philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked in his family company as a banker but made significant contributions in archaeology, ethnography, and several branches of biology. He coined the terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" to denote the Old and New Stone Ages, respectively. He helped establish archaeology as a scientific discipline, and was influential in debates concerning evolutionary theory.[1] He introduced the first law for the protection of the UK's archaeological and architectural heritage. He was also a founding member of the X Club
.
Early life
John Lubbock was born in 1834, the son of
London University. During 1842, his father brought home a "great piece of news": the young Lubbock said later that he initially thought that the news might be of a new pony, and was disappointed to learn it was only that Charles Darwin was moving to Down House in the village.[2] The youth was soon a frequent visitor to Down House, and became the closest of Darwin's younger friends.[3] Their relationship stimulated young Lubbock's passion for science and evolutionary theory.[1]
In the early 1870s, Lubbock became increasingly interested in politics. In 1870, and again in 1874, he was elected as a
Statistical Society, he took an active part in criticizing the encroachment of municipal trading and the increase of the municipal debt.[4]
Lubbock's thoughts about the nature and value of politics were deeply influenced by his scientific research, particularly his writings on early human society. He believed that the cognitive foundations of morality could be shaped through political economy, particularly through a national education system that implemented subjects mandated by the state. He held that the minds of children could be shaped in the direction of democracy, liberalism and morality through learning how to read and write. To this goal he was a strong supporter of the Elementary Education Act 1870 and he defended the introduction of the national curriculum during the 1870s and 1880s.[5]
In 1879, Lubbock was elected the first president of the
British Association, and from 1881 to 1886, president of the Linnean Society of London.[4] In March 1883, he founded the Bank Clerks Orphanage, which in 1986 became the Bankers' Benevolent Fund – a charity for bank employees, past and present, and their dependants. In January 1884, he founded the Proportional Representation Society, later to become the Electoral Reform Society
.
Kingsgate Castle in Kent was rebuilt by Lord AveburyCaricature from Punch, 1882
In recognition of his contributions to the sciences, Lubbock received honorary degrees from the universities of
President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1900 to 1902.[9]
In November 1905, together with
relations between England and Germany
.
The quotation, "We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth", is often attributed to Lubbock. This variation appears in his book The Pleasures of Life.
Archaeology and biological science
Strand Magazine
, 1891
In addition to his work at his father's bank, Lubbock took a keen interest in archaeology and evolutionary theory. In 1855, he and
Linnean Society in 1865, and President of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology in 1868. In 1865 he published Pre-Historic Times, which became a standard archaeology textbook for the remainder of the century, with the seventh and final edition published in 1913.[1]
His second book, On the Origin of Civilization, was published in 1870. He held the position of President of the
Palaeolithic" and "Neolithic" to denote the Old and New Stone Ages, respectively.[14] He also introduced a Darwinian-type theory of human nature and development. "What was new was Lubbock's ... insistence that, as a result of natural selection, human groups had become different from each other, not only culturally, but also in their biological capacities to utilize culture."[15]
Lubbock complained in the preface to Pre-Historic Times about Charles Lyell:
Pages from a book of obituary cuttings following the death of Sir John Lubbock in 1913"Note.—In his celebrated work on the Antiquity of Man, he coined the term Neolithic in 1865. Sir Charles Lyell has made much use of my earlier articles in the Natural History Review, frequently, indeed, extracting whole sentences verbatim, or nearly so. But as he has in these cases omitted to mention the source from which his quotations were derived, my readers might naturally think that I had taken very unjustifiable liberties with the work of the eminent geologist. A reference to the respective dates will, however, protect me from any such inference. The statement made by Sir Charles Lyell, in a note to page 11 of his work, that my article on the Danish Shell-mounds was published after his sheets were written, is an inadvertence, regretted, I have reason to believe, as much by its author as it is by me."[16]
In the 1870s, he bought land at Avebury to prevent part of the ancient stone circle from being built on.[17] This, and other threats to the nation's heritage, persuaded him that some legal protection was needed. In 1874, he introduced a parliamentary bill that would identify a list of ancient sites that deserved legal protection. After several later attempts and against some opposition, it was not until 1882 that a much watered down version, The Ancient Monuments Act, came into being. Though restricted to 68 largely prehistoric monuments, it was the forerunner of all later laws governing the UK's archaeological and architectural heritage.[18]
Lubbock was also an amateur biologist of some distinction, writing books on hymenoptera (Ants, Bees and Wasps: a record of observations on the habits of the social hymenoptera. Kegan Paul, London; New York: Appleton, 1884), on insect sense organs and development, on the intelligence of animals, the first monograph on UK Springtails (Collembola) (Monograph on the Collembola and Thysanura, Ray Society, London), and on other natural history topics. He discovered that ants were sensitive to light in the near ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum.[19][20] In 1874 he became the first President of the British Beekeepers Association.[21] A verse in Punch in 1882 described his activities:
British Museum of Natural History
, 12 May 1905
How doth the Banking Busy Bee,
Improve his shining Hours?
By studying on Bank Holidays,
Strange insects and Wild Flowers!
He corresponded extensively with
Simplified Spelling Society. Darwin rented land, originally from Lubbock's father, in Sandwalk wood where he performed his daily exercise, and in 1874 agreed with Lubbock to exchange the land for a piece of pasture in Darwin's property.[23] When Darwin died in 1882, Lubbock suggested the honour of burial in Westminster Abbey, organising a letter to the dean to arrange this, and was one of the pallbearers.[3]
Lubbock was one of eight brothers and three sisters;[
man of letters and another nephew was the writer and historian Basil Lubbock
.
Lubbock married Ellen Frances Horden in April 1856. Five years after her death, on 17 May 1884 he married Alice Lane Fox, the daughter of Augustus Pitt Rivers .[31] He rebuilt Kingsgate Castle, near Broadstairs in Kent, as his family home, where he died in 1913. He was succeeded by his eldest son, John.
He was buried in
St Giles the Abbott Church, in Farnborough, London. Three years later, his remains were disinterred and placed in a family burial ground a few hundred yards from the church, along with the original stone Celtic cross marking his grave. In 1986, Bromley Council, unknown to the Lubbock family, moved the cross back to the main church graveyard.[32]
Data related to John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury at Wikispecies
Works by or about John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury at Wikisource
