William Pennington Cocks, 1791–1878.
A West Country Naturalist

By Stella M. Turk

Chromotype photograph of W. P. Cocks,
courtesy of Royal Institution of Cornwall

 

If like Proust we think of our personal pasts as stilts on which we must balance, then we must also believe that science itself rests on its past – often precariously. The ability to manoeuvre such stilts is related to an understanding of their origins. Our present highly specialised, statistically-based professional attitudes in biology could not have come about had it not been for the few highly articulate, industrious and many-sided amateurs who helped to lay the foundations of modern natural history studies in the last century. Dr. W. P. Cocks, still alive less than a century ago [read before the Society, 16 May 1970. Webmaster], and in his working life a valued correspondent of such outstanding authorities as Milne Edwards, Yarrell, Gosse, Couch, Johnston and Ralfs, as well as those great linked conchologists, Forbes and Hanley and Alder and Hancock, was just such a naturalist.

Described as “this Gilbert White of Falmouth” by Davey (1909), Cocks was a very acute observer and collector, coupling these attributes with a diligence in recording all that he saw. He was born in Devon in 1791 and became a surgeon like his father. However, owing to ill-health, when he was still only 51 he retired to Falmouth in Cornwall. From 1843 onwards he carried on his natural history observations although he published nothing about Falmouth’s fauna and flora until 1849 when two or three papers appeared, including a “List of Echinodermata procured in Falmouth and neighbourhood from 1843-1849” (Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist. Ant. Soc. 1 :292). Like other men of his time, Cocks was compressed into no narrow mould, but wrote on all types of animals and plants, as well as being well known as a political publicist, achieving some fame for his cartoons. Whilst still a medical man his coloured drawings were used for Professor Cooper’s Dictionary of Surgery as well as in works by other leading medical men. His artistic skill, coupled with a fine sense of humour, found an outlet in political cartoons, championing the Liberal Party. But perhaps one of his more unusual achievements was the production of numerous articles written. lithographed and reproduced by himself. Thirty of these papers, many undated, are listed in Boase and Courtenay (1874) and others are known only from private collections (Davey 1909). The titles include the following : –

                "Common objects of the sea-shore" Falmouth.
                "Nudibranchiate Mollusca" Quarto pp. 8. Falmouth.
                "Chitons" Quarto pp. 12. Falmouth.
                "Salt Water Mollusca" Quarto pp. 16. Falmouth.
                "Hints for facilitating the Records of Natural History" Quarto. Falmouth.
                "Guide to the Fish Market etc." An oblong folio sheet. Wm. Tregasis, Falmouth 1869.

Outside the field of natural history the following titles are to be found : –

                "The Life of Jesus Christ – compiled from the New Testament". Written for the Bazaar.
                        Octavo pp.16 and mss. quarto pp. 122. Falmouth.
                "Rules to be observed in practical life etc.". Quarto pp. 24. Falmouth.
                "Forms for the record of Post Mortem Examinations". Octavo pp. 8.

It is said that he sold these lithographed sheets, including those on biology, for a penny each at the local Church Bazaars; certainly one (see above) was written especially for such a Bazaar.

A few of his other numerous papers were published in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall and elsewhere, but most appeared in the Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. Those specifically on molluscs are as follows : –

                1839. Kellia rubra. Mag. Zool.Bot. 4: 54.
                1850. Land slugs found in Falmouth and neighbourhood. J. roy. Instn. Cornwall 18: 28–30
                1856. Slugs. Rep. R. Cornwall polyt.Soc.24: 20
            

Other references to molluscs are scattered amongst his several papers on the fauna of Falmouth which appeared from 1849–1854 (inclusive): 1856–1864 (inclusive): 1869, 1870 and 1877 in Rep. R. Cornwall polyt. Soc.

Cocks died in 1878, aged 87. It is not known what became of his collections. None are in the County Museum with the Royal Institution of Cornwall material. It may be that they were in the Museum of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, the complete contents of which were sold a few years after the last war when interest had dwindled to a very low ebb.

A minor but still significant figure in the history of conchology, Cocks exemplifies a type of liberal, semi-professional scholar-naturalist which dates back to the 17th century and which was to continue into the 20th century. Many of these men were clergymen or doctors and their role in the development of the natural sciences in Cornwall, typical in this one way at least of other remote counties, is discussed by Turk (1959). All but extinct today, they are representative of a time when the humanising influence of science could still be seen as a cultural phenomenon of the utmost reality.

A full account of Cocks’ life and a list of most of his published work is to be found in the second of the following three works, whilst the first contains the titles of the majority of those lithographed by himself.

                                            REFERENCES
                BOASE, G. C. & COURTNEY, W. P., 1874. Bibliotheca Cornubiensis. London.
                DAVEY, F. H., 1909. William Pennington Cocks. Rep.R. Cornwall polyt. Soc. 76 N.S. (part 1): 82–91.
                TURK, F. A., 1959. Natural History Studies in Cornwall. (1700–1900) J. roy. Inst. Cornwall N.S. 3: 229–279.

                                            ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
                Ackowlegdements are made for the use of the photograph of Dr. Cocks to the Royal Institution of Cornwall.