Mary Hone Smith (1784-1866), fossil collector
Not much is known about the early life of Mary Hone Smith (1784-1866). It is thought she was born in Stepney and her husband William Hugh Smith died in 1838. By the early 1840s, Smith was living in Tunbridge Wells where she had amassed a collection of Cretaceous fossils from the Kent area, not only by purchasing specimens from local quarries but from her own field work.
Her private museum was visited by many of the notable male geologists of the period who included specimens from her collection in their published works.
The Cleft, High Rocks, one of the areas of geological interest recommended for visitors to Tunbridge Wells. From: J R Thomson, 'Pelton's illustrated guide to Tunbridge Wells', (1875). GSL Library collection.
Gideon Mantell
“Called on Mrs Smith and inspected some beautiful and rare fossils from the Kentish chalk.”
Gideon Mantell recording a visit to Tunbridge Wells on 13 June 1842, from: E C Curwen (ed), ‘The journal of Gideon Mantell, surgeon and geologist’, London: Oxford University Press (1940), p158.
The Sussex born geologist Gideon Mantell (1790-1852) commissioned this watercolour illustration for his paper “Description of some Fossil Fruits from the Chalk Formation of the South-east of England”, 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society', vol 2 (1846).
It shows Carpolithes Smithiae, Mantell, from the white chalk of Kent. Mantell wrote: “The specific name is in honour of Mrs Smith of Tunbridge Wells, whose choice collection of chalk fossils is well known". The only other example Mantell had seen was in his own collection but was so compressed it was hard to make out if it was animal or vegetable in origin. In comparison a glance at the specimen in Smith’s collection “was sufficient to determine its vegetable origin, for several seeds were imbedded in its substance, and others had been detached in clearing it from the chalk.”
Detail of watercolour 'Fossil fruits from the Chalk formation of the South East of England', by Joseph Dinkel, 1842. (GSL Archive ref: LDGSL/126).
Frederick Dixon
Frederick Dixon (1799-1849), was another Sussex based surgeon and geologist who collected fossils around his home in Worthing. His book ‘The geology and fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations of Sussex’ (1850) was published posthumously but included numerous references to specimens “from the valuable and instructive collection of Mrs Smith of Tonbridge Wells”
Dolichosaurus longicollis, from F Dixon, ‘The geology and fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations of Sussex’, Tab 38, fig 1. GSL Library collection.
Described by Dixon as "a beautiful specimen of the mutilated head and anterior thirty-six vertebrae of the fossil Lizard from the lower chalk of Kent, in the admirable collection of Mrs Smith of Tunbridge". The other part of the specimen was in the collection of Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton. The fossil was found in quarry pit at Burham, Kent.
Richard Owen
The comparative anatomist and geologist Richard Owen (1804-1892) also included material from “the admirable collection of Mrs Smith of Tunbridge Wells" in his book ‘Monograph of the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous formations’ (1866).
Plesiosaur paddle from R Owen, ‘Monograph of the fossil Reptilia of the Cretaceous formations’, London: Palaeontographical Society (1866). GSL Library collection.
The plesiosaur paddle of the left was recorded as being found in a pit in Burham, Kent, presumably the same quarry as the lizard fossil above. Owen wrote, "This fine specimen forms part of the rich collection of Chalk-fossils belonging to Mrs. Smith, of Tonbridge Wells”.
Towards the end of her life Smith went blind, and in 1866 she died at the age of 82. Smith’s collection was left to her daughter Mrs Bishop of Bramcote, Nottingham but she died soon after. In 1877, Smith’s son-in-law Mr Bishop bequeathed a cabinet of Chalk fossils to Nottingham Museum. The second Mrs Bishop sold the majority of Smith’s collection to the British Museum in 1878.