Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 25-34 
Miss Etheldred Benett (1775-1845): A Preliminary 
Note on her Correspondence 
by R.F. Cleevely 
Examination of this correspondence in various archives has provided further evidence of her own collecting, the 
circumstances of her publication of the Catalogue of Wiltshire Fossils (1831), and her ciose relationship with other 
geologists. In addition, it has yielded information about her interest in local village affairs, of events in the county, on 
family matters and the changes in her own circumstances over the years. 
A Memorial tablet on a wall in the Benett Chapel of 
All Saints Parish Church, Norton Bavant reads: 
In Memory of ETHELDRED second daughter of 
Thomas Benett, Esq. of Pythouse, and Catherine his 
Wife, who died January 11th 1845, Aged 69. 
She had been 43 years an Inhabitant of the 
Mansion House in this Parish of Norton Bavant. 
Miss Benett was a daughter of Thomas Benett 
(1729-1797) descendant of a family owning land 
around Norton Bavant from the 15th century and 
which also became closely associated with 
Pythouse, near Tisbury. The family’s involvement 
with Norton was limited after 1669, for the low- 
lying Norton Manor House was considered too 
damp and subsequently only occupied by un- 
married sisters, one of whom was Etheldred Benett. 
The parish church contains other monuments to 
the Benetts in a side chapel and in the churchyard 
(Watkin 1985). 
That simple memorial inscription fails to 
indicate that Etheldred Benett holds a significant 
position in the history of British geology, in fact she 
has been regarded as the ‘first lady geologist’.' Her 
_ interest began in the early days of that science, at a 
time when it was gradually realised that fossils 
provided a useful method of understanding the 
sequence and relationship of geological formations. 
Consequently, her specimens, with the observations 
and interpretations she had made during her field 
work, played a significant part in this progress.’ For 
some thirty years she devoted much of her leisure to 
the collection of fossils near her home in Wiltshire, 
or along the Dorset coast, where the family 
habitually spent a summer holiday. It is thought 
that she was encouraged by her brother-in-law, 
Aylmer Bourke Lambert, who as a botanist and 
antiquary was a member of all the major influential 
scientific societies. Through him Miss Benett had 
contact with the principal geologists of the time, 
including authors of works on fossils. Until 
recently, however, the only information about her 
was contained in these books. In naming a 
Cretaceous sponge after her,’ Gideon Mantell had 
described her as, ‘A lady of great talent and 
indefatigable research to whom I am under infinite 
obligations for many valuable communications on 
scientific subjects’. In their Mineral Conchology, the 
Sowerbys make forty-one acknowledgements of 
specimens received from her, many of them being 
either unique, or else the finest available at the 
time. When naming ‘Ammonites benettianus’ after 
her, (Min. Conchology, 6:77, pl, 539) they recorded, 
‘we are indebted to the zeal of Miss Etheldred 
Benett whose labours in the pursuit of geological 
information have been as useful as they have been 
incessant’. Her major contribution to this principal 
fossil reference work was also acknowledged by Sir 
‘High Croft’, Gunswell Lane, South Molton EX36 4DH 
