Henry Smeathman
Henry Smeathman (1742–1786) was an English naturalist.
In 1771 John Fothergill along with two other members of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks and Marmaduke Tunstall, sponsored Smeathman to spend four years in and around the Sierra Leone penininsula studying its natural history.[1]
Life
Sierra Leone
Smeathman made his voyage to Africa aboard a trade ship called the Fly, which was transporting barrels of rum to the West African coast. The Fly arrived at Sierra Leone on December 12, 1771. Smeathman was first granted permission to stay in the Banana Islands, where he had a house constructed. Shortly after his arrival, Smeathman contracted a case of what he described as malaria; he suffered from symptoms of the disease until his death.[2]
Smeathman travelled and gathered specimens throughout the Sherbro area, the Kamaranka River, and the Sierra Leone River estuary. In addition, he visited Bence Island to ship out his specimens. He initially encountered problems with preserving his specimens during oceanic transport, but discovered that placing boxes of specimens atop opened rum barrels effectively prevented their destruction.[3]
Departure from Africa
According to John C. Lettsome, Smeathman married first the daughter of King Tom and later the daughter of King James Cleveland; however on both these occasions his spouse died.[4] Smeathman departed Sierra Leone in 1775 via a slave ship. However, he was delayed in the Caribbean by illness and the American War of Independence while en route to England. Hence, Smeathman supplemented this work with a further four years spent in the Caribbean.
Andreas Berlin, one of the apostles of Linnaeus, was among Smeathman's associates.
Texts
- Smeathman H. (1781) Some account of the termites, which are found in hot Climates. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 71: 139-192,
- Smeathman H. (1785?) Elocution and polite literature
- Smeathman H. (1786) Plan of a Settlement to be made near Sierra Leone, on the Grain Coast of Africa
References
- ↑ Braidwood S. (1994) p. 6
- ↑ Starr Douglas; Douglas, Starr. "The making of scientific knowledge in an age of slavery: Henry Smeathman, Sierra Leone and natural history". Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 9 (3). doi:10.1353/cch.0.0029. ISSN 1532-5768.
- ↑ Starr Douglas; Douglas, Starr. "The making of scientific knowledge in an age of slavery: Henry Smeathman, Sierra Leone and natural history". Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 9 (3). doi:10.1353/cch.0.0029. ISSN 1532-5768.
- ↑ Braidwood S. (1994) p. 7
Bibliography
- Braidwood, Stephen (1994). Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement 1786 - 1791. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-0-85323-377-0.
External links
- Douglas, Starr. "Smeathman, Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/93969. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)