James Buckman (1814–1884): the scientific career of an English Darwinian thwarted by religious prejudice

Abstract

Abstract Buckman first practised as a chemist. He joined the Botanical Society of London in 1837, and became a significant Cotswold naturalist, in botany and geology. He was elected Fellow of the Geological Society in 1842, when he was Honorary Secretary to the Cheltenham Literary and Philosophical Institution. In 1844 his brother Edwin went bankrupt and Buckman sought a new career. His amateur interests allowed him to become one of the first English professionals across natural science. He was appointed Secretary, Curator and Resident Lecturer to the Birmingham Philosophical Institution in 1846, then Professor of Geology, Botany and Zoology at the new Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester in 1848. Buckman here started botanical experiments to ‘solve the problem of the identity of species’ and read papers to the British Association from 1853. These yielded praise in Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, and led to development of the ‘Student Parsnip’ in 1860. Buckman's 1860 British Association report on his experiments, to the infamous Oxford meeting, supported evolution and the mutability of species. The Anglican Principal of the College found this distasteful and ordered the destruction of Buckman's Botanical Garden in spring 1862. Buckman's life provides a painful demonstration of the tribulations facing newly professional scientists in Victorian England. It also demonstrates the difficulties of then professing geology alone.