Charlotte Murchison née Hugonin (1788-1869), fossil collector and artist
Charlotte (née Hugonin), Lady Murchison by Camille Silvy
albumen print, 1860. NPG Ax50535
© National Portrait Gallery, London. [Creative Commons licence]
Charlotte Hugonin was born on 18 April 1788, the daughter of General Francis Hugonin (d.1836) and his wife Charlotte, nee Edgar (d.1838). Nothing is known of her childhood and youth other than her mother was a skillful florist and botanist.
When she met her future husband Roderick Murchison (1792-1871) in the early summer of 1815 (marrying him a few months later), it was she who was studying science. Roderick, on the other hand, was a cavalry officer in the Dragoons who was more interested in horses and dogs. As Napoleon’s defeat killed any chance of military advancement, Charlotte encouraged her new husband to resign his commission in the hopes he would turn his attention to more literary endeavours. However, although in the first few years of their marriage they travelled extensively in the Continent and Britain, with Charlotte tutoring him in natural history, Roderick showed little inclination to pursue a scientific career, later reflecting,
“I…gave myself up recklessly but jovially to a fox-hunting life. It was during the years 1818-22 (three in the north country, and two seasons in Melton Mowbray) that my wife was always striving to interest me in something more intellectual than the case, and began to teach herself mineralogy and conchology…”
With the further urging of Sir Humphry Davy that he should consider pursuing science, Charlotte finally had her way and in 1824 the couple moved to London where Roderick began to attend lectures on geology and chemistry.
Geological field trips
When her health allowed, having recurrent bouts of malarial fever which she had caught whilst travelling in Italy in 1817, Charlotte accompanied Roderick on his geological field trips, which were usually taken around the summer months. In the early years they would travel by carriage or horseback, with Charlotte collecting and identifying fossils, drawing the scenery and, with her fluency in languages, speaking to the local experts to gain knowledge on the geology of the area.
Ammonites lataecosta, figured in James Sowerby & James de Carle Sowerby, 'The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain', vol 6 (1829), Tab. 556. GSL Library collection.
This ammonite from Lyme which James de Carle Sowerby described as being “liberally presented by Mrs Murchison” may have been collected during the Murchisons' first geological tour in 1825 which was aimed at taking in the “leading features of English geology”. One of the stops was to Lyme Regis where they met Mary Anning. Read more about the encounter here.
Ammonites Murchisonae, Tab 550 from James Sowerby & James de Carle Sowerby, 'The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain', vol 6 (1829). GSL Library collection. Described as being "Broken out of a calcareous nodule composed of compacted Ammonites and other fossils, at the base of a cliff of micaceous sandstone east of Holme, near Portree, Isle of Skye, by Mrs Murchison".
Found by Charlotte during the couple’s field trip around Scotland in 1826, the main object of which was to settle the geological age of the Brora coal-field in Sutherlandshire. The species was named in her honour by James de Carle Sowerby.
Modern, idealized illustration showing Roderick, Charlotte, Charles Lyell and two others, travelling together on their geological trip to France and Italy in 1828.
Page from Charlotte Murchison's field diary which documented the joint trip to France and Italy with her husband Roderick and Charles Lyell in 1828. (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/840/2). Click here to enlarge
The most famous of their joint field trips is likely to be the one in which they were accompanied part of the way by the young barrister Charles Lyell (1797-1875), whom Roderick met at a Geological Society meeting in January 1825. The trip, which ran from the spring to autumn of 1828, was later referred to by Murchison as a ‘Geological Grand Tour’. The party travelled through France, Switzerland and Northern Italy reaching Padua in mid-September where they parted.
The above extract from Charlotte's diary recounts what appears to be a minor incident which occurred on the 13th July 1828 (see lower, left hand page). Typically she recorded her views on the accommodation and the scenery first:
“12 & 13th Theuyts - good village Inn. no vermin beautiful scenery but unable to sketch on visit the Gueule de l'Enfer from a lame foot - narrow escape of our lives on the descent. Postillion kicked off just before entering Mayres, & horses ran away with us some distance”
In fact what happened was that one of horses pulling the carriage which contained Charlotte and her maid Annette was spooked by a fly bite. It took off dragging the carriage which careered precariously behind. Roderick and Charles Lyell ran on foot after it but couldn't catch up, whilst Annette was screaming in terror with Charlotte trying to hold her down. The carriage was eventually stopped by villagers but so keen were they to help the two women that they managed to drop a window on Charlotte’s foot, badly bruising the tendons. Two days later, strapped up, she was back in the field.
Valley of Gosau, drawn and lithographed by Charlotte Murchison. Published in: Adam Sedgwick & Roderick Murchison, “A Sketch of the Structure of the Eastern Alps; with Sections through the Newer Formations on the Northern Flanks of the Chain, and through the Tertiary Deposits of Styria, &c. &c.”, Transactions of the Geological Society of London, Series 2, vol 3 (1832).
The Murchisons were travelling around Austria and Germany between June-October 1830, investigating the geological structure of the Austrian Alps. Charlotte records in her diary that on 10th August 1830 she visited Gosau where she sketched the “serrated mountains”.
Most of the scenic drawings Charlotte made during these field trips do not survive in the Society’s archive collections. The small number which do all relate to their excursions to Wales and the Welsh borders in the 1830s to investigate the fossiliferous, Palaeozoic strata which would become known as the Silurian System. Many would be published in Roderick Murchison's book the 'Silurian System' (1839).
Original sketch by Charlotte Murchison of ‘Modern Travertine of the Southstone Rock’ (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/859).
Woodcut ‘Modern Travertine of the Southstone Rock’ from Roderick Murchison’s Silurian System (1839), fig 112. GSL Library collection.
Roderick was himself a very competent artist, which he demonstrated when he had to travel alone during his trips to Russia in the early 1840s when Charlotte’s health prevented her from coming too. The last major trip they made was in 1847 to the Alps and Italy but her health gradually declined and in the last years of her life she was more or less confined to her home. She died of bronchitis on 9 February 1869.
‘Souvenirs of the Life of Lady Murchison’ by Frank Buckland, 1869. (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/789/157). Click here to enlarge
This tribute/obituary to Charlotte was written by Frank Buckland (1826-1880), the son of their friends William Buckland (1784-1856) and his wife Mary Buckland née Morland (1797-1857), another contemporary geological couple. When trying to learn geology, Roderick attended William Buckland's classes in Oxford.