A note on liverworts from William Jackson Hooker
On This Day, 215 years ago, 26th July 1810, Dawson Turner wrote a very short letter to Ellen Hutchins to enclose a note about Jungermanniae (liverworts) from William Jackson Hooker. Dawson Turner also sent an etching that his wife had done the week before and added a postscript to the letter – ‘Tell me, I beg of you, all about yourself.’
Read the letter from 26th July and the note HERE.
Missing Letters
It is clear that some letters are missing from this time period. We don’t have the letter that Dawson Turner said he wrote the day before and we don’t have a letter from Ellen thanking Dawson Turner for the etching.
Etchings
Mary Turner made many etchings, mostly portraits. In 1812, Dawson Turner sent Ellen one that Mary had done of Madame Rembrandt. See another blog, relating to a letter on 1st November 1814, for more about Mary’s etchings, HERE.
The image above is an etching by Mary Turner of William Jackson Hooker, reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was made in 1813.
‘Tell me, I beg of you, all about yourself’
This is taking quite a big step beyond botany into friendship. The next letter we have from Ellen to Dawson Turner is on 17th September 1810, and she does not seem to have greatly increased the personal information that she included. There are some delightful passages and a relaxed and friendly tone. The full correspondence is available on the Ellen’s Letters page of the website, HERE if you want to read ahead.
Jungermanniae
One of Ellen’s main focuses in 1810 was finding liverworts – Jungermanniae – for William Jackson Hooker for his major work on them. Almost all the communications between them happened via Dawson Turner, so it is rather special to have this note directly from Hooker, even if he does not address it to Ellen.
Read the full letter and note from 26th July 1810 HERE.
The next letter that survives from the correspondence of 1810 is from Dawson Turner to Ellen on 9th August and there will be a blog post here about it on 9th August 2025.
Madeline Hutchins
Researcher on Ellen and her great-great-grandniece
26th July 2025