Charles Abbot

Who was Charles Abbot?

Charles Abbot was a British botanist and entomologist.

Abbot was educated at Winchester College and matriculated at New College, Oxford, with an M.A. degree in 1788. He was elected fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1793, and he received the degrees of B.D. and D.D. in 1802.

He was vicar of Oakley Raynes and Goldington, in Bedfordshire, Usher of Bedford School, 1788-1817, and chaplain to the Marquis of Tweeddale.

His writings include the manuscript 'Catalogus plantarum'; a list of 956 plants of Bedfordshire, and a later book on the same subject, called Flora Bedfordiensis. He is noted for making, in 1798, the first capture in England of Papilio paniscus, the Chequered Skipper. Other works include the 1807 volume of sermons entitled Parochial Divinity. He also wrote a Monody on the Death of Horatio, Lord Nelson, in 1805.

Abbott died in Bedford in September 1817.