Abbot, Charles
People > Abbot, Charles
Charles Abbot was born on 24th March 1761, probably at Blandford and entered Winchester School in 1772 and proceeded to New College, Oxford in 1779 where he took his Master of Arts degree in 1788 and in the same year he took up his post of under-master at Bedford Grammar School, which later became known as The Bedford School. He had married Sarah Harris of Leigh Sinton near Malvern, Worcestershire the previous year.
In addition to his post at Bedford Grammar School and to augment his school income he became vicar of Oakley Reynes from 1798 and vicar of Goldington from 1803. He was curate of St. Marys and for a time of St. Pauls, Bedford. He was elected a Fellow of New College in 1788 and a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1793. In 1813 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquities He was disappointed when he was not appointed master of the school when John Hooke, the Master died in 1810 and he had a somewhat stormy relationship with John Brereton, Hookes successor at the School.
However, his interest in natural history, especially
botany, saw him publish his "Flora Bedfordiensis" in 1798, which was only the
third county flora to be published in Britain, following Oxfordshire and
Cambridgeshire and the first to be published in English. This work includes 748
flowering plants and ferns as well as 577 lower plants (mosses, fungi etc).
The illustration shown here is the Hearts Ease
Violet
He was also keenly interested in the study of insects and he recorded the first record of the Chequered Skipper in Britain, which he found in Clapham Wood. He tried to persuade The Linnean Society to adopt the Duke of York Fritillary as the name for the Chequered Skipper. He turned his hand to verse and had published, Hymns composed for the use of St. Marys Church Bedford as well as poems on the deaths of Samuel Whitbread and Francis 5th Duke of Bedford.
He died at Bedford on the 8th September 1817 and was buried at Malvern, near his wifes old home, in a burial plot, which he had purchased for them both. Sarah Abbot had already died and there were no children.
In The Heritage Library at Bedford Central Library there is a copy of his work Flora Bedfordiensis 1798.
Sources:
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BOON, C. Charles Abbot : Bedfordshires first Botanist. In Beds Mag Vol.26 pp.240-243
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DONY, J. A Bedfordshire Botanist and Schoolmaster. In Beds Mag. Vol.11 pp.69-72
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DONY, J. Bedfordshire Naturalists 111 Charles Abbot In The Bedfordshire Naturalist Vol. 3 1948 pp.38-42
Charles Abbot by Bedfordshire Libraries, 2011
Page last updated: 22nd January 2014