# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Edward, Thomas

​EDWARD, THOMAS (1814–1886), the Banff naturalist, was born at Gosport on 25 Dec. 1814, his father, a hand-loom linen weaver, being a private in the Fifeshire militia, which was temporarily stationed there. His early years were spent at Kettle, near Cupar, and at Aberdeen. From childhood he was passionately fond of animals, and brought home so many out-of-the-way creatures that he was frequently flogged and confined to the house. But even at five years old he proved utterly unmanageable. At the age of six he had been turned out of three schools in consequence of his zoological propensities. He was then set to work at a tobacco factory in Aberdeen, at fourteen-pence a week. Two years later Edward got employment at a factory two miles from Aberdeen, and his walks to and from work gave further scope to his taste for natural history. At the age of eleven he was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Aberdeen for six years, but left his service after three years, because of the cruel treatment he received. After this he worked under other employers, with intervals of eccentric expeditions, militia service (when he narrowly escaped punishment for breaking from the ranks in pursuit of a fine butterfly), and enlistment in the 60th rifles, from which his mother's entreaties and efforts got him off.
At the age of twenty Edward settled at Banff to work at his trade. He had already taken in the 'Penny Magazine' from its first issue in 1832, and found in it some information on natural history. He had learnt something from seeing pictures on Aberdeen bookstalls and stuffed animals in shop windows. At twenty-three he married a cheerful and faithful young woman named Sophia Reid, when his earnings were less than ten shillings a week. Marriage enabled him to become a collector, by giving him for the first time a place where he could keep specimens. Without friends, without a single book on natural history, not knowing the names of the creatures he found, he gained a knowledge unique in its freshness and accuracy. Every living thing had a fascination for him. He devoted numberless nights to wanderings, during which he went about or rested as one of themselves among nocturnal creatures. Wild animals for the most part moved freely about in his neighbourhood. He became acquainted with the sounds and movements of many animals which were unknown before. But he sometimes formed their acquaintance in terrific encounters, one with a polecat lasting two hours. An hour or two's sleep on open heaths, in old buildings, on rocks by the sea, was often his only rest; and his constitution was enfeebled by rheumatism caught in such expeditions. Gradually he accumulated a representative collection of animals, all stuffed or prepared by his own hands. Once a series of nearly a thousand insects, the result of four years' work, was totally destroyed by rats or mice. By 1846 he possessed nearly two thousand species of animals, besides many plants. All the cases were made by himself.
Hoping to gain a little money, Edward exhibited his collection at the Banff fair in May 1845. This was successful, and he repeated it a year after, and then resolved to exhibit at Aberdeen in August 1846. But at Aberdeen, as the professors told him, he was 'several centuries too soon.' They had neither a public museum nor a free library. He was even met with much incredulity, few believing that he could have made the collection unaided. He had spent his small funds and got into debt. Overcome by despair he one day went to the seashore to commit suicide; but the sight of an unknown bird excited him to pursue it, and drove away his resolve. At last he was compelled to sell his entire collection for 20l. lOs. to a gentleman, who stowed it in a damp place, where it went to ruin.
Returning nome penniless, Edward set to work manfully at his trade, at which he was very proficient, and refrained from night expeditions throughout the succeeding winter, in the spring he resumed his old manner of life, going further afield at times, and carrying with him, to excuse his use of a gun, an elaborate certificate of harmlessness signed by sixteen magistrates. He ran many risks, got frightful falls on cliffs, was drenched in storms, and falling ill had to sell many of his newer specimens to support his family. Meanwhile some books on natural history had been lent to him by the Rev. James Smith of Monquhitter, near Banff, who persuaded him to record some of his observations. Many of his notes on natural history were inserted in the 'Banffshire Journal.' His friend Mr. Smith in 1850 began to send notices of Edward's observations to the 'Zoologist.' These included detailed accounts of the habits and behaviour of birds which remind readers of Audubon. The deaths in 1854 of both Mr. Smith and another minister, Mr. Boyd of Crimond, who had set Edward on ​the task of preparing popular lectures on the rudiments of natural history, were heavy blows to Edward. He now sought some better employment in all likely directions, but could secure nothing. He had begun contributing to several natural history journals, but received no payments in return. By 1858, however, Edward had accumulated a third collection, the best he had made. Illness again prostrated him, and when he partially recovered, though remaining incapable of undergoing long and fatiguing expeditions again, a great part of his collection had to be sold. Having to abandon night wanderings and give up his gun, Edward took to marine zoology in earnest. In default of proper apparatus he devised most ingenious substitutes; and as the result of his investigations Spence Bate and Westwood's 'History of British Sessile-eyed Crustacea' enumerates twenty new species discovered by Edward, who had collected 177 species in the Moray Firth. In other branches of marine zoology Edward furnished many facts, specimens, and new species to Messrs. Gwyn Jeffreys, Alder, A. M. Norman, Jonathan Couch, and many others. He had, however, obtained no scientific recognition more important than a curatorship of the museum of the Banff Institution, at a salary of two guineas a year, until in 1866 he was elected an associate of the Linnean Society of London. The Aberdeen and the Glasgow Natural History societies followed suit; but the Banff society did not elect their notable townsman an honorary member. The society itself deservedly died in 1875. The museum being transferred to the Banff town council, Edward was continued as curator at thirteen guineas a year, but resigned the office in 1882.
A serious illness in 1868 left Edward almost incapable of following his trade, but he afterwards recovered sufficiently to resume work at home. The publication of Mr. Smiles's biography of Edward in 1876 was the means of making Edward widely known, and of making him comfortable in his latter days. Sir Joseph Hooker, P.R.S., Professors Allman and Owen, and Mr. Darwin joined in appealing to the queen on Edward's behalf. On Christmas day 1876 Edward received the welcome news of the bestowal of a civil list pension of 50l. On 21 March 1877 he was presented with 333l., largely subscribed in Aberdeen, at a meeting in the Aberdeen Song School, at which the veteran, with his faithful wife, was received with enthusiasm, and delivered a most racy speech in broad vernacular (see Aberdeen weekly Journal, 28 March 1877). Other donations of considerable amount were sent to him. He now entered with extraordinary zeal upon the study of botany, and collected nearly every plant in Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. When the Banffshire Field Club was established in 1880, Edward was elected one of its vice-presidents, and read before it papers on the 'Protection of Wild Birds' and on 'Our Reptiles,' which were printed by the society. Edward died on 27 April 1886. He left one son, a minister in the Scotch church, and ten daughters.
[Life by S. Smiles, 1876; Nature (1877), xv. 349–51, 439, 479, (1886) xxxiii. 609; Aberdeen Weekly Journal, 28 March 1877; Banffshire Journal, 4 May 1886.]
G. T. B.