Etheldred Benett (1775-1845), fossil collector
Silhouette of Etheldred Benett, [?1837]. From: H B Woodward, ‘History of Geology’ (1911). GSL Library collection.
Etheldred Benett was born on 22 July 1775 at Pyt House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, the eldest daughter of Thomas Benett. The geologist and botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert, her brother's wife's half-brother, encouraged her and her sister Anna Maria to study natural history. Whilst her sister concentrated on botany, Benett took up the newly fashionable study of fossils.
Most of Benett’s collection comprised Jurassic and Cretaceous specimens from her home county of Wiltshire, but she also collected fossils from farther afield, notably during her holidays to the Dorset Coast. From at least 1809, people were recorded as visiting ‘Miss Benett’s collection’, and by 1810 she was engaging in correspondence with and sending material to other geologists and museums. Between 1813 and 1842, Benett donated at least 43 batches of specimens to the Geological Society's Museum.
Extract from the “List of Geological and Mineralogical Collections in Great Britain and Ireland”, which was published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol 7 (1829). GSL Library collection. Benett's collection appears under Wiltshire.
Fossil Alcyonia
Two drawings of fossil sponges, taken from: 'Sketches of fossil Alcyonia from the Green Sand Formation at Warminster Common and the immediate vicinity of Warminster in Wiltshire', by Etheldred Benett, 1816. (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/947/7/2).
Etheldred Benett's particular passion was for Alcyonia (fossil sponges). She produced at least three copies of this hand-illustrated manuscript showing sponges from her collection. The Society holds two copies, one which was sent to us, the other to George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855). Benett sent a third copy to her friend Gideon Mantell (1790-1852).
The work consists of a short introduction where Benett describes the local geology of Warminster Common. Thereafter follow 20 ink drawings by Benett of Alcyonia fossils which were found by a George Warren, but with no scientific names or attempt at further description.
Chicksgrove Quarry
When her health permitted, Benett energetically collected her own specimens in the field, but she did draw the line in certain circumstances. For example Benett commissioned and produced a measured section of the Upper Chicksgrove Quarry at Tisbury, which she sent to the Geological Society in March 1815. As a wealthy gentlewoman, she did not get into the quarry herself. Rather it was the quarry foreman John Montague who was directed to do the physical measuring.
Unhappy that she could not correlate the ‘organic remains’ to particular beds, she sent a corrected version in March 1816.
Pleuromya uniformis collected from Chicksgrove Quarry by Etheldred Benett. Donated to the Geological Society 22 March 1815 along with the first version of her measured section. (British Geological Survey, ref: GSa 3198-3201).
Extract from Etheldred Benett's corrected section of the strata in Chicksgrove Quarry, Wiltshire, [1816]. (GSL Archive ref: GSL/MUS/1/3/17).
Scientific correspondents
Amongst Benett’s many scientific correspondents was the geologist and natural history artist James Sowerby (1757-1822), to whom she would send fossils. He in turn visited her collection. A number of Benett’s specimens were included in his multi-volumed work ‘The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain’ (1812-1846), such as this type specimen Hammites plicatilis, a cephalopod from the Chalk Marl at Bishopstrow, near Warminster.
Although Benett was always eager to help with the scientific works and papers of others, she was quick to point out any errors that they made. In a letter to George Bellas Greenough in 1822, she criticised Sowerby’s apparent lack of knowledge of conchology:
“I have now a second instance of his blundering himself from his want of confidence in that work, early in the publication of Mineral Conchology he republished No.28 as the young shell and No.29 as the old shell of the same species, I proved the error to him by specimens, and he admitted it, but never noticed it in a subsequent part of the work….”
Hammites plicatilis from James Sowerby’s ‘The Mineral Conchology of Great Britain', vol 3 (1821). GSL Library Collection.
James Sowerby had also included the corrected section of Chicksgrove Quarry in volume 2 of ‘Mineral Conchology’ without Benett’s permission and much to her annoyance.
George Bellas Greenough
Another major scientific correspondent was the Geological Society's founder and first President, George Bellas Greenough (1778-1855). This map, hand-coloured by Greenough, formed part of the preparation for his ‘Geological Map of England & Wales’ (1820). Much of the information which was used to compile the map came from information sent to him by others including Benett. Benett’s fossil collecting is directly referenced on this map, with an annotation stating “at Crockerton in clay under green sand teeth & bones of crocodile Miss Benett”.
Detail of the map of the county of Wiltshire, geologically coloured by George Bellas Greenough, February 1819. (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/947/6/D/11/6). The caption references Benett's collection, click here to enlarge.
Publication
Although Benett’s collection, specimens and observations were frequently referenced by other geologists such as Gideon Mantell, James Sowerby, William Buckland, George Bellas Greenough and William Henry Fitton in their works, Benett produced only one publication of her own, ‘A Catalogue of the Organic Remains of the County of Wiltshire’ (1831).
Part of the text of this work had been commissioned by the antiquarian Sir Richard Hoare to be included in his ‘Modern History of South Wiltshire’ (1831). Benett revised it and included some illustrated plates which she distributed to geological acquaintances and scientific bodies.
In thanks for receiving a copy of the book, the Natural History Society of Moscow made her a member in 1836, but her unusual first name and the perception that geology was a masculine science resulted in the diploma being ascribed to 'Dominum [Master] Etheldredus Benett'.
Page from Etheldred Benett's 'A Catalogue of Organic Remains of the County of Wiltshire', 1831. (GSL Library collection: E Tracts 13). The ink annotations are by Benett, who updated the work as her knowledge increased.
The book was also referenced by the President of the Geological Society:
"In mineral conchology, that most important branch of our fossil evidences, the year has not passed over without its fruits; and those who know the devotion which Miss Benett has bestowed upon this study, and how largely she has thereby contributed to the successful progress of Sowerby’s text-book of the science, must have witness with sincere pleasure the appearance of the organic remains of Wiltshire, as collected and illustrated by that accomplished lady."
Binomial classification
Benett had hopes that she could encourage the male geological community to take an interest in her fossil sponges. However after waiting a number of years during which at least one of the three individuals she had in mind inconveniently died, she took on the task herself, publishing her taxonomic names in her ‘Catalogue of Organic Remains…’ (1831).
The genus Polypothecia had been used in a publication by J S Miller in 1822, but Benett was the first to use the name in a binomial combination. Her species names were derived from the fossils’ external forms.
Polypothecia quadriloba from the Upper Greensand, near Warminster, Wiltshire, collected by Etheldred Benett. Donated to the Geological Society's Museum on 4 April 1824. Note that the printed species and location labels are Benett's own. (British Geological Survey, ref: Gsa 1578-1579).
Modern reputation
Benett’s scientific endeavours may pre-date the more famous Mary Anning by at least a decade, but she is lesser known due to the nature and fate of her famous collection.
Anning’s large and spectacular Jurassic reptiles can still be seen in the public museums around the country, but on Bennet’s death in 1845 her collection was put up for auction and purchased by Thomas Bellerby Wilson (1807-1865). Wilson, an English expatriate living in Newark, Delaware, USA, spirited Benett’s collection away to America where he donated it to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1848. By the end of the 19th Century, her collection of modestly sized, handling specimens of English provincial strata was virtually forgotten. It would not be until the late 1980s that her collection began to be identified and Benett’s scientific reputation established once again.
Thanks to the British Geological Survey for permission to reproduce the images of Benett's fossil specimens.