Author: BAKEWELL, Robert
Biography:
BAKEWELL, Robert (1767-1843: ODNB)
Although he is chiefly remembered as a geologist, Bakewell was the author of A Geological Primer in Verse, a work sometimes erroneously attributed to John Scafe (q.v.). He was born to a Quaker family on 10 Mar. 1767 in Nottingham, the son of Robert Bakewell (1729-68), a wool stapler, and his wife Mary Mason (1740-1811). His father died when Bakewell was just a year old and he was educated by Quakers at their school in Hartshill, Warwickshire. He was precocious and published a paper in GM on waterspouts in 1786 (or 1782, the date claimed for the publication by Bakewell). He moved to Wakefield, Yorkshire, to work as a wool stapler and there he married Apphia Simpson on 20 Sept. 1790 at All Saints church. (Records show three different dates for their marriage: 18, 20, and 24 Sept. The first is likely the date of the license, the second of the CofE ceremony and the third of a non-conformist ceremony.) Apphia’s birth was registered in the Presbyterian chapel in Manchester in 1761. She and Robert had four boys and two girls. Bakewell’s first book, Observations on the Influence of Soil and Climate Upon Wool (1808), united his interests in wool and geology. He suffered financial losses in 1810 and, resigning his assets to his creditors, fled to London where he first began offering lectures on geology and minerology at the offices of the Philosophical Society. He later toured England giving lectures, was a contributor to the Philosophical Magazine, and offered his services as a geological consultant. His Introduction to Geology was published in 1813, followed by Introduction to Mineralogy in 1819. Apphia died in 1820 and was buried in the cemetery at Bunhill Fields on 18 Mar. On 31 Aug. 1820 Bakewell married Esther Hinckley (1770-1851), daughter of an eminent physician; the marriage brought him financial security. They travelled in Europe and Bakewell published Travels in the Tarentaise in 1823. In 1825 they moved to 18 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, which is where he died on 15 Aug. 1843. He was buried at Kensal Green cemetery on 22 Aug. His will, proved on 1 Sept. 1843, named Esther as his executor and left his entire estate to her. (ODNB 22 Sept. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 22 Sept. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 22 Sept. 2024; Manchester Mercury 29 Oct. 1811; George Park Fisher, Life of Benjamin Silliman [1866]) SR