150 Years of the Geologists of the Cotteswold Naturalists Field Club
Portrait of Edwin Witchell
painted by his daughter Kate.
© Roger Vaughan Picture Library 2004
Edwin Witchell FGS, (24th June 1823-20th August 1887), was one of at least fourteen children, six though died at an early age, including twins. Edwin was born at Nympsfield, near Stroud. His tastes from early boy-hood led him more to the study of books than to the cultivation of the soil. In 1836 at the age of thirteen he was placed and later articled to a solicitor in Stroud, Mr Paris, who was the chief local solicitor of those days. He ultimately succeeded to this practice in 1847. He married Miss Caroline Clutterbuck at Rodborough Parish Church on Thursday 6th February 1851, her father Joseph Clutterbuck who lived at Rodborough was an "Engineer". At that time Edwin's father was described on the marriage certificate as an "Inn Keeper". In 1858 he is mentioned as "Clerk to the Trustees of the Stroud and Gloucester Road". His solicitor's practice was at first in the Town of Stroud and later at Lansdown, Stroud, and he acted as the Clerk to the Urban District Council. Early in his life he was very fond of hunting, and used often to go out with another solicitor, Mr Paul Hawkins Fisher, the author of "Notes and Recollections of Stroud", 1871, "in some of the most memorable runs of the adjacent packs of fox-hounds". This exhilarating sport doubtless contributed to his then robust health; but as the years crept on Witchell gave up his hunter and applied himself assiduously to rambles in pursuit of his favourite science of Geology.
Witchell no doubt owed his early love of geology to his long association with the geologist Mr George Poulett Scrope, for many years M.P. for Stroud, and at one time President of the Geological Society of London. As well as being Scrope's friend, Witchell also acted as his political agent in Stroud. He became more and more involved with geology, becoming a member of the Cotteswold Naturalists Field Club in 1860. On the day of his election to the Club, the 9th May, the club met at the George Hotel at Stroud, and went on to Swifts Hill, always one of his favourite geological sites (and the place fittingly he was to die in 1887) and then on to Rodborough, a place he knew well as it was where his wife's family lived. He afterwards showed the members "an interesting series of fossils from the Stroud Sewage tank" on that subject, on June 7th, he read his first paper for the Club.
He soon became an important member of the Club, for no geological discussion at the meetings of the Field Club were considered complete until Witchell had taken part, when his "stores of geological knowledge" would be given out with his characteristic enthusiasm and ability. He contributed many papers to the Proceedings of this Club and to many other publications. He became Club Treasurer at the A.G.M. on 19th April 1881. In the Gloucester Record Office is an interesting copy of his Insurance Policy he took out in 1862 in which he states "he had the cowpox and not the smallpox". There are many such interesting Witchell legal papers at the Gloucester Record Office. Witchell had a good collection of natural history books, these he passed on to his son, the naturalist, Charles Adolphus Witchell, who was encouraged by his father to write on natural history subjects, and who later became a valuable member of the Field Club.
Witchell was the clerk to the Local Board of Health from 1875 to 1887, the post was continued after his death by his son Percy. He encouraged and was in some way responsible for the building of Stroud's sewers and drains and he was long remembered for this work by the grateful people of Stroud. Witchell was on the founding Committee of the Stroud Natural History and Philosophical Society, whose members supported the need for a local museum. At their first meeting at Stroud Subscription Rooms on the 16th March 1876, Dr Wright said that "Geological museums all over the world were rich with specimens from this neighbourhood, and yet, except in the private collections of Dr Paine and Mr Witchell and a few others, there was no local museum of the specimens of the neighbourhood". In 1880 Witchell took over as President of that Society for a year. For a time the society published "Transactions" though the society was not long lived.
In 1886 in a paper in the "Proceedings" of the Club, Volume IX, pages 39 - 40, the geologist S.S.Buckman named a brachiopod, Waldheimia (Zeilleria) Witchelli, S.Buck. "occurs in the Oolite Marl at Notgrove Station, and is at present very rare. "I name this species in compliment to my friend, Mr.E.Witchell, F.G.S. of Stroud, to whom I am indebted for much kindness and assistance". In an issue published in March 1887, S.S.Buckman named an ammonite "Witchellia" in the volume, "A Monograph of the Inferior Oolite Series", in which he used a number of Witchell's observations "by my friend, Mr E.Witchell, to whom I am indebted for much information regarding the Cotteswold Hills". It is from this that the "Witchellia Grit" " of the Lower Bajocian found in the Cotswolds, derives its name, the zone ammonite is Witchellia laevisuscula.
View of The Acre, Stroud, taken in the 1960's
His home was "The Acre", Stroud,(now Acre Street) from some time before 1863. Living with him at the time of the census of 1881 was his wife Caroline (57), his sons Edward Northam (28) a solicitor, Percy (26) a Managing Clerk, Edwin Aubrey (21) a Medical Student and Charles Adolphus (19) a Law Student. Edwin's daughters also lived with them, Miss Lucy Caroline (24) who had no occupation, and Miss Mary E.K.(Kate) (22) of no occupation, all of Edwin's children were born at Stroud. They had two servants, both local women, Miss Emma Bloxham (27) the Cook, and Miss Frances Edwards (21) the Housemaid, both "lived in". In 1887 Edwin also owned two houses at Bath Place, Stroud, these were rather small and probably represent the payment of debt rather than an investment, also two houses at Bisley. Both his daughters were artistic, Kate painted a portrait of James Buckman, and one of them painted their father Edwin Witchell which is still in the possession of the family at Tetbury. The Acre has since been demolished, modern flats now stand on the site.
Witchell had a good collection of fossils, many of which he made drawings of, for his publications, one of his notebooks with line drawings of fossils, (55 pages plus an index) is stored at Stroud (Cowle) Museum. He presented some Jurassic bivalvia, echinodermata and ammonoidea to the British Museum (Natural History) between 1863 and 1886, including some specimens figured by John Lycett. These were mainly fossils from the Fuller's Earth and the Great Oolite from the Stroud district. Some of his fossil Mammalia, from the Gannicox pit are in Stroud Museum. Witchell wanted to see a local museum formed in Stroud, and his own large, and considered, complete, collection of local fossils was a great attraction to all geologists visiting the district. The fate of some of these fossils is as yet unclear, but there is a small chance that some may be as yet unidentified at Stroud Museum.
He was an enthusiastic promoter of science in his neighbourhood, where he won universal respect, an instance of this is shown by the support he gave to the various institutions that succeeded the first Mechanics' Institution in the 1850's.
He wrote an excellent book on "The Geology of Stroud and the Area Drained by the Frome" in 1882, published in Stroud following in the handbook tradition of Murchison and Lycett. He felt that scientific papers were not always available to the general reader, so that "a special work, descriptive of the local geology of a district is therefore necessary to those who are desirous of becoming acquainted with its physical history". The book was the result of twenty-five years of study and included "lists of the more common fossils of each zone or division of the strata" as well a good step by step guide to the local strata and representative sections, and included a chapter on the Gravel, River Deposits, and Denudation.
He was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1861 and contributed papers to its Quarterly Journal. The last of these, on "The Basement Beds of the Inferior Oolite of Gloucestershire," was read for him on the 24th February 1886, his health at that time rendering a journey to London undesirable. He suffered from angina pectoris from 1884 onward which started when climbing in a dangerous part of the cliffs at Lyme Regis. He was not incapacitated from business, nor deterred from carrying on geological work. He was elected a Vice-President of the Cotteswold Naturalists Field Club during the last year of his life. He died on a geological excursion at Swift's Hill on 20th August 1887, he was 64. He had left home in the afternoon to look at the quarry in the Slad valley, and after having been there sometime, as the driver of his carriage was handing to him his fossil bag, he exclaimed, "Oh dear!" and fell to the ground, and the only words he uttered afterwards were, "Don't leave me for a minute," and so passed away, in scientific harness, hammer in hand, one of the most active members of the Cotteswold Club. Edwin Witchell was buried at Stroud Cemetery, Bisley Road, on his tomb are the following sentiments:
In loving memory of Edwin Witchell, F.G.S.
Who for forty years practiced as a solicitor in this town
Born June 24th 1823
Died August 20th 1887
Gods finger touched him and he slept
Return to Cotteswold Geologists
Homepage