Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carpenter, Philip Pearsall
CARPENTER, PHILIP PEARSALL (1819–1877), conchologist, youngest child of Lant Carpenter [q. v.], was born at Bristol in November 1819. His education began in his father's school, was continued at a proprietary institution called the Bristol College, and concluded at a presbyterian training college at York. He graduated B.A. in the university of London in 1841, and soon after became minister of a presbyterian congregation at Stand, whence he removed in 1846 to a congregation at Warrington, and there remained for fifteen years. He did not confine his activity to preaching, but was concerned in endless philanthropic schemes, some wise and useful, others ill-considered and unfruitful. He established a printing press, and disseminated his opinions by frequent leaflets, letters, magazines, and other publications. He learnt to swim in the canal, and instituted a swimming academy; he lectured on the necessity of proper drainage, and stood up for the preservation of ancient rights of way. He set a fine example of temperance in eating and of abstinence from wine, but he spoke of a public dinner to the officers of the militia as an expenditure for sensual gratification which could not be reconciled with christian sobriety, and he refused to lend a copy of a song, ‘Mynheer van Dunk,’ to a Christmas glee party because he would not encourage the singing of bacchanalian verses. He had always thought it a sin to drink wine, and soon came to believe it foolish to eat meat. When his house was robbed he published a handbill describing the candlesticks, silver spoons, and other property stolen, and informing the thieves that he had forgiven them; that if they liked to call he would converse with them, and that if they did not call they would have to meet him on the day of judgment. The current of his activity was at length turned into a definite channel. He had been instructed in natural science when a boy, had made a collection of shells, and had always had a taste for natural history. One day, in 1855, while walking down a street in Liverpool, Carpenter caught sight of some strange shells in a dealer's window. He went in, and found that the specimens were part of a vast collection made by a Belgian naturalist named Reigen at Mazatlan in California. The collector had died, leaving his shells unsorted and unnamed. Carpenter bought them for 50l. There were fourteen tons of shells, each ton occupying forty cubic feet. The examination, description, naming, and classification of these shells was the chief work of the rest of Carpenter's life. By the comparison of hundreds of examples, 104 previous species were shown to be mere varieties, while 222 new species were added to the catalogue of the mollusca. Thenceforward, though he sometimes preached, made speeches, and wrote pamphlets, most of Carpenter's time was given to shells, and even when he received calls or paid visits he would wash and pack up shells during conversation. Their pecuniary value when named and arranged in series was great, but he never tried to grow rich by them, and his whole endeavour was to spread the knowledge of them and to supply as many public institutions as possible with complete collections of Mazatlan mollusca. A full report on them occupies 209 pages of the ‘British Association Reports’ for 1856, and further details are to be found in the same reports for 1863, and in the ‘Smithsonian Reports’ for 1860. He visited America in 1858, and in 1860, after his return to England, married at Manchester Miss Minnie Meyer. At the conclusion of the ceremony the wedded pair formally adopted a boy whom Carpenter had found in a refuge at Baltimore. In 1865 he sailed with wife and adopted son for America, settled in Montreal, and there lived to the end of his days. He took pupils, ceased to be a presbyterian, and became reconciled to the doctrines of the Anglican church. Shells occupied most of his time, and he was working at the Chitonidæ, of which he had formed a great collection, when he was seized with an acute illness, and died on 24 May 1877. Carpenter once spoke of himself as ‘a born teacher, a naturalist by chance.’ The description should have been reversed. He had been fond of shells and of natural history from early boyhood, and the chance was only in the incident which gave him the opportunity of following his natural bent. His teaching was spoiled by his ignorance of what was ludicrous, and he used to imitate the movements of polyps with his arms and legs in a way which fixed his own grotesque attitudes on the memory of his pupils, but which drove their attention away from polyps. He was a virtuous man and a laborious, but was neither judicious nor profound.
[Memoirs (with portrait), edited by R. L. Carpenter, 1880; British Association Reports, 1856, &c.; personal knowledge.]