Newman, Edward

Edward Newman was born in Hampstead, England, in 1801 and raised in a Quaker family. During his childhood his parents strongly encouraged him to appreciate and study natural history, a beloved interest that he pursued when he left home for boarding school. In 1817 he returned to his family, then living in Godalming, where he entered the wool trade with his father and continued to work with him for the next 10 years. Throughout that time he continued to pursue his interest in local natural history. He eventually (1832–1850) published his formative observations, mostly on botany, entomology, ornithology and mammalogy, anonymously under the title “Letters of Rusticus” in the Magazine of Natural History, Entomological Magazine and Chamber’s Journal. Many of these observations pioneered the field of economic entomology, a subject that he continued to expound upon in later years in The Entomologist, The Zoologist, and The Field, until his death in 1876.

In 1826, Newman moved to Deptford,...