Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell (11 March 1820 – 7 September 1895) was a 19th-century New Zealand naturalist, politician, and land purchase commissioner. He was a founder and first secretary of the
New Zealand Institute, and a collector of
moa
Moa are extinct giant flightless birds native to New Zealand.
The term has also come to be used for chicken in many Polynesian cultures and is found in the names of many chicken recipes, such as
Kale moa and Moa Samoa.
Moa or MOA may also refe ...
remains.
Early life
Mantell was born in
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
,
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, England, the son of geologists
Gideon Mantell
Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852) was a British obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of ''Iguanodon'' began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in ...
and
Mary Ann Mantell
Mary Ann Mantell ('' née'' Woodhouse; 9 April 1795 – 20 October 1869) was a British fossil collector and the wife of the British paleontologist Gideon Mantell. She is credited – although this is disputed – with the discovery of the first fo ...
(née Woodhouse). He arrived in Wellington on the ''Oriental'' in 1840.
In 1848, Mantell was appointed to the office of commissioner for
extinguishing native titles in the South Island. After his father committed suicide in 1852, much of his collection of
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s was inherited by Walter and consequently transported to New Zealand.
Mantell left New Zealand as he did not feel right about trying to convince the indigenous
Māori people
The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several ce ...
to undersell their land and returned to England in 1856, where he met
Geraldine Jewsbury
Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury (22 August 1812 – 23 September 1880) was an English novelist, book reviewer and literary figure in London, best known for popular novels such as ''Zoe: the History of Two Lives'' and reviews for the literary periodica ...
, a woman eight years his senior. When in New Zealand, the Maori people called Mantell "Matara". Jewsbury used this as a nickname for Mantell. When Mantell was in England he had difficulty finding work. He became restless at home as well as a tendency to act as a hypochondriac. Jewsbury encouraged him to write for the ''
Westminster Gazette
''The Westminster Gazette'' was an influential Liberal newspaper based in London. It was known for publishing sketches and short stories, including early works by Raymond Chandler, Anthony Hope, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, and Saki, ...
'' or to write a novel about New Zealand. Mantell eventually became tired of his friend's persistent advice. Jewsbury, however, wanted what was best for Mantell and felt deeply attached to him; she once proposed marriage to Mantell in a letter, but he declined her offer. By 1859 Jewsbury had ceased trying to win his love. Shortly thereafter, Mantell returned to New Zealand.
Political career
Mantell represented the
Wallace
Wallace may refer to:
People
* Clan Wallace in Scotland
* Wallace (given name)
* Wallace (surname)
* Wallace (footballer, born 1986), full name Wallace Fernando Pereira, Brazilian football left-back
* Wallace (footballer, born 1987), full name ...
electorate from 1861 to 1866, when he retired.
He was the
Minister of Māori Affairs
Minister may refer to:
* Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric
** Minister (Catholic Church)
* Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department)
** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
in 1861 and 1864–65, and Postmaster-General briefly in 1862.
From 1866 until his death he was on the
New Zealand Legislative Council
The New Zealand Legislative Council was the upper house of the General Assembly of New Zealand between 1853 and 1951. An earlier arrangement of legislative councils for the colony and provinces existed from 1841 when New Zealand became a co ...
.
In 1865, he donated the "prime specimen" of his father's fossil collection to
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
's Colonial Museum (modern-day
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...
), including the famous tooth that had led to the discovery of
Iguanodon
''Iguanodon'' ( ; meaning 'iguana-tooth'), named in 1825, is a genus of iguanodontian dinosaur. While many species have been classified in the genus ''Iguanodon'', dating from the late Jurassic Period to the early Cretaceous Period of Asia, Eu ...
.
Personal life
Mantell married Mary Sarah Prince on 5 August 1869.
Mary was the daughter of Mary Ann Bevan and Edward Prince and was born in Wellington on 26 August 1845. She died of
typhoid
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
at the Mantell home in Sydney Street on 15 March 1873, aged twenty-seven, and was buried in the
Bolton Street Cemetery
Bolton Street Memorial Park, formerly known as Bolton Street Cemetery, is the oldest cemetery in Wellington, New Zealand. Dating back to 1840, many notable people are buried here. Situated in the suburb of Thorndon, New Zealand, Thorndon, the Well ...
. He had claimed to have married Mary Prince on 29 July 1863.
Mantell married Jane Hardwick a daughter of Benjamin Hardwick of Kent on 10 January 1876 and died in Wellington on 7 September 1895.
Mantell and Mary Prince's son, Walter Godfrey Mantell, was born on 30 April 1864 and legitimized in 1894.
He became a dentist in Wellington and married on 28 November 1888 in Auckland Catherine Louise Marguerite Bucholz, daughter of Ernest Louis Bucholz, the late German, Belgian and Italian Consul in Auckland.
Legacy and commemoration
Mantell's fossils remain in possession of the Museum of New Zealand to the present day. Mantell is commemorated in the names of the
North Island brown kiwi
The North Island brown kiwi (''Apteryx mantelli''; ''Apteryx australis'' or ''Apteryx bulleri'' as before 2000, still used in some sources) is a species of kiwi that is widespread in the northern two-thirds of the North Island of New Zealand an ...
''Apteryx mantelli'' and the
North Island takahē
The North Island takahē ( mi, moho) (''Porphyrio mantelli'') is an extinct rail that was found in the North Island of New Zealand. This flightless species is known from subfossils from a number of archeological sites and from one possible 189 ...
''Porphyrio mantelli''.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Walter Mantell on ''Moa beds'', 1872
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mantell, Walter
1820 births
1895 deaths
Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand
Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives
Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council
People from Lewes
New Zealand paleontologists
New Zealand public servants
New Zealand MPs for South Island electorates
English emigrants to New Zealand
19th-century New Zealand politicians
New Zealand naturalists