Philip Henry Gosse

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Philip Henry Gosse (with his son Edmund Gosse) in 1857

Philip Henry Gosse (born April 6, 1810 in Worcester , England , † August 23, 1888 in St Marychurch near Torquay , England) was an English naturalist and religious writer .

Live and act

Gosse was the second of four children of the portrait painter and mezzotint artist Thomas Gosse (1765–1844) and his wife Hannah nee. Best (1780-1860). He spent his childhood in Poole ( Dorset ). He showed great interest in natural history from an early age. However, he initially embarked on a commercial career and from 1827 worked for a company in Carbonear ( Newfoundland ), where he conducted intensive natural history research in his spare time.

During a crossing to England in 1832, Gosse had a conversion experience that would determine the rest of his life. Back in Carbonear, he joined the Methodists and made friends with the British immigrant couple, Jacques, who had a great influence on his religious beliefs.

In order to make his natural research more professional, he now began to carefully document Newfoundland's insects . The result, entitled Entomologia Terrae Novae , remained unpublished, but is still an important historical source today.

In 1835 Gosse and the Jaques moved to Waterville near Compton ( Lower Canada ) to set up a farm. However, because of the poor soil and lack of experience, they had little success with it. To improve his livelihood, Gosse taught at the local school; he also continued his natural history studies and presented them to the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec . In 1838 he sold his stake in the farm and moved to Mount Pleasant, Alabama , where he also worked as a village school teacher. The widespread abuse of slaves and the approval of slavery by the Methodists caused him to return to England in 1839.

Gosse's attempt to be employed by the Methodists as an evangelist failed, so that he initially managed to get by as a painter for almost a year. In late 1839 he got a teaching position in Hackney and a manuscript about his experiences in Canada was accepted by the publisher Van Voorst. It was published in 1840 under the title The Canadian Naturalist: a Series of Conversations on the Natural History of Lower Canada and received a generally positive response.

In 1844 Gosse traveled to Jamaica as a collector for the naturalist Hugh Cuming . The 18 months he spent there were among the most productive and happiest of his life. In 1846 he returned to England to put his findings in writing. The result was the trilogy The Birds of Jamaica (1847), Illustrations to the Birds of Jamaica (1847) and A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica (1851). The latter work is generally regarded as his best; Gosse is still considered to be the "father of Jamaican ornithology" in Jamaica, and a bird club is named after him.

Gosse had already come into contact with the Brethren movement in Hackney in 1843 . He had also met Emily Bowes (1806–1857), an author of evangelistic tracts , whom he married in 1848 and who significantly shaped his further religious development. Their only child, Edmund William Gosse, was born in 1849.

In the following years Gosse wrote a number of other successful natural history writings. However, a collapse in health as a result of overwork forced him to retreat to Torquay to recover in 1852, and later to Ilfracombe . Here he wrote the book A Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast (1853), which drew the attention of larger circles to the marine fauna. In 1853 he was involved in the construction of the first public aquarium in Regent's Park and constructed one of the first home aquariums. His writing The Aquarium (1854) made a major contribution to Victorian aquarium fashion. In 1856 Gosse was inducted into the Royal Society .

Troubled by the fact that many scientists were beginning to adopt evolutionary ideas, Gosse wrote the book Omphalos: an Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot in 1857 , with which he sought to reconcile modern geology and the biblical account of creation . His thesis was that God created the earth and the fossils so that it appeared older than it actually was. Likewise did Adam a navel (Greek. Omphalos owned), although that never were umbilical cord was connected. This view, which Gosse defended in several other publications, met with fierce opposition from both evolutionists and Christians and did some damage to its reputation.

In 1857 Gosse moved to St Marychurch near Torquay and founded an independent chapel here, in which he preached to a congregation of about 100 for the next three decades. After the death of his first wife Emily, he married the Quaker Eliza Brightwen (1813–1900) in 1860 , who was also interested in natural history and a skilled watercolor painter . In 1864 she inherited a substantial fortune which Gosse secured financially for the rest of his life.

In addition to his natural history works, Gosse also published religious writings, including evangelistic tracts and a history of the Jewish people. He was particularly interested in biblical prophecy ; so in 1866 he wrote a book about the Revelation of John . He also devoted himself to orchid cultivation and, in later years, to astronomy and landscape painting . Five months after a heart attack, he died at his home in St Marychurch, aged 78.

His son Edmund Gosse became a literary and art critic and in 1907 wrote a book about his relationship with his father ( Father and Son ).

Publications (selection)

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personal data
SURNAME Gosse, Philip Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Worcester
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 1888
Place of death St Marychurch at Torquay