be insufficient for his means. Upon arriving in

on April 5th, Sawkins arranged a meeting with John Peter Grant, then colonial

governor of Jamaica This is a list of viceroys in Jamaica from its initial occupation by Spain in 1509, to its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. For a list of viceroys after independence, see Governor-General of Jamaica. For context, see History of Jamai ...

. After Barrett wrote a persuasive letter to statesman

Edward Bulwer-Lytton Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, PC (25 May 180318 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secret ...

asking to increase Sawkins's pay so he would not resign, Sawkins's pay was increased and he remained on the project.

Death and legacy

Barrett drowned, at the age of twenty-five, while investigating the sea-bottom of

Port Royal Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...

near

, as part of the Jamaican Geological Survey. Geologist Simon F. Mitchell describes:

arrettcarried back to Jamaica a diving-apparatus to enable him personally to explore the reefs. Having once gone down safely and successfully in shallow water, he would not wait for the assistance of his friends; and set out on the 19th of December, attended by a crew and servants, to the coral-reefs outside Port Royal. At some distance from the land he descended into deep water, provided with 100 feet of air-tubing, and holding the "life-line" only in his hand; and after the lapse of more than half an hour he floated to the surface, but no longer alive.

After his death, American mining engineer James G. Sawkins took over Barrett's position as leader of the team. Barrett was buried at St. Andrew Parish Church. His posthumous son Arthur Barrett and grandson Lucas Barrett were electrical engineers and ran the firm of Baily, Grundy and Barrett in Cambridge. In 1962, on the centennial of his death, a plaque monument was dedicated to Barrett. It was replaced by a new plaque in 2005.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Lucas 1837 births 1862 deaths Scientists from London English naturalists English geologists Deaths by drowning People educated at University College School Accidental deaths in Jamaica