Michael Pakenham Edgeworth

Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (24 May 1812 – 30 July 1881) was an Irish botanist who specialized in seed plants and ferns, and spent most of his life working in India. He was also a pioneer of photography.

Early life and family relations Edgeworth was born in Edgesworthstown, County Longford, Ireland on 24 May 1812, of Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817) and his four wives. His mother, Frances Beaufort, was the fourth wife. His older half-sister Maria Edgeworth, born to his father's first wife Anna Maria Edgeworth (née Elers), became a novelist. Among his other siblings were Honora (half-sister), Fanny (sister), Lucy (sister), and Francis (brother). With his wife Christina, whom he married in 1842, Michael had a daughter named Harriet and a second, Christina, who died in infancy.

Education He attended Charterhouse School in England from September 1823 where his schoolmates included William Makepeace Thackeray and H.G. Liddell. He later studied oriental languages and botany at University of Edinburgh, Scotland, from 1827. in County Longford, Ireland, he joined the Bengal Civil Service of the British Colonial regime in India. He was initially based at Ambala, Muzaffarnagar, then Saharanpur and finally Banda until 1850 in a series of judicial and administrative posts covering an area from Lahore to Madras. Being possessed of a curious spirit, Edgeworth travelled widely especially in northern India In addition to his interest in botany, he also wrote about Indian languages, culture, topography, and antiquities. A letter from Charles Darwin to J.D. Hooker mentions a conversation held between himself, Edgeworth and biologists John Lubbock and George Charles Wallich, at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London (18 April 1861) less than two years after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (22 November 1859). Unfortunately, very little of the content of this conversation is revealed in the letter.

Death He retired in 1859, returning to London. Edgeworth died suddenly on 30 July 1881 on the island of Eigg, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides. Edgeworth was married to Christina daughter of Dr Macpherson of King's College, Aberdeen in 1846. Catalogue of Plants found in the Banda district, 1847–49, pp. 60.8 (Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta 1852, Vol. xxi.) Pollen (Hardwicke + Bogue, 1877)

His meticulous diaries from the years 1828 (just a few years before going to India) to 1867, was compiled in the weighty, 8,000-page publication entitled India in the Age of Empire - The Journals of Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (1812–1881). It chronicles the broadening of British imperial influence in the Indian territories and is principally of cultural and political interest.

Botanical names The plant genus Edgeworthia was dedicated to him, and to his half-sister, the writer Maria Edgeworth. Numerous other plants including Primula edgeworthii, Rhododendron edgeworthii, Impatiens edgeworthii and Platanthera edgeworthii were named after him.