UCL

William Frederic Edwards

Profile & Legacies Summary

No Dates

Biography

Very probably William Frederic Edwards (1777-1842), botanist and ethnologist, and half-brother of the French zoologist Henri Milne Edwards (1800-1885). The men's father William Edwards (1746-1823) had moved from Jamaica to Bruges, reportedly at the time of the St Domingue revolution, although William Edwards was shown as absentee as early as 1778.


Sources

Popular Science Monthly/Volume 22/February 1883/Sketch of Henri Milne-Edwards; Claude Blanckaert, "A Jamaican emigre as "the Father of Ethnology in France"', in Bones, Bodies amd Behavior: Essays in Behavioral Anthropology edited by George W. Stocking, which on p. 20 says of William Edwards the father that he was a rich planter and lieutenat-colonel in the militia and 'in all probability a slaveholder - though the limited information on Edwards' background and early years does not explicitly confirm this.'

Further Information

Absentee?
'Foreign'

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1817 [EA] - 1820 [LA] → Joint owner
Pedro River [ Jamaica | St Ann ]

Relationships (2)

William Frederic Edwards
Son → Father
William Edwards
Details
Notes →
Tentatively inferred...
William Frederic Edwards
Brother → Sister
Sophia Anne Milne was Nembhard (née Edwards)
Details