An Entomologist's life. George Samouelle (c.1790?- 1846)
Aug 31, 2018 12:22:02 GMT
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An Entomologist's life. George Samouelle (c.1790?-1846)
" Every new find in the journals, books and archives wiped away a little more of the grime of time that obscures our window into the past". Rupert Barrington (July, 2018) Gilbert Raynor Mapies, British Journal of Entomology and Natural History.
" I suppose there are, and always have been entomologist's of the kidney, men endowed with to my mind the most priceless of gifts. Such one man must have been George Samouelle, who published, in 1819 The Entomologist's Useful Compendium. No weather, no season of the year, deterred him from following his beloved hobby " I have repaired to the woods" says he " when in some parts I have been up to my knees in snow, and, strange to say, have taken insects from under bark of trees, moss etc." P.B.M. Allan (1937) A Moth Hunters Gossip.
This article gives brief details of the life of the entomologist George Samouelle, of which unfortunately there is comparatively little known. From humble beginnings he became a keeper of the entomology collections at British Museum. There is good evidence that during his 19 years service at the British Museum he was a very good keeper in spite of the rather chequered account given of his last few years there by Gunther (1975), which was used by Stearn (1981), Salmon (2000) and Damkaer (2002). In the 19th century Samouelle was best known his 1819 work, The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, which was widely used, both by beginners and those at the pinnacles of entomology. Samouelle unlike some his more scientific based museum contemporaries was also a very good field worker.
In 1807 Samouelle aged 17, married Ann Maria Towsey who was born in 1787, in Walthamstow, Essex. They had 8 children, Caroline Elizabeth, Louisa and six others. At this time Samouelle was a clerk for the Longman Publishing House in London, he then for a short period became a professional entomologist, a fact that seems to be overlooked by previous researches. On the inside of the cover of Frederick William Hope's copy of Samouelle's The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, opposite his elaborate book plate, is an attached business card of Samouelle, who lived at 5 Savoy Row near Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road in London. The card reads "Private Instructions. For arranging collections per day. £1. 1.0. Instructions at 5 Savoy Row, 4 lessons £1.1.0. Do if aboard for 3 lessons £1.1.0. Collections of Insects 3 to 15 guineas. Cabinets, boxes and every apparatus used by entomologists on reasonable terms. Books & Periodical publications procured to order." In 1818 Samouelle was elected an associate of the Linnean Society.
George Samouelle, unknown artist.
Samouelle became a close friend of the Brilliant Zoologist William Elford Leach (1791- 1836) who was employed as an assistant keeper in the Natural History Department of the British Museum at Montagu House in Bloomesbury, London. Leach was responsible for the zoological collections, which had been in some disorder since Hans Sloane left them to the nation. Leach was very keen to modernize British zoology following its stagnation during the long war with post-revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Dr George Shaw the Keeper of the Natural History Department and his assistant Leach despised the taxidermy and other specimens of the Sir Hans Sloane period, which had been much neglected and were in poor condition, so they made periodical bonfires of the Sloanian specimens that led Leach's successor, J.G. Children to complain that none of Sloane's 5,394 insect specimens had survived the cremations, writing "of Sloane's thousands of insects literally not a vestige remains." There is no known portrait of Leach, who was a leading world authority on the Crustacea and was very keen to promote the science of entomology, encouraging Samouelle to publish The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, allowing him full use of his own unpublished manuscripts. When the work was published in 1819 Samouelle dedicated the book to Leach and fully acknowledged his use of his mentors written accounts. The Entomologist's Useful Compendium or An introduction to the knowledge of British insects : comprising the best means of obtaining and preserving them, and a description of the apparatus generally used; together with the genera of Linné, and the modern method of arranging the classes Crustacea, Myriapoda, Spiders, Mites and Insects, from their affinities and structure, according to the views of Dr. Leach ; also an explanation of the terms used in entomology; calendar of the times of appearance and usual situations of near 3,000 species of British insects ; with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope ; illustrated with twelve plates, consisted of nearly 500 pages, with 250 pages devoted to the families and genera of the different insect orders of British insects, with further chapters on insect collecting, equipment and preservation and collecting localities and the very useful extensive entomological calendar.
Samouelle's A Nomenclature of British Entomology, A catalogue of over 4000 species of Crustacea, Spiders and Insects, alphabetically arranged and intended as labels for cabinets of British insects was also published in 1819, this work was mainly taken from The Entomologist's Useful Compendium. Samouelle's fellow entomologists held the Entomologist's Useful Compendium in high regard, John Curtis writing in his British Entomology, vol 1. (1824) "Mr Samouelle's Introduction to the Knowledge of British Insects, which has contributed so much towards the advancement of Entomology in this country, has been rendered more generally useful by being written in our own language." Willian Kirby (1828) in his An Introduction to Entomology, vol 4 " with regard to works on British Entomology, Samouelle's Entomologist's Useful Compendium will be found a very excellent help to the student". Two later editions of the book appeared in 1824 and 1836.
James Charles Dale had his copy of the Entomologist's Useful Compendium rebound in calf leather, rearranging the work to suit his own taste, placing the Entomological calendar at front of the book instead of at the back. His copy is interleaved with his own notes and it is now held by the Entomology library of the Oxford Museum of Natural History. The blank inside cover of Dale's copy shows extensive rough notes, above his book plate is his sketch of map of where the rare Wart Biter Cricket, Acrida verrucivoria = Decticus verrucivorus and the Dew Moth, Lithosia irrorata = Setina irrorella had been found near Rochester, Kent by Professor John Stevens Henslow, Darwin's mentor and one of Dale's Tutors at Cambridge University. Both Dale and Hope's copies of Samouelle's book show that they had been much used, almost certainly in the field. It was Samouelle who suggested in a letter written to Dale in 1819 that " he should collect all orders of insects, and all the specimens he came across, rejecting none."
The Inside cover of J.C. Dale's copy of the Entomologist's Useful Compendium.
The Entomologist's Useful Compendium gives details of where Samouelle and other collectors were hunting insects " The woods near London, which are the most frequented by Entomologists are, Coombe Wood and Norwood in Surrey, Birch Wood, Darent Wood, and the woods round Bexley in Kent. Coombe Wood has long been celebrated for the variety of insects, Birch wood is on the Maidstone Road, and is of great extent : near the 14-mile stone on this road is a large chalk-pit in which many rare insects are obtained. Bexley, a small village, lies between Crayford and Foot's Cray. In these woods I have collected with great success, near the village is a large sand pit which produces an immense number of Coleopterous and Hymenopterous insects. There are also some very rural lanes round village, which produces a great variety of insects. Norwood is well known, and is but a short distance from the metropolis of London ; but the inconsiderate gamekeepers will frequently interrupt and warn the unoffending Entomologist to quit the wood immediately, allowing that ours " is untax'd and undisputed Game. I have collected in the marshes of Plaistow, West Ham, Barking, Hackney and Battersea with much success". Samouelle also gave details of the method of preserving larva by blowing them, which he had learned from William Weatherhead, an entomologist who helped many aspiring London collectors such as James William Bond, Daniel Bydder and H.J. Harding.
In 1821 Samouelle was given the position of an assistant to Dr Leach, as the keeper of the entomology collections at the Natural History Department of the British Museum, unfortunately that year Leach had a nervous breakdown through over work at the museum and was forced to retire from his duties in 1822, he died from cholera in Italy during 1836. Samouelle was not then, although he became that person nineteen years later " the unfortunate Man " suggested by Damkaer (2002) who "was placed in a position above his capacity " and who " when Leach left the museum, Samouelle took over his position". Samouelle was never given Leach's position on a permanent basis, he never came from the right echelons of society in the class structured system of 19th century Britain. In 1822 Leach's position was taken by John George Children (1777–1852) who initially had little training in zoology, he was a librarian in the Department of Antiquities at the British Museum. The appointment, influenced by Sir Humphrey Davy, was controversial as he was less qualified than another applicant, William John Swainson. Children depended greatly on John Edward Gray who first began working at the museum as volunteer day-worker.
John George Children. Assistant keeper of the Natural History Department between 1822 & 1837 and then keeper of the new Zoology Department, retiring in 1840.
In 1826 Samouelle's General Directions for collecting and Preserving Exotic Insects and Crustacea was published ; the slim volume consisted of 70 pages and four plates. During 1826 Samouelle founded the Entomological Club and Edward Newman, A.H. Davis, Abraham Hopkins and Davies Samuel Hanson were among its first members. This the oldest known surviving entomological society which still exists to this day as a dining club, with a small select membership that is by invitation only and is restricted to eight persons. In 1829 Samouelle commenced for publication, the periodical The Entomological Cabinet, being a Natural History of British Insects, which was illustrated in colour by the author, these were bound into two annual volumes. He then issued two numbers of a second series of the same work but as the periodical sales were now lower, he proceeded no further. A second edition of Entomological Cabinet with 156 plates was issued in a single volume in 1841. In 1833 the Entomological Club published the Entomological Magazine, one of the first journals devoted to Entomology. One of the publishers was A.H. Davis who also contributed articles to the journal, a friend of Samouelle who often accompanied him on field trips. The leading lights of day contributed articles to the magazine, among them Edward Newman, John Curtis, James Charles Dale, J.F. Stephens, Edward Doubleday etc, yet Samouelle never contributed a single article to the journal which was discontinued in 1838 due to decline in sales. A possible explanation is that in the first issue of the Entomological Magazine (1833) there is a rather poor review of the of the first issues of Entomological Cabinet as regards Samouelle' nomenclature, several names that he used were stated to be out of date and incorrect.
It is clear from reading the Entomological Cabinet that Samouelle was in contact with many well known entomologists from a wide range of different backgrounds, from Daniel Bydder, the Spitalfield Weaver who had informed him of the aquatic bug, Ranatra linearis in the Nepidae family that in the ponds of Epping Forest "That the insect was not scarce, but collectors were not aware of the mode of seeking them", to the Reverend C.S. Bird of Burghfield in Reading who had sent him specimens of the tiger beetle Cicindela Germanica, of which Samouelle advised his readers " I should recommend all Entomologists, when collecting insects of this genus, to put them into separate pill boxes ; otherwise they will destroy each other, and every insect that may come there way." Samouelle himself had collected the rare beetle in the chalky lane leading to Darenth Wood in Kent.
Pavonia Minor = Saturnia pavonia. The Entomological Cabinet by Samouelle (1834).
As keeper of the entomology collections, Samouelle seems to have been a careful and meticulous worker, writing manuscripts of all the collections that were either presented to the museum or had been purchased by them, these were listed by Harvey (1996). The Manuscripts were eventually bound into three volumes entitled Entomological Memorandums. According to Harvey (1996), in 1838 Samouelle was suspended from his post at the British Museum for a few months " as a consequence of putting himself forward as security for his son-in-laws's debts."
When John Edward Gray (1800–1875) applied for the job as assistant to Dr Leach in 1821, he was passed over in preference to Samouelle by the head keeper of the Zoology collections, the German zoologist Charles Konig (1774–1851). According to Gunthur (1981) this affected Gray badly and he had a near breakdown. When Gray became a medical student, he was originally interested in botany but after being blackballed when he was balloted to become a member of the Linnean Society, he decided to become a zoologist instead. In spite of these early set backs, in 1824 Gray officially joined the museum, being given a temporary post to catalogue the reptile collection under J.G. Children. In 1833 Gray was one of the founders of what would become the Royal Entomological Society of London and J.G. Children became its first president. When Children retired in 1840, Gray aged 40, took his place as Keeper of the Zoology Department at the Museum which had been formed when the Natural History department was divided into three in 1837. Gray was a good organizer and under his leadership the Zoological collection would become the best in the world, he was a prolific taxonomist being especially interested in reptiles and malacology, the study of molluscs, during his time at the British Museum, he published over 500 papers.
In 1840 Samouelle was sacked from his post at the museum as the request of Gray. Brown (1980) who studied the letters written by Samouelle to J. C. Dale writes " Samouelle was foolish enough to repeat that Gray had taken some shells out of the private collection of Dr Leach. For this alleged slander Gray told Samouelle that he would " rest neither night or day until he had got him dismissed ". This Gray succeeded in doing and Samouelle was discharged after 19 years of service without compensation." It is from the information provided by Albert Everard Gunther (1903-1998) that we have details of Samouelle supposed misdemeanours at the British Museum during his last year there. A.E. Gunthur's grandfather was the German zoologist Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1830–1914), who specialized in herpetology, he first came to England in 1855, an admirer of Gray they met at the British Museum, when Gray died in 1875 Gunther took over his position as keeper of the zoology collections.
A.E. Gunthur wrote in his book, A Century of Zoology at the British Museum through the Lives of Two Keepers John Edward Gray & Albert Gunther, presumably from details from Gray's manuscripts that "Samouelle was incapable of independent work", this seems an almost biased statement to make, for in 1821 when Samouelle joined the museum staff, Leach soon afterwards resigned his post due to ill health. Samouelle then seemed to work well on his own for the next nineteen years, and had managed to produce further works entomology for publication, did Gunther really mean that Samouelle unlike himself and Gray was not a scientist and taxonomist or had Samouelle been dismissed as Gunther writes " because he had taken to drink, neglected his duties, addressed his superiors with insulting language and spited his fellow work Adam White (1817-1879) by deliberately removing the registration numbers affixed to his specimens, therefore creating utter confusion".
John Edward Gray. He Joined the Natural History Department of the British museum in 1824, and was Keeper of the Department Zoology at the British Museum between 1840 & 1875.
When Samouelle was dismissed, Gray replaced him with William Baird, (1803–1872), a physician, best known for his 1850 work, The Natural History of the British Entomostraca. Damkaer (2002) writes " I would not want to say that Samouelle's removal was responsible for Baird's appointment, but timing, always critical, is apparent."
Whatever the truth behind the dismissal of Samouelle, he was without a pension, soon bankrupt and poverty stricken, and was dead five years later. Brown (1980) writes " Dale sent him £5 to prevent him being turned into the street by his landlord. By April 1843 Samouelle had lost all his furniture, books and collections by a distress warrant for rent, and was in great poverty. Dale sent him money from time to time, as he was unable to obtain any employment. He died destitute circumstances in 1846. Dale helped Mrs Dubois, Samouelle daughter towards the expenses of the funeral."
References.
Allan P.B.M. (1937) A Moth Hunters Gossip.
Anon. (1838-1848) Obituary of Samouelle. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, vol 1, pp. 304-305.
Anon. (1833) British Periodical Works on Entomology. Samouelle's Entomological Cabinet. Entomological Magazine.
Curtis J. (1824) British Entomology, vol 1.
Damkaer D.M. (2002) The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History, Part 1.
Gunthur A.E. (1975) A Century of Zoology at the British Museum Through: The Lives of Two Keepers, 1815-1914, John Edward Gray (1800-1875) and Albert Gunther (1830-1914).
Gunther A.E. (1981) Founders of Science at the British Museum, 1753-1900: A Contribution to the Centenary of the Opening of the British Museum (Natural History) on 18 April, 1981.
Harvey J. (1996) A catalogue of manuscripts in the Entomology Library of the Natural History Museum, London.
Kirby W. (1828) An Introduction to Entomology, vol 4.
Salmon M.A. Marren P. Harley B. (2000) The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors.
Samouelle G. (1819) The Entomologist's Useful Compendium.
Samouelle G. (1819). A Nomenclature of British Entomology. A catalogue of over 4000 species of Crustacea, Spiders and insects, alphabetically arranged and intended as labels for cabinets of British insects.
Samouelle G. (1826) General Directions for collecting and Preserving Exotic Insects and Crustacea.
Samouelle G. (1841) The Entomological Cabinet; being a natural history of British insects,second edition.
S.C.S. Brown (1980) Unpublished manuscript. The Dale letters.
Stearn W. T. (1981) The Natural History Museum at South Kensington: A History of the Museum 1753-1980.
" Every new find in the journals, books and archives wiped away a little more of the grime of time that obscures our window into the past". Rupert Barrington (July, 2018) Gilbert Raynor Mapies, British Journal of Entomology and Natural History.
" I suppose there are, and always have been entomologist's of the kidney, men endowed with to my mind the most priceless of gifts. Such one man must have been George Samouelle, who published, in 1819 The Entomologist's Useful Compendium. No weather, no season of the year, deterred him from following his beloved hobby " I have repaired to the woods" says he " when in some parts I have been up to my knees in snow, and, strange to say, have taken insects from under bark of trees, moss etc." P.B.M. Allan (1937) A Moth Hunters Gossip.
This article gives brief details of the life of the entomologist George Samouelle, of which unfortunately there is comparatively little known. From humble beginnings he became a keeper of the entomology collections at British Museum. There is good evidence that during his 19 years service at the British Museum he was a very good keeper in spite of the rather chequered account given of his last few years there by Gunther (1975), which was used by Stearn (1981), Salmon (2000) and Damkaer (2002). In the 19th century Samouelle was best known his 1819 work, The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, which was widely used, both by beginners and those at the pinnacles of entomology. Samouelle unlike some his more scientific based museum contemporaries was also a very good field worker.
In 1807 Samouelle aged 17, married Ann Maria Towsey who was born in 1787, in Walthamstow, Essex. They had 8 children, Caroline Elizabeth, Louisa and six others. At this time Samouelle was a clerk for the Longman Publishing House in London, he then for a short period became a professional entomologist, a fact that seems to be overlooked by previous researches. On the inside of the cover of Frederick William Hope's copy of Samouelle's The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, opposite his elaborate book plate, is an attached business card of Samouelle, who lived at 5 Savoy Row near Nelson Square, Blackfriars Road in London. The card reads "Private Instructions. For arranging collections per day. £1. 1.0. Instructions at 5 Savoy Row, 4 lessons £1.1.0. Do if aboard for 3 lessons £1.1.0. Collections of Insects 3 to 15 guineas. Cabinets, boxes and every apparatus used by entomologists on reasonable terms. Books & Periodical publications procured to order." In 1818 Samouelle was elected an associate of the Linnean Society.
George Samouelle, unknown artist.
Samouelle became a close friend of the Brilliant Zoologist William Elford Leach (1791- 1836) who was employed as an assistant keeper in the Natural History Department of the British Museum at Montagu House in Bloomesbury, London. Leach was responsible for the zoological collections, which had been in some disorder since Hans Sloane left them to the nation. Leach was very keen to modernize British zoology following its stagnation during the long war with post-revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Dr George Shaw the Keeper of the Natural History Department and his assistant Leach despised the taxidermy and other specimens of the Sir Hans Sloane period, which had been much neglected and were in poor condition, so they made periodical bonfires of the Sloanian specimens that led Leach's successor, J.G. Children to complain that none of Sloane's 5,394 insect specimens had survived the cremations, writing "of Sloane's thousands of insects literally not a vestige remains." There is no known portrait of Leach, who was a leading world authority on the Crustacea and was very keen to promote the science of entomology, encouraging Samouelle to publish The Entomologist's Useful Compendium, allowing him full use of his own unpublished manuscripts. When the work was published in 1819 Samouelle dedicated the book to Leach and fully acknowledged his use of his mentors written accounts. The Entomologist's Useful Compendium or An introduction to the knowledge of British insects : comprising the best means of obtaining and preserving them, and a description of the apparatus generally used; together with the genera of Linné, and the modern method of arranging the classes Crustacea, Myriapoda, Spiders, Mites and Insects, from their affinities and structure, according to the views of Dr. Leach ; also an explanation of the terms used in entomology; calendar of the times of appearance and usual situations of near 3,000 species of British insects ; with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope ; illustrated with twelve plates, consisted of nearly 500 pages, with 250 pages devoted to the families and genera of the different insect orders of British insects, with further chapters on insect collecting, equipment and preservation and collecting localities and the very useful extensive entomological calendar.
Samouelle's A Nomenclature of British Entomology, A catalogue of over 4000 species of Crustacea, Spiders and Insects, alphabetically arranged and intended as labels for cabinets of British insects was also published in 1819, this work was mainly taken from The Entomologist's Useful Compendium. Samouelle's fellow entomologists held the Entomologist's Useful Compendium in high regard, John Curtis writing in his British Entomology, vol 1. (1824) "Mr Samouelle's Introduction to the Knowledge of British Insects, which has contributed so much towards the advancement of Entomology in this country, has been rendered more generally useful by being written in our own language." Willian Kirby (1828) in his An Introduction to Entomology, vol 4 " with regard to works on British Entomology, Samouelle's Entomologist's Useful Compendium will be found a very excellent help to the student". Two later editions of the book appeared in 1824 and 1836.
James Charles Dale had his copy of the Entomologist's Useful Compendium rebound in calf leather, rearranging the work to suit his own taste, placing the Entomological calendar at front of the book instead of at the back. His copy is interleaved with his own notes and it is now held by the Entomology library of the Oxford Museum of Natural History. The blank inside cover of Dale's copy shows extensive rough notes, above his book plate is his sketch of map of where the rare Wart Biter Cricket, Acrida verrucivoria = Decticus verrucivorus and the Dew Moth, Lithosia irrorata = Setina irrorella had been found near Rochester, Kent by Professor John Stevens Henslow, Darwin's mentor and one of Dale's Tutors at Cambridge University. Both Dale and Hope's copies of Samouelle's book show that they had been much used, almost certainly in the field. It was Samouelle who suggested in a letter written to Dale in 1819 that " he should collect all orders of insects, and all the specimens he came across, rejecting none."
The Inside cover of J.C. Dale's copy of the Entomologist's Useful Compendium.
The Entomologist's Useful Compendium gives details of where Samouelle and other collectors were hunting insects " The woods near London, which are the most frequented by Entomologists are, Coombe Wood and Norwood in Surrey, Birch Wood, Darent Wood, and the woods round Bexley in Kent. Coombe Wood has long been celebrated for the variety of insects, Birch wood is on the Maidstone Road, and is of great extent : near the 14-mile stone on this road is a large chalk-pit in which many rare insects are obtained. Bexley, a small village, lies between Crayford and Foot's Cray. In these woods I have collected with great success, near the village is a large sand pit which produces an immense number of Coleopterous and Hymenopterous insects. There are also some very rural lanes round village, which produces a great variety of insects. Norwood is well known, and is but a short distance from the metropolis of London ; but the inconsiderate gamekeepers will frequently interrupt and warn the unoffending Entomologist to quit the wood immediately, allowing that ours " is untax'd and undisputed Game. I have collected in the marshes of Plaistow, West Ham, Barking, Hackney and Battersea with much success". Samouelle also gave details of the method of preserving larva by blowing them, which he had learned from William Weatherhead, an entomologist who helped many aspiring London collectors such as James William Bond, Daniel Bydder and H.J. Harding.
In 1821 Samouelle was given the position of an assistant to Dr Leach, as the keeper of the entomology collections at the Natural History Department of the British Museum, unfortunately that year Leach had a nervous breakdown through over work at the museum and was forced to retire from his duties in 1822, he died from cholera in Italy during 1836. Samouelle was not then, although he became that person nineteen years later " the unfortunate Man " suggested by Damkaer (2002) who "was placed in a position above his capacity " and who " when Leach left the museum, Samouelle took over his position". Samouelle was never given Leach's position on a permanent basis, he never came from the right echelons of society in the class structured system of 19th century Britain. In 1822 Leach's position was taken by John George Children (1777–1852) who initially had little training in zoology, he was a librarian in the Department of Antiquities at the British Museum. The appointment, influenced by Sir Humphrey Davy, was controversial as he was less qualified than another applicant, William John Swainson. Children depended greatly on John Edward Gray who first began working at the museum as volunteer day-worker.
John George Children. Assistant keeper of the Natural History Department between 1822 & 1837 and then keeper of the new Zoology Department, retiring in 1840.
In 1826 Samouelle's General Directions for collecting and Preserving Exotic Insects and Crustacea was published ; the slim volume consisted of 70 pages and four plates. During 1826 Samouelle founded the Entomological Club and Edward Newman, A.H. Davis, Abraham Hopkins and Davies Samuel Hanson were among its first members. This the oldest known surviving entomological society which still exists to this day as a dining club, with a small select membership that is by invitation only and is restricted to eight persons. In 1829 Samouelle commenced for publication, the periodical The Entomological Cabinet, being a Natural History of British Insects, which was illustrated in colour by the author, these were bound into two annual volumes. He then issued two numbers of a second series of the same work but as the periodical sales were now lower, he proceeded no further. A second edition of Entomological Cabinet with 156 plates was issued in a single volume in 1841. In 1833 the Entomological Club published the Entomological Magazine, one of the first journals devoted to Entomology. One of the publishers was A.H. Davis who also contributed articles to the journal, a friend of Samouelle who often accompanied him on field trips. The leading lights of day contributed articles to the magazine, among them Edward Newman, John Curtis, James Charles Dale, J.F. Stephens, Edward Doubleday etc, yet Samouelle never contributed a single article to the journal which was discontinued in 1838 due to decline in sales. A possible explanation is that in the first issue of the Entomological Magazine (1833) there is a rather poor review of the of the first issues of Entomological Cabinet as regards Samouelle' nomenclature, several names that he used were stated to be out of date and incorrect.
It is clear from reading the Entomological Cabinet that Samouelle was in contact with many well known entomologists from a wide range of different backgrounds, from Daniel Bydder, the Spitalfield Weaver who had informed him of the aquatic bug, Ranatra linearis in the Nepidae family that in the ponds of Epping Forest "That the insect was not scarce, but collectors were not aware of the mode of seeking them", to the Reverend C.S. Bird of Burghfield in Reading who had sent him specimens of the tiger beetle Cicindela Germanica, of which Samouelle advised his readers " I should recommend all Entomologists, when collecting insects of this genus, to put them into separate pill boxes ; otherwise they will destroy each other, and every insect that may come there way." Samouelle himself had collected the rare beetle in the chalky lane leading to Darenth Wood in Kent.
Pavonia Minor = Saturnia pavonia. The Entomological Cabinet by Samouelle (1834).
As keeper of the entomology collections, Samouelle seems to have been a careful and meticulous worker, writing manuscripts of all the collections that were either presented to the museum or had been purchased by them, these were listed by Harvey (1996). The Manuscripts were eventually bound into three volumes entitled Entomological Memorandums. According to Harvey (1996), in 1838 Samouelle was suspended from his post at the British Museum for a few months " as a consequence of putting himself forward as security for his son-in-laws's debts."
When John Edward Gray (1800–1875) applied for the job as assistant to Dr Leach in 1821, he was passed over in preference to Samouelle by the head keeper of the Zoology collections, the German zoologist Charles Konig (1774–1851). According to Gunthur (1981) this affected Gray badly and he had a near breakdown. When Gray became a medical student, he was originally interested in botany but after being blackballed when he was balloted to become a member of the Linnean Society, he decided to become a zoologist instead. In spite of these early set backs, in 1824 Gray officially joined the museum, being given a temporary post to catalogue the reptile collection under J.G. Children. In 1833 Gray was one of the founders of what would become the Royal Entomological Society of London and J.G. Children became its first president. When Children retired in 1840, Gray aged 40, took his place as Keeper of the Zoology Department at the Museum which had been formed when the Natural History department was divided into three in 1837. Gray was a good organizer and under his leadership the Zoological collection would become the best in the world, he was a prolific taxonomist being especially interested in reptiles and malacology, the study of molluscs, during his time at the British Museum, he published over 500 papers.
In 1840 Samouelle was sacked from his post at the museum as the request of Gray. Brown (1980) who studied the letters written by Samouelle to J. C. Dale writes " Samouelle was foolish enough to repeat that Gray had taken some shells out of the private collection of Dr Leach. For this alleged slander Gray told Samouelle that he would " rest neither night or day until he had got him dismissed ". This Gray succeeded in doing and Samouelle was discharged after 19 years of service without compensation." It is from the information provided by Albert Everard Gunther (1903-1998) that we have details of Samouelle supposed misdemeanours at the British Museum during his last year there. A.E. Gunthur's grandfather was the German zoologist Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1830–1914), who specialized in herpetology, he first came to England in 1855, an admirer of Gray they met at the British Museum, when Gray died in 1875 Gunther took over his position as keeper of the zoology collections.
A.E. Gunthur wrote in his book, A Century of Zoology at the British Museum through the Lives of Two Keepers John Edward Gray & Albert Gunther, presumably from details from Gray's manuscripts that "Samouelle was incapable of independent work", this seems an almost biased statement to make, for in 1821 when Samouelle joined the museum staff, Leach soon afterwards resigned his post due to ill health. Samouelle then seemed to work well on his own for the next nineteen years, and had managed to produce further works entomology for publication, did Gunther really mean that Samouelle unlike himself and Gray was not a scientist and taxonomist or had Samouelle been dismissed as Gunther writes " because he had taken to drink, neglected his duties, addressed his superiors with insulting language and spited his fellow work Adam White (1817-1879) by deliberately removing the registration numbers affixed to his specimens, therefore creating utter confusion".
John Edward Gray. He Joined the Natural History Department of the British museum in 1824, and was Keeper of the Department Zoology at the British Museum between 1840 & 1875.
When Samouelle was dismissed, Gray replaced him with William Baird, (1803–1872), a physician, best known for his 1850 work, The Natural History of the British Entomostraca. Damkaer (2002) writes " I would not want to say that Samouelle's removal was responsible for Baird's appointment, but timing, always critical, is apparent."
Whatever the truth behind the dismissal of Samouelle, he was without a pension, soon bankrupt and poverty stricken, and was dead five years later. Brown (1980) writes " Dale sent him £5 to prevent him being turned into the street by his landlord. By April 1843 Samouelle had lost all his furniture, books and collections by a distress warrant for rent, and was in great poverty. Dale sent him money from time to time, as he was unable to obtain any employment. He died destitute circumstances in 1846. Dale helped Mrs Dubois, Samouelle daughter towards the expenses of the funeral."
References.
Allan P.B.M. (1937) A Moth Hunters Gossip.
Anon. (1838-1848) Obituary of Samouelle. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, vol 1, pp. 304-305.
Anon. (1833) British Periodical Works on Entomology. Samouelle's Entomological Cabinet. Entomological Magazine.
Curtis J. (1824) British Entomology, vol 1.
Damkaer D.M. (2002) The Copepodologist's Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History, Part 1.
Gunthur A.E. (1975) A Century of Zoology at the British Museum Through: The Lives of Two Keepers, 1815-1914, John Edward Gray (1800-1875) and Albert Gunther (1830-1914).
Gunther A.E. (1981) Founders of Science at the British Museum, 1753-1900: A Contribution to the Centenary of the Opening of the British Museum (Natural History) on 18 April, 1981.
Harvey J. (1996) A catalogue of manuscripts in the Entomology Library of the Natural History Museum, London.
Kirby W. (1828) An Introduction to Entomology, vol 4.
Salmon M.A. Marren P. Harley B. (2000) The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors.
Samouelle G. (1819) The Entomologist's Useful Compendium.
Samouelle G. (1819). A Nomenclature of British Entomology. A catalogue of over 4000 species of Crustacea, Spiders and insects, alphabetically arranged and intended as labels for cabinets of British insects.
Samouelle G. (1826) General Directions for collecting and Preserving Exotic Insects and Crustacea.
Samouelle G. (1841) The Entomological Cabinet; being a natural history of British insects,second edition.
S.C.S. Brown (1980) Unpublished manuscript. The Dale letters.
Stearn W. T. (1981) The Natural History Museum at South Kensington: A History of the Museum 1753-1980.
