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Richard Owen was one of the most eminent people to have been born in Lancaster. He was born in a house on the corner of Thurnham Street and Brock Street on 20th July 1804. This house was demolished in 1939 for street widening.
His mother who was of French Huguenot extraction was the daughter of Robert Parrin the organist at Lancaster Parish Church. His father was also called Richard and he made a considerable fortune as a West India merchant. His parents were married in Preston in 1792.
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Richard Owen went to Lancaster Grammar School at an early age and then in 1820 he was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary Leonard Dickson in Lancaster. It was during his apprenticeship that he became interested in the study of anatomy.
He was then subsequently apprenticed to a Joseph Seed and a James Stockdale Harrison. One of his master's that he was apprenticed to was surgeon to the inmates of Lancaster Castle. Owen himself made frequent visits to the Castle. |
A story is told that he did some work on his own behalf at the Castle. He actually wanted to obtain a negro's head from the Gaol for his anatomical collection. He had ghostly experiences in trying to get this and on the way out of the Castle he slipped on some ice. The head fell out of his hand and rolled down into the open door of a cottage. Richard was unable to stop himself rolling down the hill and he to rolled into the cottage, to be greeted by shrieks from the woman inhabitant. He picked himself up and ran all the way back to his abode.
He matriculated at Edinburgh University in 1824 before his full term of apprenticeship had expired. In 1825 he went to St Bartholomew's Hospital in London and finished his degree there. He then became Assistant to a John Abernethy.
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Richard Owen became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and set up private practice in London. He obtained in 1827 the post of Assistant Conservator to the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. All this time he was performing more and more lectures at St Bartholomew's.
He married Caroline Clift in 1835. Her father was the actual Conservator of the Hunterian Museum and Richard Owen became sole Conservator after his father in law retired. He became known as the first Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons. |
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His scientific reputation grew rapidly and he received many awards and honours both here and abroad. He accepted a civil list pension in 1842 of two hundred pounds. This was supplemented by one hundred pounds years later. However he did refuse the offer of a knighthood.
He had many influential friends. One of these friends was Queen Victoria herself. In 1852 she gave him Sheen Lodge on the Richmond Estate. Richard Owen resided here until the end of his life.
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By 1856 he had reached the zenith of his fame. He was recognised throughout Europe as the first anatomist of his day. It was Richard who was instrumental in the building in South Kensington of the new National Natural History Museum. This opened in 1881.Certain branches of science were greatly advanced by him.
One of his works on Parthenogenesis was a pioneer work of much importance, Richard Owen was a pre-Darwinian. He had a cautious attitude towards the detailed evolutionist theories. Some people called him the Newton of Natural History. |
In 1841 he coined the word dinosaur, from the Greek word Deinos (fearfully great) and sauros (lizard). Most academics have attributed the birth and growth of palaeontology to Richard Owen. However there is some modern school of thought that claims that Owen stood on the shoulders of a Gideon Mantell. He was a doctor from Sussex. Some say Richard Owen based his conclusions on Mantell's fossil discoveries.
Owen was also a great reader of poetry and loved writing. He even advised Stanley Livingstone on the best way to write up his adventures in Africa. He had a great passion for music and was a good performer on the cello and flute. This love of music he probably inherited from his mother who was an excellent musician.
Richard said himself that he owed a lot to his mother for the way his life turned out. Richard Owen's grandson wrote a biography of him and the following quote says much about his character.
“His general character stands out clearly and the unfailing testimony of his friends in regard to his charm of manner, his genial courtesy, and his kindness of heart, left a fragrant memory of a master mind”.”
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He wrote many books and contributed to many periodicals. Many of these books are available to look at in Lancaster Reference Library.
The Museum in Market Square, Lancaster has a stained glass window in it's collection with a portrait of Richard on it.
Richard Owen's wife died in 1873 and his only son in 1886. Owen died himself on 18th December 1892. He is buried in the churchyard at Ham near Richmond. |
Sir Richard Owen |
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