The Pennant Papers
Item
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Country
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GB
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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Cape Road, Warwick CV34 4JS
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Contact information: phone number
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0044 01926 738 959
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Contact information: email
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recordoffice@warwickshire.gov.uk
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Reference number
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CR2017
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (official language of the state)
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The Pennant Papers
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Thomas Pennant
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Date note
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18th century
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Language(s)
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eng
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lat
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Extent
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8 series
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Type of material
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Graphic Material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The Pennant Papers are part of the Feilding family fonds and comprise documents pertaining to Thomas Pennant (1726-98), naturalist and traveller, and his son, Daniel. This collection is divided into eight series according to the documents' type and content: Historical, Antiquarian and Natural History Papers, Correspondence, Personal Papers, Deeds and Estate Papers, Local and Official Papers, Historical and Political Papers, Miscellaneous and Printed Material and Miscellaneous Drawings. Pennant kept scientific correspondence with Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91), the Portuguese Jewish naturalist who served as clerk and librarian of the Royal Society of London. Thus, this collection includes a letter book of Mendes da Costa (CR2017/TP408), containing original letters from Pennant and drafts or copies of Costa's replies. These letters reflect the writers' interest in mineralogy. The final letters in the volume are those exchanged between Richard Pennant Baron Penrhyn and Costa in the 1780s when Costa made up several mineral collections. Many of Costa's letters are in the British Library. Besides this letter book, there are other letters from Costa to Thomas Pennant dating from 1753 and 1757 and concerning Costa's mineralogical collection and Linnaeus' discovery of a new plant in France (CR2017/TP204/1-4). Throughout Pennant's correspondence, there are also several letters with references to Emanuel Mendes da Costa. See CR2017/TP163/1-9, CR2017/TP170/1-2, CR2017/TP176/1-7, CR2017/TP553/1-2, etc. A search on the Warwickshire's Past Unlocked online database by the word "Costa" will help find other materials.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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Thomas Pennant (1726-1798) was a Welsh naturalist, antiquary, and traveller. He received his early education at Wrexham, and afterwards entered Queen’s College, Oxford, but did not take a degree. At 12 years old, he was inspired with a passion for natural history through being presented with Francis Willughby’s Ornithology; and a tour in Cornwall in 1746–47 awakened his strong interest in minerals and fossils. In 1750, his account of an earthquake at Downing was inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, where there also appeared in 1756 a paper on several coralloid bodies he had collected at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. In the following year, at the instance of Linnaeus, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Uppsala. In 1766, Pennant published the first part of his British Zoology, a work that stimulated zoological research, particularly in ornithology, in Great Britain. In 1767, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Pennant is the author of numerous works on Natural History and travel books, including A Tour in Scotland in 1769 (1771), Tour in Wales (1778), History of Quadrupeds (1781), Journey to Snowdon (1781-83), Journey from Chester to London (1782), and Arctic Zoology (1784–85), among others.
Pennant died at Downing on December 16, 1798.
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(source: "Pennant, Thomas" in Encyclopædia Britannica)
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System of arrangement
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This section is divided into eight series, organised according to subject and typology.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2023
