Samuel Stutchbury (1798-1859), Naturalist and Geologist

When Samuel Stutchbury applied for the post of curator of the museum of the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts in 1831, the Reverend W . D. Conybeare, F.R.S. (1787—1857) wrote in a letter supporting his candidature: I know not where we should find so much scientific competency united to a perfectly modest unassuming accommodating disposition . . . (1) Stutchbury was indeed a competent naturalist. He published several noteworthy papers and, perhaps more significantly, played an important role in collecting and making available specimens and information. That his work was, initially at least, largely unknown can be attributed to that ‘modest unassuming . . . disposition’. Stutchbury s activities in the Pacific during the late-1820s and in New South Wales during the early-1850s have recently attracted a great deal of attention. The same has not, however, been true of his work in this country where, despite the recent attention to the antipodean aspects of his career, he remains little known (2).