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Of all the famous Lancashire men the name of Richard Owen most brilliantly illuminates the path of time. Born in Lancaster on July 20th, 1804, he was the son of Richard and Catherine Owen, who were married at Preston on November 9th, 1792, the Rev. Humphrey Shuttleworth, vicar, officiating.
His mother was of French extraction, a member of a Huguenot family of the name of Parrin, who came over from Provence at the Revocation of the Edict of Naples, a woman of great refinement and intelligence, and also an accomplished musician. Her illustrious son never tired of speaking of his mother's charm of manner, and of all that he owed to her early training and example.
His father was a complete contrast. Tall, stout, and ruddy, a typical John Bull, and, although he was bluff, burly, and obstinate, he was possessed of sound common sense, and made a considerable fortune as a West India merchant.
After some preparatory instruction from an old Quaker lady, Richard Owen duly went to Lancaster Grammar School. Here was educated another famous man, William Whewell (1794-1866) a voluminous writer on many subjects, who became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
A grandson, the Rev. Richard Owen, M.A., his biographer, states that at the age of 14 the subject of this short sketch had shown no signs of a taste for the work to which his life was afterwards to be devoted, but it quickly developed later.
After leaving school he was apprenticed to Leonard Dickson, of Lancaster, “Surgeon and Apothecary,” his indenture being dated August 11th, 1820. Mr. Dickson dying two years later was “assigned and transferred” to Joseph Seed; 12 months after, he was again transferred, on Mr. Seed accepting a post as Surgeon in the Royal Navy, this time to James Stockdale Harrison.
Attached to the indenture to Seed is a certificate, in Seed's own handwriting, to the effect that “Mr. Owen's general conduct during the time he was with me has my highest commendation, and at all times I shall be happy to bear testimony to his most deserving merit, as well as to his respectability.” This is dated, “Lancaster, 10th January, 1827.”
APPRENTICESHIP EXPERIENCES
During his apprenticeship, Richard Owen had several macabre experiences, for his matter was surgeon to the inmates of Lancaster Castle, and here he exercised privileges which the less favoured surgeons' pupils of the town could only hope to enjoy in their metropolitan career at the hospitals.
It was young Owen's duty to pay frequent visits to the Gaol, in the course of which he desired to do some dissection work on his own behalf, and he eagerly embraced his opportunities, but not without the natural awe which the human corpse inspires, especially in the youthful mind.
Having arrived in the middle room of the old tower, where the post mortem examinations were performed and the prison clothes were washed, he proceeded in his quest. He had started out at about nine o'clock at night in late November—a stormy night—and as he mounted the tower he was met by a gust of wind, forming such a strange combination of howls, screams, and whistlings which startled him with the idea that some human voices in the staircase were mingling with the sounds produced by the rushing of the wind.
Presently the door of the lantern swung open and the light was extinguished, and he involuntarily stopped and tried to reason with himself that he was there to do some dissections. However, ghost stories would keep coming into his head. Finally, he saw above him a figure, at first instinct, then in clear outline, tall and thin. His first alarm grew into a creeping and freezing horror as he distinguished the half-opened glassy eyes of the corpse that he had seen earlier in the day, and as he gazed on the spectre he became speechless with terror.
The storm continuing, and producing an unusually articulate howl, he bolted down the stair and, stopping to take his breath and survey the position, he found that he had brushed against one of the corpses and dragged the cover sheet after him!
This evidence of material things recalled his scattered senses, and he mounted the stairs again, so bent was he on obtaining a negro's head for his small anatomical collection. Being full of speculations on “facial angles,” “prognathic jaws,” etc … he took care to lock the heavy door which led to the stone chamber of the dead, in order to be secure from interruption, and then made short work of the job. Screwing down the lid of the coffin, and putting the coveted specimen in his bag, he hurried down to the gate, giving the old turnkey the intimation that all was now ready for interment. This was received with a nod of intelligence, which assured him that no inquisition nor discovery was to be apprehended on that side of the castle walls.
As soon as he was outside the began to hurry down the hill, but, alas! the pavement was coated with ice, and he slipped and fell forward with a shock which jerked the negro's head out of the bag, and sent it bounding down the slippery surface. He could not arrest its progress before it bounced against the door of a cottage facing the descent, which flew opened and received him a the same time, as he was unable to stop hi downward career. Hearing shrieks and seeing the whisk of a woman's garment, as she rushed into an inner room, he followed his treasure and seized it, and, retreating hastily, never stopped until he reached the surgery.
IMPORTANT APPOINTMENTS
After his apprenticeship at Lancaster, in 1824 he matriculated at Edinburgh, later removing to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, where he studied under Abernethy. In 1826, Owen obtained his membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, and set up as a medical practitioner in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and gradually secured a small practice among the lawyers, but Owen's peculiar ability as a dissector had not escaped the eye of Abernethy, then President of the College of Surgeons, who, much concerned at the neglect of the collections formed by John Hunter, which had recently been purchased by the Government and handed over to the care of the College, insisted on his old pupil undertaking their arrangement, and he was duly appointed as assistant to the Conservator, and thus he began a career which was to make his name famous throughout the world.
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It was whilst working here that he was appointed Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's in 1828. In 1834, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and many other honours followed. In 1856 he was appointed Superintendent of the Natural History Department of the British Museum.
In conclusion, I must repeat the words of his biographer, that “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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Sir Richard Owen |
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A.W.
Preston Guardian, 12th January 1935.
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