Editing Lucas Barrett

{{Short description|British scientist (1837–1862)}}
{{Refimprove|date=February 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Lucas Barrett
| image              = Lucas Barrett photograph, circa 1850s.png
| caption            = Circa 1850s photograph of Barrett
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1837|11|14}}
| birth_place        = [[London, England]]
| death_date         = {{Birth date|1862|12|19}}
| death_place        = Near [[Kingston, Jamaica]]
| death_cause        = Drowning
| occupation         = Naturalist and geologist
| years_active       = 1855-1862
}}
'''Lucas Barrett''' (14 November 1837 – 19 December 1862) was an English [[natural history|naturalist]] and [[geologist]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nahste.ac.uk/isaar/GB_0237_NAHSTE_P0277.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030930085200/http://www.nahste.ac.uk/isaar/GB_0237_NAHSTE_P0277.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 September 2003 |accessdate=18 February 2012 |title=Barrett, Lucas – 1837–1862: geologist and naturalist }}<br>- {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Barrett, Lucas}} which in turn cites the obituary by S. P. Woodward in ''Geologist'' (February 1863), p.&nbsp;60.<br>- Death given as 19 December in ''The Reader'', Volume 1, p. 124</ref> He was the director of the Jamaican Geological Survey from 1859 to 1862.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Lucas Barrett Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=92247 |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref> He was a young member of the [[Geological Society of London|Geological Society]] and became England's Government Geological Inspector to the West Indies.<ref name=":2" />

His untimely death was caused by drowning while investigating a sea-bottom near [[Kingston, Jamaica]].<ref name=":2" />

== Early life and education ==
Barrett was born in London on November 14, 1837, the firstborn son of an unidentified mother and George Barrett, an iron founder who designed iron work for the [[London King's Cross railway station|London Kings Cross Railway Station]].<ref name=":2" /> He completed his preliminary education in [[Royston, Hertfordshire]].<ref name=":2" />

On March 8, 1859, Alice Maria Barrett married Lucas Barrett at [[Church of St Mary the Great, Cambridge]].<ref name=":2" /> Sources do not indicate Alice Maria Barrett's career nor the story of their meeting. Alice Maria Barrett's parents were Maria Reed and Robert Barrett.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alice Maria Barrett 1839-1902 - Ancestry® |url=https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/alice-maria-barrett-24-1sv0n9x |access-date=2022-10-13 |website=www.ancestry.com |language=en-US}}</ref> The marriage was recorded in the Cambridge section of the ''Bury and Norwich Post'' on March 15, 1859.<ref name=":2" />

Barrett was educated{{When|date=October 2022}} at [[University College School]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=BHALAI |first=Suresh |date=2020-08-26 |title=160 Years: Unearthing Jamaica's Mineral Wealth- Our Story |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/567a8df28c06434cadefd1cbecedd029 |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=ArcGIS StoryMaps |language=en}}</ref>

In 1853, he went to Ebersdorf, near [[Neundorf bei Lobenstein|Lobenstein]], Vogtland, Germany to study [[botany]] and [[chemistry]] for a year.<ref name=":2">{{cite web|last=Mitchell|first=Simon|title=Lucas Barrett, F.G.S., F.L.S.|url=http://www.sfmgeology.com/jamaicangeologists/barrett.html|work=The geologists who studied Jamaica|publisher=University of the West Indies|accessdate=2 May 2014}}</ref> 

== Geology career ==
On May 2, 1855, at the age of 18, Barrett became a member of the [[Geological Society of London|Geological Society]].

In 1855, he accompanied [[Robert MacAndrew]] on a dredging excursion from the [[Shetland Islands]] to Norway, Finland, and beyond the [[Arctic Circle]]. He subsequently made other cruises, to [[Greenland]] and to the coast of Spain. These expeditions laid the foundations of an extensive knowledge of the distribution of marine life.<ref name=":2" />

Circa 1858 in Norway, Barrett and R. MacAndrew discovered ''[[Geodia barretti]]'', a massive deep-sea sponge, on the coast of Norway. British naturalist [[James Scott Bowerbank]] named it ''Geodia barretti'' to honor Barrett.

In 1855, he was engaged by [[Adam Sedgwick]] to assist in the [[Woodwardian Museum]] at [[Cambridge]]. During the following three years, he aided the professor by delivering lectures. He discovered bones of birds in the [[Cambridge Greensand]], and he prepared a geological map of Cambridge on the one-inch [[Ordnance map]]. In 1859, when he was twenty-two, he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of Jamaica. There, he determined the [[Cretaceous]] age of certain rocks that contained ''[[Hippurites]]''. [[S. P. Woodward]] named the new genus ''[[Barrettia (bivalve)|Barrettia]]'' after him. Barrett also collected many fossils from the [[Miocene]] and newer [[stratum|strata]].

=== West Indian Geological Survey ===
In 1857, the [[Colonial Office]] in London set up the West Indian Geological Survey, a geology research team. The first area of interest was the island of [[Trinidad]]. The Director of the group was George Parks Wall, assisted by [[James Gay Sawkins]], an American working as a copper miner in Jamaica.<ref name=":2" />

In 1859, Wall resigned following the completion of the Trinidad research. British geologist [[Roderick Murchison]] was displeased with the results of the Trinidad survey and refused to nominate the next director. As a result, Colonial Office administrator [[Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer]] approached Professor [[John Phillips (geologist)|John Phillips]] at Oxford for a recommendation. Phillips recommended Barrett, who became leader.<ref name=":2" />

On April 1, 1859, James G. Sawkins and his wife Octavia "Rosa" Sawkins arrived at [[Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica|St. Thomas, Jamaica]] via a [[Packet boat|mail steamer]]; they had sailed from the [[Port of Spain|Port-of-Spain]], [[Trinidad and Tobago]]. Sawkins brought scientific instruments used in his geological survey of Trinidad. The Barrett couple and Sawkins couple met for the first time. During this meeting, Mr. Sawkins learned that the pay he would receive would be insufficient for his means. Upon arriving in [[Kingston, Jamaica]] on April 5, Sawkins arranged a meeting with [[John Peter Grant]], then colonial [[List of governors of Jamaica|governor of Jamaica]].<ref name=":2" /> After Barrett wrote a persuasive letter to statesman [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]] asking to increase Sawkins's pay so he would not resign, Sawkins's pay was increased and he remained on the project.<ref name=":2" />

== Death and legacy ==
[[File:Lucas Barrett.jpg|left|thumb|220x220px|Posthumous 1863 illustration from ''[[The Illustrated London News]]''.]]
Barrett drowned, at the age of twenty-five, while investigating the sea-bottom of [[Port Royal]] near [[Kingston, Jamaica]], as part of the Jamaican Geological Survey. Geologist Simon F. Mitchell describes:<blockquote>[Barrett] carried back to Jamaica a diving-apparatus to enable him personally to explore the reefs. Having once gone down safely and successfully in shallow water, he would not wait for the assistance of his friends; and set out on the 19th of December, attended by a crew and servants, to the coral-reefs outside Port Royal. At some distance from the land he descended into deep water, provided with 100 feet of air-tubing, and holding the "life-line" only in his hand; and after the lapse of more than half an hour he floated to the surface, but no longer alive.<ref name=":2" /></blockquote>After his death, American mining engineer James G. Sawkins took over Barrett's position as leader of the team.<ref name=":1" />

Barrett was buried at [[Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica|St. Andrew Parish]] Church.<ref name=":1" />

His posthumous son Arthur Barrett and grandson Lucas Barrett were electrical engineers and ran the firm of Baily, Grundy and Barrett in Cambridge.<ref>{{cite web|title=1922 Who's Who In Engineering: Company B|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1922_Who's_Who_In_Engineering:_Company_B|work=Grace's Guide to British Industrial History|accessdate=17 May 2019}}</ref>

In 1962, on the centennial of his death, a plaque monument was dedicated to Barrett.<ref name=":0" /> It was replaced by a new plaque in 2005.<ref name=":0" />

==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett, Lucas}}
[[Category:1837 births]]
[[Category:1862 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from London]]
[[Category:English naturalists]]
[[Category:English geologists]]
[[Category:Deaths by drowning]]
[[Category:People educated at University College School]]
[[Category:19th-century Jamaican people]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in Jamaica]]
[[Category:19th-century British geologists]]