Editor: This next article was inspired by Part 1 of Steve’s history. In it Patrick Armstrong underlines the important contribution made by the clergy to British ornithology; a piece partially based on the author’s own ‘parsonage’ past.
Patrick Armstrong
The Parson-Naturalist in Suffolk Ornithology Steve Piotrowski’s fascinating article on the early history of birdwatching in Suffolk (The Harrier, 172, March 2013) mentions the role of several clergy in the development of ornithology in the county, commencing with the work of the Reverends Revett Sheppard (1778-1830) and William Whitear, who published their list 1824-1825. I should like to explore this relationship – that of the Church of England parson and ornithology – in a little more detail. There are several reasons for the persistence of the link for many generations. Continuity in the Countryside First, the legal doctrine of parson’s freehold. A parson in his parish, for good or ill, was in former times extremely difficult to displace. An incumbent might remain in one benefice for the better part of his career. There are instances of a clergyman being born and dying in the same room of the same rectory, when a son followed his father in a living. This last might happen where a family had the Advowson, or the right of presentation to a benefice, so that members of the same family or related families might hold the living for several generations. As a consequence this often meant that an individual came to know an area, its landscape, and natural history (including its birds), extremely well. For example, the Reverend John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861; distinguished naturalist and Charles Darwin’s teacher at Cambridge) was Rector of Hitcham for 24 years, and used that area of Suffolk extensively for natural history observations.
Reverend Professor John Stevens Henslow, distinguished botanist and friend and mentor of Charles Darwin
Joy in Creation Second, there were strong theological imperatives for the study of natural history. John Ray (16271705; ornithologist, botanist, entomologist, palaeontologist, theologian), whose importance in the development of modern science was mentioned in Steve’s article, knew much of the natural history of Suffolk, as well as the adjoining counties of Essex and Cambridgeshire. He set out the notion that ‘design implies a designer’ in The Wisdom of God in 1692. This point of view partly explains the extraordinary diligence of some nineteenth century parson-naturalists who spent decades studying obscure groups such as mosses, fungi, beetles, sponges or spiders, as well as birds and flowers. For no fragment of the diversity and complexity of the great glory of Creation should be missed. Moreover, if birds are part of ‘God’s world’, strenuous efforts should also be made to conserve them. Although the ‘hunting and shooting parson’ was a figure met with in the nineteenth century
THE HARRIER – June 2013
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