Background
She was born in 1797 in Sheepstead House, Abingdon, to Benjamin Morland, a solicitor. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father remarried, producing a large family of half-brothers and sisters.
She was born in 1797 in Sheepstead House, Abingdon, to Benjamin Morland, a solicitor. Her mother died when she was a baby, and her father remarried, producing a large family of half-brothers and sisters.
Both were travelling in Dorsetshire and each were reading a new and weighty tome by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. "They got into conversation, the drift of which was so peculiar that Doctor Buckland exclaimed, "You must be Mission Morland, to whom I am abut to deliver a letter of introduction." He was right, and she soon became Mrs Buckland. She is an admirable fossil geologist, and makes midels in leather of some of the rare discoveries".
In 1825 Mary Morland married William Buckland, who later became Dean of Westminster.
Their honeymoon was a geological tour lasting a year, including visits to famous geologists and geological locations across Europe. They had nine children, including Frank Buckland.
She also made models of fossils, and labelled fossils for an Oxford museum. She studied marine zoophytes using microscopes.
She repaired broken fossils according to her husband"s instructions.
She assisted him when he was commissioned to contribute a volume to The Bridgewater Treatises. His contribution in 1836 was a mixture of geological and palaeontological science and philosophical reflections. We know a lot about William Buckland from the biography written by his and Mary"s daughter Elizabeth.
Mary Buckland amassed a vast collection of fossils and other specimens.
She also taught in a village school in Islip, near the family"s country home.