Post by cornishglassons on Feb 12, 2009 16:07:07 GMT -5
This is slightly OT but I thought I’d share with you information I have been compiling on a rather well known Glasson in law that has caught my attention. Well known, it has to be said, because of the money he inherited from the Glassons!!
William of Falmouth (1781-1843) was married to Elizabeth Mogg of Greinton, Somerset. They had 12 children, although 4 died as young children.
In William’s lifetime and later in his will he gave/left property and land to his daughters as well as his sons. It had been a tradition in the Glasson family of marrying cousins. As then all goods and property owned by the woman upon marriage became the property of her husband - I have often wondered if this was a way of the keeping the money in the family. But that’s just my own idea.
One of his daughters was named Mary (1821 - 1851). In his will William left Mary a rather profitable piece of land which was leased to a China Clay company near St Austell.
Five months after her father’s death Mary married Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (1814- 1893), a surgeon in the Royal Navy who had attended Penzance Grammar School and St Batholomew’s Hospital in London. After marrying Mary he retired! In his official biography it says he inherited property - which of course he did. He then devoted the rest of his life to his hobby of insects - entomology.
Mary had at least four children very quickly and died in 1851. The children spent their childhood living with their widowed maternal grandmother Elizabeth, and their father who had bought a house in Paddington, London.
Francis took off around the world collecting specimens of his beloved insects. Although once they were old enough his three daughters, none of whom ever married, accompanied him. His only son, Alleyne, was in the Royal Navy and died aged 26. Eldest daughter Flora carried on corresponding with the Natural History Museum after his death and I suspect carried on with his work.
He travelled the world for many years, being well known in Australia and many remote islands where species of insects and plants were catalogued for the first time. He travelled through Africa and the Amazon regions where he discovered many new species too. He was responsible for naming over 2,800 different species of insects and also wrote many books and papers which are still in use by natural history students today. His specialism was beetles (longicorn Coleoptera) although in England his country there are also several rare plants named after him.
He became friendly and worked aside Charles Darwin. Darwin’s life is extremely well catalogued and many of the letters between them, and mentioning each other, have survived. Certainly Darwin learnt a lot from Francis and in letters to other colleagues states things he had learnt from his lectures when he returned home to England. It is said that although Francis supported Darwin’s theory of evolution, he thought it was rather simplistic. He believed there was more to evolution than natural selection and that climate and other changes played a major part in changes species undergo.
Back home, Francis spent many years cataloguing Darwin, and Wallace (another famous naturalist) collections. He is thanked by them both in their books.
He was invited to become a fellow of many of the Natural History Societies worldwide and became president of the Entomological Society in 1864 (Darwin only made vice-president - LOL). Upon his death he left several thousand of his species to the Natural History Museum, which added to the many specimens he had previously sold them. It is in their library that his papers are also held. I was particularly interested to see one of his books was reprinted in 2008 - some 115 years after his death.
The Entomological Society recently supplied me with photos and more details of his work. A fascinating man!
Best wishes,
Carole
William of Falmouth (1781-1843) was married to Elizabeth Mogg of Greinton, Somerset. They had 12 children, although 4 died as young children.
In William’s lifetime and later in his will he gave/left property and land to his daughters as well as his sons. It had been a tradition in the Glasson family of marrying cousins. As then all goods and property owned by the woman upon marriage became the property of her husband - I have often wondered if this was a way of the keeping the money in the family. But that’s just my own idea.
One of his daughters was named Mary (1821 - 1851). In his will William left Mary a rather profitable piece of land which was leased to a China Clay company near St Austell.
Five months after her father’s death Mary married Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (1814- 1893), a surgeon in the Royal Navy who had attended Penzance Grammar School and St Batholomew’s Hospital in London. After marrying Mary he retired! In his official biography it says he inherited property - which of course he did. He then devoted the rest of his life to his hobby of insects - entomology.
Mary had at least four children very quickly and died in 1851. The children spent their childhood living with their widowed maternal grandmother Elizabeth, and their father who had bought a house in Paddington, London.
Francis took off around the world collecting specimens of his beloved insects. Although once they were old enough his three daughters, none of whom ever married, accompanied him. His only son, Alleyne, was in the Royal Navy and died aged 26. Eldest daughter Flora carried on corresponding with the Natural History Museum after his death and I suspect carried on with his work.
He travelled the world for many years, being well known in Australia and many remote islands where species of insects and plants were catalogued for the first time. He travelled through Africa and the Amazon regions where he discovered many new species too. He was responsible for naming over 2,800 different species of insects and also wrote many books and papers which are still in use by natural history students today. His specialism was beetles (longicorn Coleoptera) although in England his country there are also several rare plants named after him.
He became friendly and worked aside Charles Darwin. Darwin’s life is extremely well catalogued and many of the letters between them, and mentioning each other, have survived. Certainly Darwin learnt a lot from Francis and in letters to other colleagues states things he had learnt from his lectures when he returned home to England. It is said that although Francis supported Darwin’s theory of evolution, he thought it was rather simplistic. He believed there was more to evolution than natural selection and that climate and other changes played a major part in changes species undergo.
Back home, Francis spent many years cataloguing Darwin, and Wallace (another famous naturalist) collections. He is thanked by them both in their books.
He was invited to become a fellow of many of the Natural History Societies worldwide and became president of the Entomological Society in 1864 (Darwin only made vice-president - LOL). Upon his death he left several thousand of his species to the Natural History Museum, which added to the many specimens he had previously sold them. It is in their library that his papers are also held. I was particularly interested to see one of his books was reprinted in 2008 - some 115 years after his death.
The Entomological Society recently supplied me with photos and more details of his work. A fascinating man!
Best wishes,
Carole