AdminHistory | Rev. Charles Abbot (c1761-1817) was a grammar school teacher who became an ordained minister in Bedfordshire. He worked as Usher [Assistant Master] of Bedford School, as well as Vicar of Oakley Reynes and of Goldington (villages near Bedford).
In November 1787, Charles Abbot married Sarah Harris of Chocken Hall [Cherkenhill], a hamlet some 4 miles north-west of Great Malvern, Worcestershire. Sarah, who was a keen botanist herself, often accompanied her husband on his trips to collect plants and butterflies.
He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1793 and submitted his 'Plantae bedfordiensis', a list of 200 less common plants of the county of Bedfordshire to the Society in 1795. The work was published in 1798 and is considered a model of a county flora. The book, entitled 'Flora Bedfordiensi, comprehending such plants as grow wild in the county of Bedford, arranged according to the system of Linnae' [Carl Linnaeus] was dedicated to Queen Charlotte and, unlike his manuscript, was in English.
Abbot and Sir James Edward Smith often corresponded and Abbot presented Smith with a copy of his 'Flora' publication, which Smith often referred to in his own publication, 'Flora Britannica' (1800). Smith's copy, which contains annotations, is in the library of the Linnean Society. |