Ellen Hutchins
| Ellen Hutchins | |
|---|---|
| Born |
17 March 1785 Ballylickey House, Bantry Bay, County Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 9 February 1815 (aged 29) |
| Resting place | Bantry churchyard, County Cork, Ireland |
| Citizenship | British, Irish |
| Fields | Botany especially algae, mosses, liverworts, and lichens |
| Institutions | County Cork, Ireland |
| Known for | Botanical illustration, collections of specimens, plant identification |
Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) was an early Irish botanist. She is known for her botanical illustrations in contemporary publications as well as collecting and identifying hundreds of specimens.
Ellen Hutchins was from Ballylickey, where her family had a small estate at the head of Bantry Bay, County Cork, Ireland. She was born 17 March 1785 at Ballylickey House, the second youngest surviving child of her parents. Her father, Thomas, was a magistrate who died when Ellen was two years old, leaving his wife Elinor and six surviving children (from twenty-one). She was sent to school near Dublin, and while there, her health deteriorated, largely it appears through being underfed (healthy appetites not being considered ladylike). Dr Whitley Stokes, a family friend, took her under his and his wife's care in his house in Harcourt Street, Dublin. She regained her appetite and health, and also followed Stokes advice to take up natural history as a healthy hobby. Following her improved health, she returned to her family home to care for her mother and her disabled brother Thomas.
However, her own health declined again and by late 1812 she was seriously ill. She and her mother moved to Bandon in 1813 to receive medical care. After her mother died there in 1814, she moved back to Ardnagashel House, close to Ballylickey, to be cared for by her brother Arthur and his wife Matilda. She died on 9 February 1815 and was buried in the old Bantry churchyard. Her grave was unmarked, but a plaque was erected in 2002 by the Hutchins family. A further memorial was placed there in 2015, the bicentenary of her death, by the National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology.
She focused on botany (Stokes' own specialism) and spent much time out of doors accompanied by the indoor occupations of identifying, recording and drawing the plants she collected. She studied plants, specialising in the cryptograms such as mosses, liverworts, lichen, and seaweeds. Nearly all of her collecting was undertaken in the Banty area and County Cork. The Lusitanian flora of West Cork was comparatively unknown at this time. She learnt quickly and clearly had a gift for plant identification, produced very detailed watercolour drawings, and meticulously prepared specimens. She sent samples to Stokes which he passed on to other botanists. Through Stokes she became acquainted with James Townsend Mackay, a curator at the Botanic Garden of Trinity College. He helped her in the classification of the plants she was collecting and she contributed to his Flora Hibernica. In 1807, Mackay sent her specimens to Dawson Turner a botanist in Great Yarmouth on the East Anglian coast of England, for his publication Fuci. Turner's 'thank you' note was the beginning of a seven-year correspondence and exchange of specimens and drawings. A selection of these letters has been published by the National Botanic Gardens Glasnevin, Dublin in 1999. This publication also reprints the list of nearly 1100 plants that she prepared between 1809 and 1812 at the request of Dawson Turner for "a complete catalogue of plants of all kinds that you have found in your neighbourhood".
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