George Luxford Explained

George Luxford (7 April 1807 – 12 June 1854) was an English botanist, printer and journalist.

Life

Luxford was born at Sutton, Surrey on 7 April 1807. At age 11 he was apprenticed to Allingham, a printer in Reigate, with whom he remained 16 years, and where he studied.^[1]

In 1834 Luxford moved to Birmingham. His obituary notice in The Phytologist states he worked there in the printing and engraving business of "Mr. Allen".^{[1] [2]} Under the legislation of the time, a printer had to apply for the licensing of a new press; and in April 1845 Josiah Allen of Birmingham, brother of James Baylis Allen, submitted an application witnessed by "Geo. Luxford" for a recent press. (Business partners could and did act as witnesses.)^{[3] [4]} Luxford was elected an associate of the Linnean Society in 1836.^[1]

Returning south in 1837, Luxford started in business as a printer in London the next year,^[1] and shortly was given a contract by Longmans, to print a magazine edited by John Claudius Loudon.^[5] In 1838 he became a Fellow of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, with address on Ratcliffe Highway;^[6] he was also a member of the Botanical Society of London.^[7] In 1841 he took on the editorship of The Phytologist for Edward Newman, who that year bought his printing business.^{[1] [8]}

For some years Luxford was sub-editor of the Westminster Review.^[1] He was also associated with The Globe, in 1844–5.^{[2] [9]} According to Rosemary Ashton, as publisher also of the Westminster Review, Luxford made false accounts to the owner, William Edward Hickson, who sold out to John Chapman in 1851.^[10]

From 1846 to 1851 Luxford was lecturer on botany in St. Thomas's Hospital.^[1] He worked on The Phytologist, in the capacity of compositor and reader, until his death on 12 June 1854, at Walworth.^{[1] [8]}

Works

• A Flora of the neighbourhood of Reigate, Surrey, containing the flowering plants and ferns, 1838.^{[1] [11]}

Reviews by Luxford in the Westminster Review, by convention unsigned, have been attributed:

• Popular Works on Natural History in 1845;^[12]
• Of A History of British Ferns, 1847;^[13]
• Of Birds of Jamaica by Philip Gosse;^[13]
• Of Illustrations of Instinct by Jonathan Couch;^[14]
• Of Lecture on Instinct by Richard Whately;^[14]
• Of Vestiges of Creation, sixth edition 1847;^[15]
• Of John Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom and other works, including Natural Systems of Botany by James Lawson Drummond, in 1850, attacking in particular the Linnaean system.^[16] Drummond replied in 1851 in The Phytologist.^[17]

External links

Attribution

Notes and References

1. Jackson, Benjamin Daydon. Benjamin Daydon Jackson. Luxford, George. 34. 302.
2. Book: George Luxford. Edward Newman. The Phytologist: A Popular Botanical Miscellany. 1856. J. Van Voorst. v.
3. 374. B.. Hunnisett. Allen, James Baylis.
4. Book: Paul Morgan. Warwickshire printers' notices, 1799-1866. 1970. The Dugdale Society. 36, xxxii-xxxiii. 9780852200025.
5. Book: Laurel Brake. Marysa Demoor. Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland. 2009. Academia Press. 978-90-382-1340-8. 383–4.
6. Book: Botanical Society of Edinburgh. The Botanical Society of Edinburgh: Instituted 17th March 1836. 1840. Neill. 27.
7. Book: Ray Desmond. Dictionary Of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists, including plant collectors, flower painters and garden designers. 25 February 1994. CRC Press. 978-0-85066-843-8. 443.
8. 17231. D. E.. Allen. Luxford, George.
9. Book: Samuel Austin Allibone. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, Living and Deceased, from the Earliest Accounts to the Latter Half of the Nineteenth Century: Containing Over Forty-six Thousand Articles (authors) with Forty Indexes of Subjects. 1871. J. B. Lippincott Company. 1145.
10. Book: Rosemary Ashton. 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London. 11 January 2011. Random House. 978-1-4464-2678-4. 85–.
11. Book: George Luxford. A Flora of the neighbourhood of Reigate, Surrey, containing the flowering plants and ferns. 1838.
12. Book: Gillian Beer. Helen Small. Trudi Tate. Literature, Science, Psychoanalysis, 1830-1970: Essays in Honour of Gillian Beer. 2003. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-926667-8. 52 and note 2.
13. Book: Walter Edwards Houghton. Jean Harris Slingerland. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900. January 1989. University of Toronto Press. 978-0-8020-2688-0. 483.
14. Book: Linnean Society of London. Transactions. 1851. 490.
15. Book: James A. Secord

    . James A. Secord. James A. Secord. Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. 20 September 2003. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-15825-9. 486.

16. Book: Martin Daunton. The Organisation of Knowledge in Victorian Britain. 26 May 2005. OUP/British Academy. 978-0-19-726326-6. 73 note 37, 74.
17. Book: George Luxford. Edward Newman. The Phytologist: A Popular Botanical Miscellany. 1851. J. Van Voorst. 366–8.