Editing Charles Waterton

{{short description|English naturalist and explorer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}

{{Infobox person
| name               = Charles Waterton
| image              = Charles Waterton by Charles Wilson Peale, 1824, National Gallery, London.JPG
| birth_date         = 3 June 1782
| birth_place        = [[Walton, Wakefield]], England
| death_date         = 27 May 1865
| death_place        = [[Walton, Wakefield]], England
| burial_place       = [[Walton Hall, West Yorkshire|Walton Hall]]
| monuments          = {{plainlist|
* [[Waterton Lake]], Canada
* [[Waterton Lake#Waterton River|Waterton River]], Canada
}}
| alma_mater         = [[Stonyhurst College]]
| occupation         = {{hlist|[[naturalist]]|[[explorer]]|[[environmentalist]]|[[taxidermist]]|[[slave plantation|plantation]] [[supervisor|overseer]]}}
| children           = [[Edmund Waterton]]
}}

'''Charles Waterton''' (3 June 1782 – 27 May 1865) was an English naturalist, plantation overseer and explorer best known for his pioneering work regarding  conservation.<ref name="mus">{{Cite web|title=Black History Month: Charles Waterton and slavery |publisher=Wakefield Museum and Castles |date=3 November 2020|url=https://wakefieldmuseumsandlibraries.blogspot.com/search?q=waterton|access-date=12 September 2021|website=wakefieldmuseumsandlibraries.blogspot.com|language=en}}</ref>

==Family and religion==
Waterton was of a Roman Catholic [[landed gentry]] family descended from Reiner de [[Waterton, Lincolnshire|Waterton]]. The Watertons had remained Catholic after the English Reformation and consequently the vast majority of their estates were confiscated.<ref name="Walker">{{cite journal |first=J. W. |last=Walker |title=The Burghs of Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire and the Watertons of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire |date=1931 |journal=The Yorkshire Archæological Journal |volume=XXX |pages=314–419}}</ref> Charles Waterton himself was a devout and ascetic Catholic, and maintained strong links with the Vatican.

"Squire" Waterton was born at [[Walton Hall, West Yorkshire|Walton Hall]], Wakefield, Yorkshire, to Thomas Waterton and Anne Bedingfield.

He was educated at [[Stonyhurst College]] in [[Lancashire]] where his interest in exploration and wildlife were already evident. On one occasion Waterton was caught by the school's Jesuit Superior scaling the towers at the front of the building; almost at the top, the Superior ordered him to come down the way he had gone up.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Hewitson |title=Stonyhurst College, Present and Past |publisher=Legare Street Press |date=2023 |isbn=978-1021199874}}</ref> Waterton records in his autobiography that while he was at the school: <blockquote>By a mutual understanding, I was considered rat-catcher to the establishment, and also fox-taker, [[foumart]]-killer, and cross-bow charger at the time when the young [[rook (bird)|rook]]s were fledged. ... I followed up my calling with great success. The vermin disappeared by the dozen; the books were moderately well-thumbed; and according to my notion of things, all went on perfectly right.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15567a.htm |last=Keating |first=J. |date=1912 |chapter=Charles Waterton |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York}}</ref></blockquote>

==South America==
In 1804 he travelled to [[British Guiana]] to take charge of his uncle's [[slave plantation]]s near [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]].<ref name="mus" /> In 1812 he started to explore the hinterland of the colony, making four journeys between then and 1824, and reaching [[United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves|Brazil]] walking barefoot in the rainy season. He described his discoveries in his book ''Waterton's Wanderings in South America'',<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31811/31811-h/31811-h.htm | title=Wanderings in South America |first=Waterton |last=Charles |year=1891 |orig-year=1825 |publisher=Cassell & Company. Limited |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> which inspired British schoolboys such as [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Alfred Russel Wallace]]. His explorations laid to rest the persistent myth of Raleigh's [[Lake Parime]] by suggesting that the seasonal flooding of the [[Rupununi savannah]] had been misidentified as a lake.

Waterton was a skilled taxidermist and preserved many of the animals he encountered on his expeditions.  He employed a unique method of taxidermy, soaking the specimens in what he called "sublimate of mercury". Unlike many preserved ("stuffed") animals, his specimens are hollow and lifelike. He also displayed his anarchic sense of humour in some of his taxidermy: one tableau he created (now lost) consisted of reptiles dressed as famous English Protestants and entitled "The English Reformation Zoologically Demonstrated". Another specimen was the bottom of a howler monkey which he turned into an almost human face and simply labelled "The Nondescript". This specimen is still on display at the [[Wakefield Museum]], along with other items from Waterton's collection.<ref name="culture24">{{cite web |url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/yh000122 |title=Wakefield Museum |access-date=24 March 2011 |publisher=[[Culture 24]], UK |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019034100/http://www.culture24.org.uk/yh000122 |archive-date=19 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

While he was in British Guiana Waterton taught his skills to one of his uncle's slaves, [[John Edmonstone]]. Edmonstone, by then freed and practising [[taxidermy]] in Edinburgh, in turn taught the teenage Darwin.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}<ref>{{cite web|last=McNish |first=James|title=John Edmondstone: the man who taught Darwin taxidermy|website=Natural History Museum|location=[[South Kensington]], UK|url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/john-edmonstone-the-man-who-taught-darwin-taxidermy.html}}</ref>

Waterton is credited with bringing the anaesthetic agent ''wourali'' ([[curare]]) to Europe.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5b8pAAAAQBAJ | title=Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice|first=Mark |last=Plotkin |date=1993 |publisher=Penguin| isbn=9781101644690}}</ref>

==Walton Hall==
In the 1820s Waterton returned to Walton Hall and built a nine-foot-high wall around three miles (5&nbsp;km) of the estate, turning it into the world's first [[wildfowl]] and [[nature reserve]], making him one of the world's first environmentalists. He also invented the [[Nest box|bird nesting box]]. The Waterton Collection, on display at [[Stonyhurst College]] until 1966, is now in the [[Wakefield Museum]]. Waterton owned a dog who was prominent in the foundation of the modern [[English Mastiff]] and may be traced back to in the pedigrees of all living dogs of this breed.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of the Mastiff |first=M. B. |last=Wynn |date=1885 |publisher=William Loxley |location=Melton Mowbray |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofmastiff00wynnrich |page=151}}</ref> Waterton was voted as an honorary member of the [[Yorkshire Philosophical Society]] in its founding year of 1822.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/250126#page/57/mode/1up |title=Annual Report of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society: List of Members |date=1823 |page=49}}</ref>

On 11 May 1829, at the age of 47, Waterton married 17-year-old Anne Edmonstone, the granddaughter of an [[Arawak peoples|Arawak]] Native. His wife died shortly after giving birth to their son, [[Edmund Waterton|Edmund]], when she was only 18. After her death he slept on the floor with a block of wood for a pillow, "as self-inflicted penance for her soul!"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trivia-library.com/c/biography-of-explorer-charles-waterton.htm |title=Biography of Explorer Charles Waterton |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305005709/http://www.trivia-library.com/c/biography-of-explorer-charles-waterton.htm |archive-date=5 March 2016 |via=trivia-library.com}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=December 2013}}<ref name="tweedie">{{cite book|last1=Tweedie|first1=Mrs. Alec|author-link=Ethel Brilliana Tweedie|title=George Harley, F.R.S. The Life of a London Physician|date=1899|publisher=The Scientific Press, Limited|pages=273–276}}</ref>

Waterton was an early opponent of [[pollution]]. He fought a long-running court case against the owners of a soap works that had been set up near his estate in 1839, and sent out poisonous chemicals that severely damaged the trees in the park and polluted the lake. He was eventually successful in having the soap works moved.

Waterton died in May 1865, after fracturing his ribs and injuring his liver in a fall on his estate. His coffin was taken from the hall by barge to his chosen resting place, near the spot where the accident happened, in a funeral cortege led by the Bishop of Beverley, and followed at the lakeside by many local people. The grave was between two oak trees, which are no longer there.

==Legacy==
Waterton is chiefly remembered for his association with [[curare]], and for his writings on natural history and conservation. [[David Attenborough]] has described him  as "one of the first people anywhere to recognise, not only that the natural world was of great importance, but that it needed protection as humanity made more and more demands on it".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/local/more-wakefield-news/sir-david-attenborough-will-open-city-centre-s-new-museum-1-5439242 |title=Sir David Attenborough will open city centre's new museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130226001558/http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/local/more-wakefield-news/sir-david-attenborough-will-open-city-centre-s-new-museum-1-5439242 |archive-date=26 February 2013 |newspaper=Wakefield Express |date=23 February 2013 |access-date=30 May 2024}}</ref>

Waterton's house, Walton Hall, which may be approached only by a pedestrian bridge to its own island, is now the main building of a hotel. There is a golf course in the vicinity and various public footpaths, some leading to a nature reserve, Anglers Country Park.

[[Waterton Lake]]s in [[Alberta]], Canada, now a [[Waterton Lakes National Park|national park]], was named after him by [[Thomas Blakiston]] in 1858. A road and school in Wakefield, Yorkshire, are also named after him.

Waterton was a slave owner,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146630589 | title=Summary of Individual &#124; Legacies of British Slavery }}</ref> although later wrote: "Slavery can never be defended: he whose heart is not of iron can never wish to be able to defend it."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Mark |title=Yorkshire estate known as world's first nature reserve gets Grade II listing |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/27/yorkshire-estate-known-as-worlds-first-nature-reserve-gets-grade-ii-listing-waterton-park |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=5 April 2024 |date=27 March 2024}}</ref>

In 2024, [[Walton Hall, West Yorkshire|Waterton Park]] was registered at [[Listed building|Grade II]] by [[Historic England]], to protect the landscape which Waterton designed to protect wildlife and is considered the world's first nature reserve.<ref>{{NHLE |num=1487471 |desc=Waterton Park, Walton, Wakefield, Walton |access-date=30 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=27 March 2024 |title=World's First Nature Reserve Given Protection by Historic England |publisher=Historic England |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/in-your-area/yorkshire/worlds-first-nature-reserve-given-protection/ |access-date=28 March 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* {{cite book | last=Waterton | first=Charles | year=1825 | title= Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824: with original instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, &c. for Cabinets of Natural History | publisher= Printed for J. Mawman | isbn=9780665443633 | place=London | url= https://archive.org/details/cihm_44363}}<ref name=Wanderings>44 editions of ''Wanderings in South America'' available at [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28Wanderings%20%29%20AND%20creator%3A%28Waterton%29 Internet Archive] (retrieved 29 December 2022).</ref>
** [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/49708 2nd edition 1828]. London: Printed for B. Fellowes
** [https://books.google.com/books?id=10lIAAAAMAAJ 5th edition 1852]. London: B. Fellowes
** [https://books.google.com/books?id=_ggNAAAAIAAJ edition 1882],  ed. Rev. J.G. Wood. London: MacMillan and Co. With a biographical introduction by J.G. Wood
** [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000318318 edition 1887]. New York: Cassell & Co. Ltd. With an introduction by Norman Moore, M.D. (pp.&nbsp;5–34)
** [https://archive.org/details/wanderingsinsout0000wate edition 1925]. London / New York: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. / E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc. (Everyman Library edition). With an introduction by [[Edmund Selous]]
* {{cite book | last=Waterton | first=Charles | author-mask = 2 | year=1838 | title=Essays on natural history, chiefly ornithology: With an autobiography of the author, and a view of Walton Hall | publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans | place=London | url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/22546}}<ref name=Essays>24 editions of ''Essays on Natural History'' available at [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Waterton%2C%20Charles%2C%201782-1865%22%20title%3A%22Essays%22 Internet Archive] (retrieved 29 December 2022).</ref><ref name=review1838>Review of {{harvp|Waterton|1838}}: {{cite journal |title=Review of ''Essays on Natural History, chiefly Ornithology'' by Charles Waterton|journal=The Quarterly Review|date=June 1838 |volume=62 |pages=68–88 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c022728142;view=1up;seq=84}}</ref>
** [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/23747 3rd edition 1839]. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans
** [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/103716 5th edition 1844]. London: Longman,  Brown, Green & Longmans
* {{cite book | last=Waterton | first=Charles | author-mask = 2 | year=1844 | title=Essays on natural history, chiefly ornithology: 2nd series. With a continuation of the autobiography of the author | publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans | place=London | url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/69846 }}

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/19991010015728/http://www.ourheritage.net/index_page_stuff/Following_Trails/Waterton/Waterton_England/Waterton_Index.html#anchor800372 Charles Waterton] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20081120103741/http://www.ourheritage.net/INDEX.html Our Heritage] Accessed 24 November 2008.

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last=Edginton | first=Brian W. | year=1996 | title=Charles Waterton: A Biography | publisher=James Clarke | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VWzc53Ds8AC | isbn=9780718829247 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Charles Waterton (naturalist)}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2673| name=Charles Waterton}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charles Waterton}}
*[http://www.nature.com/bjp/journal/v126/n8/full/0702409a.html Waterton and Wouralia]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140602055508/http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/residents/events-and-culture/museums/wakefield-museum Waterton at Wakefield Museum]
*[https://overtown.org.uk/cw/Charles_Waterton/index.htm  Charles Waterton, Squire of Walton Hall]
* Archival Material at {{wikidata|qualifier|property|P485|Q24568958|P856|format=\[%q %p\]}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterton, Charles}}
[[Category:1782 births]]
[[Category:1865 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Stonyhurst College]]
[[Category:19th-century English explorers]]
[[Category:19th-century English naturalists]]
[[Category:People from Walton, Wakefield]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Stonyhurst College]]
[[Category:English conservationists]]
[[Category:Taxidermists]]
[[Category:Members of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society]]