Michael Pakenham Edgeworth was an Irish botanist who specialized in seed plants and ferns, and spent most of his life and work in India.
Background
He was born in County Longford, Ireland on 24 May 1812, one of twenty-four children of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) and his four wives. His mother, Frances Beaufort, was the fourth wife. His older half-sister Maria Edgeworth, born to his father"s first wife Anna Maria Edgeworth (née Elers), became a novelist.
Career
Although he is known to have had an estate of 1,659 acres (671 ha) in County Longford, Ireland, at a young age he left for India in 1831 to join the Indian Civil Service of the British Colonial regime. Edgeworth"s post encompassed an area from Lahore to Madras. Being possessed of a curious spirit, Edgeworth travelled widely throughout India and the island of Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) where he collected plants and made notes.
In 1850 he was made the Chief of Police of the English settlement Punjab.
In addition to his interest in botany, he also wrote about Indian tongues, culture, topography, and antiquities. But he wasn"t always in India.
As a correspondence from Charles Darwin to Juris Doctor Hooker mentions a conversation held between himself, Edgeworth and biologists John Lubbock and George Charles Wallich, at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London (18 April 1861) less than two years after the publication of Darwin"s On the Origin of Species (22 November 1859). Unfortunately, very little of the content of this conversation is revealed in the letter.
Edgeworth died suddenly on 30 July 1881 on the island of Eigg, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides.
The plant genus Edgeworthia was dedicated to him.
Membership
Linnean Society of London.