Transcript

of

Thomas Richard Arthur Briggs [Obituary]

Trans. Devon Assoc., 1891, Vol XXIII, pp. 102-104.

by

Rev. W. Harpley, M.A.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1891 meeting at Tiverton. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland provides a listing of Mr Briggs’ many contributions. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Thomas Richard Archer Briggs was born at Fursdon, Egg Buckland, May 7th, 1836, and early developed that inclination for studies in natural history which eventually made him one of the ablest British botanists of the present day. His first published botanical notes were dated in 1860; and from that time onward, whether in the Phytologist in the Journal of Botany, in the Transactions of the Plymouth Institution (which he joined in 1862, and of which he became one of the most active members), or elsewhere, until the publication of his Flora of Plymouth, his pen was never idle, and his investigations, particularly in local botany, most zealous and untiring. His researches into the Rosæ and Rubi were singularly complete; and he added something like twenty new plants to the British Flora. His ability and zeal were thoroughly well known and valued; and, in the words of a memoir in the Journal of Botany, "His powers of critical observation were so remarkable - at once so acute and so discriminating - his enthusiasm so real, and his industry so unflagging, that such a thing as a hasty, ill-considered judgment from him seemed always impossible. And his willingness to help was so unmistakable, that soon one learned to trust him whenever he declined to give a positive opinion, acquiescing in the patience with which he was content to study and wait for light. Thus his place as a critical British botanist, and especially as a batologist, will prove hard to fill."

His Flora of Plymouth appeared in 1880, and by universal consent of the scientific world was at once placed at the head of all existing local floras. "It is still accounted the pattern volume for the best local floras since published;" and "never, probably, has so high an estimate of a work" than that formed at its appearance "been more completely justified by the after consensus of competent authorities." The limit is "within twelve miles of Plymouth," and within such a range no more exhaustive and valuable a work was ever written or printed.

At the Plymouth Institution he was a frequent lecturer, and filled various offices - curator of zoology and botany (to no one is that Society's herbarium more indebted), and librarian, an honorary position entailing much time and trouble. His attainments were so well known and appreciated that he was elected a fellow of the Linnæan Society so far back as 1872; and he was for several years the active manager of the Botanical Exchange Club. He joined the Devonshire Association in 1870; and, though he never read an independent paper, made several valuable contributions to the Reports of the Committee on Scientific Memoranda, of which he was a member. He read, however, a very valuable paper on the "Roses of the Neighbourhood of Plymouth " at the meeting of the British Association in that town in 1877.

Mr. Briggs, who was never married, was one of the most single-minded and kindly-hearted of men, "always most considerate for others, with a rather formal old-fashioned courtesy that was very pleasant and winning." The latter years of his life were spent in the old family residence at Fursdon, where he lived with Col. J. A. J. Briggs, his younger brother, and his family. He was deeply interested in school and parochial work, a devoted Sunday-school teacher, and when he returned to Fursdon took up most heartily the work of lay reader. His death was quite unexpected. His health had never been really robust, though he was a capital walker, and capable of enduring much fatigue; and he succumbed to the severity of the past winter. On Sunday, January 18th, he went to church twice as usual, and took two Bible-classes; but in the evening he complained of the cold, and got worse as the week passed. Only on the following Friday, however, did his illness appear really serious. Then inflammation of the lungs set in, and before eleven that night there passed away one of the most modest, unselfish, earnest, and accomplished students of Nature Devon has ever known, leaving a fragrant memory in the hearts of all who were privileged to know him, and an enduring monument of his rare attainments in his Flora.

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