Eminent zoologist and botanist who was invited to join the 'Beagle' as naturalist, but declined, suggesting in his place young Charles Darwin.

Jenyns moved to Bath in 1850, and in 1855 founded the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club. He was a prolific writer of scientific works and he amassed significant botanical and zoological collections. These, along with his substantial scientific library, survive in the Institutions holdings. In 1871 Jenyns changed his name to Blomefield in order to come into an inheritance.

Rev.Leonard Jenyns

The Rev. Leonard Jenyns (1800-1893) (who in later life took the name of Leonard Blomefield) was a highly esteemed and very accomplished naturalist. Indeed, he is known to many as the man who was asked to go on The Beagle as the resident Naturalist but declined, thus clearing the way for his friend, Charles Darwin - and with what consequences!

Change of name, as it appeared in,
'The Bath Chronicle'.

Jenyns's earliest memories were of the funeral of Lord Nelson in 1806. His Uncle Chappelow gave him a copy of Nicholson's Encyclopaedia when he was 10, which he later said was "the foundation stone of his whole library". Two years later, aged 12, he wrote a letter announcing his decision to become a naturalist. His father was a Canon of Ely Cathedral and his mother was daughter of the celebrated Dr. Heberden, Physician to the Royal Family, whose connections proved valuable to Jenyns later on. He was sent to school at Eton in 1813, where his first leanings to natural history were strengthened, and where he recalled writing 66 hexameters of verse on the occasion of the first British Arctic voyage in 1818. He identified "an early fondness for order, method and precision", which accurately describes his notebooks & neat hand in items he left us. After Jenyns graduated from Cambridge in 1822, he was ordained priest in Christ's College by the Master in 1824, and was appointed Curate and later Vicar at Swaffham Bulbeck, a parish of 700 people adjoining his father's estate at Bottisham. He collected insects when quite young and also formed a collection of birds' eggs and British freshwater shells.
Learned Societies and publications He was a member of a number of learned societies: Cambridge Philosophical Society (1822), Zoological Society (1826), British Association for the Advancement of Science (1832), Linnean Society (1832), Entomological Society (1834), Geological Society of London (1835), Ray Society (1844).

He thought that his two most important works were "Manual of British Vertebrate Animals" (1836) and his editing of the "Fishes of the Voyage of the Beagle" (1840). In his memoirs he describes how he was offered the post of naturalist on board the Beagle's famous round the world voyage but, after some thought, felt that his duty lay with his parish. Charles Darwin took his place and it was during this voyage that Darwin's observations and thoughts on all he had seen during the voyage led on to his famous works which revolutionised the whole science of Biology, as then conceived. Among Jenyns's collections in the Institution are four volumes of letters that he received from Darwin and other naturalists.
He wrote many other papers and books including "Observations in Natural History", "Calendar of Periodic Phenomena in Natural History", and "Observations on Meteorology" and he was proud to be asked to edit a new edition of Gilbert White's "Selborne" in 1843, White being one of his heroes. He married first in 1844 and, owing to his wife's poor health, moved to Bath in 1850, where he lived in South Stoke and Swainswick. When his wife died in 1860, he moved to Darlington Place and then Belmont, marrying again in 1862.

After serving as Vicar of Swaffham Bulbeck near Cambridge for 38 years, he moved to Bath, where he co-founded the Bath History Field Club. He was the author of "A Manual of British Vertebrate Animals, Observations in Natural History", "Chapters in My Life", a memoir on J.S. Henslow (Professor of Botany in Cambridge, mentor of Darwin, and Jenyns's brother-in-law) "Observations in Meteorology", and editor of the 1843 edition of Gilbert White's History of Selborne. In addition to his voluminous correspondence, Jenyns left the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution a large collection of shells, a specialist library, and an impressive herbarium.

Amongst Jenyns's correspondents were some of the most famous names from the world of natural history, many being also his personal friends such as Charles Darwin and Sir Joseph Hooker. The letters have been transcribed by Sheila Metcalf and Trudy Wallace and can be consulted at the BRLSI. The Leonard Jenyns Correspondence can be found in the archives of the BRLSI. It consists of nearly 700 letters from more than 200 correspondents and stretches from 1817 until the 1870's.

Jenyns was a founder in 1855 of the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, whose proceedings abound with his papers. He donated his library of more than 2,000 books to the BRLSI, plus his Herbarium, his detailed Scrap books and over 700 letters. An interest in meteorological matters had begun early when he noticed Gilbert White's comments about the link between animal behaviour and weather. From this he developed his own ideas and, much later, he read a paper on the subject to their physical section when the British Association held their annual meeting in Bath in 1864. The paper aroused considerable interest and he followed this by setting up one of the first Meteorological Observatories in the Institution Gardens in 1865, which he monitored regularly, analysing and summarising the readings at 10 year intervals in 1875 & 1885.

Surprisingly with his chosen subjects, Jenyns felt he could not draw (unlike the rest of his family) and he always preferred not to attempt to study two subjects at once. In his early years, he expressed a disdain for four things that might so easily have been part of the lot of a rural vicar: "Sporting, Farming, Politics and Magisterial Business" and his focus and studying instincts were confirmed by one of his servants who noted "My master, you know, is such a thinking gentleman". Towards the close of his career he was held in honour as the patriarch of natural history studies in Great Britain. This volume pays tribute to our "thinking gentleman" and honours his endeavours in both national scientific studies and as one of our most distinguished members.