Preconfederation Ornithology

(1787-c1875)

Edward Greenhow was an English medical doctor, with a strong interest in ornithology, who lived in Quebec in the 1820s. Greenhow was the eldest son of Dr. Edward Michael Greenhow (1760-1835). His father practised medicine in North Shields, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland, in northeastern England.

Edward Headlam Greenhow was born in North Shields in 1787. Both his father and his brother, Thomas Michael Greenhow (1790-1881), graduated as doctors from the University of Edinburgh, a leading centre for naturalists in the late 18th and early 19th century. It seems likely that Edward also received his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh, probably about 1811. He married soon after. His son was the much better known Northumberland doctor Edward Headlam Greenhow Jr. (1814-1888).

Edward Headlam Greenhow Sr.’s early life and career is not well-known. When his son, Edward Jr was born in 1814 he would have been about 27. In 1815 the Napoleonic Wars came to an end. The post-Napoleonic era saw emigration to Canada of numerous young educated British gentlemen including the Ontario ornithologist, Charles Fothergill in 1816. At some point Greenhow emigrated to Quebec City, perhaps in the late 1810s or early 1820s, where he set up his practice.

Our knowledge of Greenhow’s interest in Canadian natural history consists of two articles on Quebec mammals. Both appeared in the same issue of the Magazine of Natural History 6 (1833). The articles were entitled:

“Some Account of the Habits &c, of the Striped Squirrel (Sciurus striatus), Striped Dormouse Pennant” 6:365-366, dated December 10, 1832

“Notes on the Canadian Porcupine (Hysterix dorsata)” 6: 510-512, dated June,1 1833

It is not possible from reading these short articles to determine much detail about Greenhow’s residence in Quebec. He mentions the Chedier River (presumably the Chaudiere River which flows north into the St. Lawrence near Levis) and St. Nicolas, a community on the south shore of the St. Lawrence which just upriver from Levis. He may have had a busy medical practice and a growing family which limited his natural history pursuits. There is no record of natural history articles or donations by Edward Greenhow in the first three volumes of the Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec which cover the years from its founding in 1824 to 1838.

It is evident in reading his article on British ornithology “The Dates of Appearance, Breeding, and Disappearance of some Birds and Insects, in the Parish of Tynemouth, during the Year 1831” in Magazine 5: 566-569 (1831) that Greenhow had a long-standing interest in birds that pre-dates his emigration to Quebec.

Other articles in Magazine, all written from North Shields in the early 1830s, include:

Vol 4: 433: “The Blackbird crowing like the Common Cock” May 13, 1831

Vol 4: 448-449: “Birds shot during the winter of 1829-30 at Greenhow, North Shields” May 13, 1831

Vol 5: 104 “Is the Woodlark of White the Aluda arborea of Shaw, Letter, Sept, 22, 1831 Vol 5: 393 “Retrospective Criticism: comments reading the Stoat”, Jan. 28, 1832

Vol 5: 495: “Discussion regarding Ichmeumun wasps”, Jan 8, 1832

Greenhow’s article in Magazine 4 entitled “Birds shot in winter of 1829-30 at Greenhow, North Shields”, suggest that he had left Quebec by no later than 1829.

When his father died at North Shields in 1835 Greenhow assumed his father’s practice.

Without further research, it is not known if Greenhow wrote about the ornithology of Quebec. Given his demonstrated interest in birds, and the paucity of pre-1830 records of Quebec ornithology, additional research in archives in Quebec and North Shields might prove productive.

Bibliography

• Loudon, J. C. 1831. Magazine of Natural History 4. London: Longman, Rees, Orne, Brown and Green
• Loudon, J. C. 1832. Magazine of Natural History 5. London: Longman, Rees, Orne, Brown and Green
• Loudon, J. C. 1833. Magazine of Natural History 6. London: Longman, Rees, Orne, Brown and Green
• Scott, Walter. Edit. 1891. E. H. Greenhow. The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend Vol 5: 251. Newcastle-on-Tyne: Walter Scott
• Wikipedia E. H. Greenhow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Headlam_Greenhow