Henry Higgins (botanist)


Henry Hugh Higgins was an English botanist, bryologist, geologist, curator and clergyman. He is cited as an authority in scientific classification, as Higgins.

Life

He was the second son of John Higgins of Turvey Abbey, Bedfordshire, the younger brother of Charles Longuet Higgins. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1836, M.A. in 1842.
Higgins was inspector of the National Schools in Liverpool from 1842 to 1848 and chaplain to the Rainhill Asylum, also in Liverpool. In 1848 he travelled in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine, with his brother Charles. He was president of the Liverpool Field Naturalists' Club from 1861 to 1881.
He especially worked on the Ravenhead collections, almost wholly made up of Upper Carboniferous flora, fish, bivalves and insect remains. Higgins had suggested that Ravenhead donate his collections to the Liverpool Museum and the donation gained a home with the construction of the railway in 1870, which exposed two Carboniferous seams known as the Upper and Lower Ravenhead. Most of Liverpool Museum's collections survived the Liverpool Blitz of May 1941 which practically destroyed the Museum itself, but the entire Ravenhead collection was lost in the fire.

Selected publications

Genera

Higgins married Anne Gouthwaite, daughter of John Topper Gouthwaite, in 1852. They had three sons and four daughters.