AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING GOULD-TYPE BOTANIST'S MICROSCOPE BELIEVED USED ABOARD H.M.S. BEAGLE BY CAPTAIN WICKHAM 1837-41

unsigned, parallel main tube and lacquered brass pillar with threaded lid attachment, contained in a fitted box with accessories including four threaded nose-pieces; live box; magnifier, single-sided mirror, contained in fitted case with plush-lined lid -- 5½ (14cm.) diameter; together with approximately fifty slides, some prepared by Norman and Topping, in five boxes, one with mss label inscribed 'J.C. Wickham'.

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Captain John Clements Wickham (1798-1864) First Lieutenant later First Officer aboard Beagle (Captain Fitzroy) 1831-36; Captain of Beagle 1837-41 and thence by direct descent.

John Clements Wickham (1798-1864) joined the navy in 1815 and, by 1825 was appointed Second Lieutenant of HMS Adventure which was ordered, along with HMS Beagle, to survey the coasts of the southern part of South America, including Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. He transferred to Beagle in 1831 under Captain Robert Fitzroy (1805-1865), becoming good friends with his passenger and companion, Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Whilst Fitzroy was undoubtedly a superb navigator and surveyor, he is also considered the father of modern weather forecasting techniques, he had a volatile personality which drove Darwin to find sanctuary with the steady-going Wickham. Beagle returned to the United Kingdom in 1836 and, after a refit, set off again to survey the coast of Australia, however, it seems Fitzroy's character traits had caught up with him and it was Wickham who was made Captain, setting off in 1837 and returning in 1843, although he fell ill in 1841 and had passed Command to his First Lt John Lort Stokes (1811-1885) - a shipmate from the first voyage and who also knew Darwin well. It seems entirely likely that it was Darwin who introduced Wickham to the delights of microscopy as a fascinating adjunct for any self-respecting educated gentleman. Whilst it is not impossible the example offered here was aboard that famous voyage, it seems a more reasonable conjecture that when Wickham set off again in 1837, he took this highly portable botanist's microscope with him.