Devonshire Association "William Pengelly, F.R.S., F.G.S., Father of the Devonshire Association (1912)" By Mrs. Hester Forbes Julian (Née Pengelly). (Read at Exeter, 24th July, 1912.)
Having frequently been asked by members of the Association to contribute a paper on the life and work of my dear father, it seems specially appropriate and suitable to do so in this year, which not only marks the Jubilee of the Devonshire Association, but also the centenary of its founder, William Pengelly, and the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society, of which he was a distinguished Fellow. It seems also specially appropriate that this meeting should be held in our own Cathedral city, for we all feel that in coming to Exeter we are coming home.
https://devonassoc.org.uk/devoninfo/william-pengelly-father-of-the-da-1-1912/
Devonshire Association “William Pengelly, The Devonshire Association, and 150 Years of Scholarship.” by Dr Robin Wootton.
After an introduction to William Pengelly and the foundation and early years of the Devonshire Association, this paper reviews, subject area by subject area, the contribution that the Association has made to the knowledge and understanding of Devon through its publications and the research of its members. It concludes with a discussion of the wider impact of this research, and how this may in future be enhanced.
https://devonassoc.org.uk/devoninfo/pengelly-the-da-and-scholarship-2012/
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http://www.torquaymuseum.org/explore/look-inside-the-galleries/ancestors-gallery
Pengelly Trust William Pengelly, a Devonshire geologist whose lifetime almost spanned the nineteenth century, pursued a very active life; his wide interests fitted him to make a very successful tutor and lecturer, while he did all he could to foster local education. His method of excavation of a newly discovered cave at Brixham gave credence, for the first time, to archaeological evidence from caves, and hence was instrumental in inducing English opinion to the view that man had existed at the same time as extinct fauna. Further excavation at Kent’s Cavern – his major work – supplied additional evidence of the antiquity of man in such quantity that it could no longer be reasonably denied.
https://pengellytrust.org/william-pengelly-f-r-s/
Britannica William Pengelly, (born January 12, 1812, East Looe, Cornwall, England—died March 16, 1894, Torquay, Devon), English educator, geologist, and a founder of prehistoric archaeology whose excavations in southwestern England helped earn scientific respect for the concept that early humans coexisted with extinct animals such as the woolly rhinoceros and the mammoth.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Pengelly
Wikipedia William Pengelly, FRS FGS (12 January 1812 – 16 March 1894) was a British geologist and amateur archaeologist who was one of the first to contribute proof that the Biblical chronology of the earth calculated by Archbishop James Ussher was incorrect.
Born at East Looe in Cornwall, the son of a sea captain, he left school at the age of 12 to join his father's crew. Returning to Looe while still in his teens, he spent his time reading widely and learning mathematics. In about 1836 he moved to Torquay and opened a day school teaching according to the fashionable Pestalozzian method. In 1846 he gave up his successful school to become a private tutor and also started lecturing on various scientific subjects – a career he continued for the rest of his life.
Pengelly published his first scientific paper in 1849, on fossil fish found in East Cornwall. This was the first of some 120 papers on geology, palaeontology and human prehistory he would publish. In 1862 Pengelly reviewed the geology of the Tertiary lignite deposits of Bovey Tracey in an important paper read to the Royal Society, and the following year was elected a fellow of the society.
Pengelly's desire to educate led him to found the Torquay Young Men's Society (later the Torquay Mechanics' Institute), the Torquay Natural History Society, and (in 1862) the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Literature, Science, and Art (now The Devonshire Association). He also contributed papers to the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall.
Pengelly married his cousin, Mary Ann Mudge, in 1838. They had three children, before she died in 1851. Two years later he married Lydia Spriggs, a member of a Quaker family, and had two daughters.
Pengelly's most significant contribution to science was his work on caves in Devon and their human occupation. He excavated at Kents Cavern in Devon following earlier work done by Father John MacEnery, and found similar evidence (Palaeolithic flint tools and the bones of extinct animals in the same strata) as MacEnery. Pengelly had the advantage of working in a time of more open geological and religious thinking, which enabled him to find support and funding for the publication of his and MacEnery's work, but sceptics were nevertheless able to oppose his findings, on the grounds that possible later intrusion into earlier layers could not be ruled out in such a frequently excavated cave.
In 1858, however, a newly discovered cave – Windmill Hill Cavern – offered a definitive chance to test Pengelly's theories. Under the auspices (and supervision) of the Royal Society and the Geological Society, he and the archaeologist John Evans were able to conduct a scientific investigation into British prehistory. By exposing an unbroken stalagmite sheet covering the cave floor, and then demonstrating beneath it the co-existence of cave lion and woolly rhinoceros bones with human-crafted flints, Pengelly was able to triumphantly prove the case for the ancient presence of Stone Age man. Pengelly thereafter returned to Kents Cavern in 1864, to spend another fifteen years on careful excavation work to establish man's co-existence with a wholly extinct fauna. His work, along with that of pioneers such as Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes, produced reasoned argument against the traditional Biblical chronology.
