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Ellen Hutchins (17 March 1785 – 9 February 1815) was an early 19th C. Irish botanist. She specialised in seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts. She is known for finding several plants new to science, identifying hundreds of species, and her extensive botanical illustrations in contemporary publications. Her ability to find specimens was admired. She corresponded and exchanged plant specimens with several of the leading UK botanists of her time.
Her health declined again and by late 1812 she was seriously ill. She and her mother moved to Bandon in 1813 to receive medical care. After her mother died there in 1814, Hutchins moved back to Ardnagashel House, close to Ballylickey, to be cared for by her brother Arthur and his wife Matilda. She died on 9 February 1815 after a long illness in which she had been taking mercury for her liver. She was buried in the old Bantry churchyard. Her grave was unmarked, but a plaque was erected in 2002 by the Hutchins family in their private family burial ground. A public memorial was placed in the old Bantry (Garryvurcha) graveyard in 2015, the bicentenary of her death, by the National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology.
Hutchins wrote many letters to botanists and her brothers. She sometimes utilized a style of letter writing used to save postal charges called a Crossed letter in which the page is turned sideways and writing is continued at right-angles to the first set of sentences. The collection of her letters has been a valuable resource of information about her life and botanical contributions.
During her searches for specimens she recorded over 400 vascular plant species, around 200 species of algae, 200 bryophytes and 200 lichens. Among the latter two groups she discovered several new species including Jubula hutchinsiae, Herberta hutchinsiae, Leiocolea bantriensis (Bantry Notchwort), the lichen Thelotrema isidiodes and three further species of lichen that are named after her. Differences between her species lists and later records from West Cork are also of interest since they help date the decline of some species caused by changes in agricultural practices as well as the arrival of invasive species from other parts of the world.
Her ability to find new plants, and the quality of her drawings and specimens drew admiration from the leading botanists of the day, and her work was featured in many publications. (1999). 9781851493579, ACC Art Books. ISBN 9781851493579 Although she never published under her own name, she was a major contributor to the new and developing plant sciences of her era. At first refusing to have her name associated with her finds, she soon relented. The later volumes of English Botany (1790–1814) from James Sowerby and James Edward Smith included descriptions of her discoveries. The latter wrote of her that "she could find almost anything". After her death Dawson Turner wrote "that botany had lost a votary as indefatigable as she was acute, and as successful as she was indefatigable." In William Hooker's liverwort monograph British Jungermanniae (1816), her name was more or less connected with nearly every rare species mentioned within it. Her rare finds included lichens and she contributed to Lewis Weston Dillwyn's work British Confervae (1802–09).
She was a keen gardener, and she tended plants including ones sent to her by Mackay, in a field at Ballylickey, known as Miss Ellen's Garden. She was at her happiest in the garden, or out in her little boat, gathering seaweeds, which she then brought home to classify and paint.
In addition, the orange-coloured leafy liverwort Herbertus hutchinsiae (Juniper Prongwort) is named after her. It has been considered a subspecies of Herbertus aduncus as well as a species. (1991). 9780946589296, Harley Books. ISBN 9780946589296
An Ellen Hutchins Festival was held in and around Bantry in 2015 and this has now become an annual event.
An exhibition of her life and work was held in the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin February – April 2017.
An exhibition about Hutchin's life and work was held in the Boole Library of University College Cork in 2018.
Ellen Hutchins (1785-1815) Botanist of Bantry Bay (2019) was written by Madeline Hutchins and designed by Jenny Dempsey about Hutchins' life including some of her illustrations and modern photographs of the area where she lived and studied.
An exhibition of her letters, drawings and botanical publications was held at Kew Kew Gardens September to November 2019.
In 2020 the book A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee was published. It was a fictional account of Hutchins' life.
In September 2022 the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork renamed their building in honour of Ellen Hutchins. At the same time, the Ellen Hutchins Reading Room was unveiled, which contains archival material, pressed seaweed specimens, and books, letters and a drawing by Hutchins.
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