Mary Anne Cust facts for kids
Mary Anne Cust, Lady Cust (born Mary Anne Boode; 23 September 1799 – 19 July 1882) was a British naturalist, a person who studies nature. She was also a scientific illustrator, meaning she drew pictures for science books, and an author. She wrote books like The Invalid’s Own Book and History and Diseases of the Cat.
Contents
Life
Mary Anne Cust was born on 23 September 1799 in Over Peover, Cheshire, England. She was the only child of Lewis William Boode and Margaret Dannett. Her family became very wealthy from large farms, called plantations, in the West Indies where they grew coffee and sugarcane. Her grandfather, Johan Berend Christoffer Frederick Boode, owned five of these plantations.
Mary Anne's father died in 1800, shortly after she was born. In 1802, her mother bought a large house called Mockbeggar Hall in Wallasey, Cheshire, and renamed it Leasowe Castle. Mary Anne grew up at the Castle, which her mother made many improvements to. An interesting fact is that in 1815, the first St. Bernard dog ever brought to England lived at the Castle. Mary Anne was also an excellent horse rider. A special stone at the Castle's entrance reminds everyone of her skill with horses.
In 1821, Mary Anne married Edward Cust. Her mother passed away in 1826 after falling from her carriage. As the only heir, Mary Anne inherited Leasowe Castle and the family's plantations. At first, Mary Anne and her husband tried to turn the Castle into a hotel, but it didn't work out. So, they decided to live there themselves and made many changes to the building.
They heard a local story that King Canute once tried to stop the waves near the Castle. To remember this, they placed a special oak chair in the Castle garden, overlooking the sea. It was called the Canute Chair and had the words Sea come not hither nor wet the sole of my foot carved on it.
Lady Cust was known for being very kind and charitable. She often visited the Birkenhead Hospital and gave many helpful gifts. She even sold two special Angola cats at a show to raise money for the hospital. She loved cats so much that she sometimes had over a hundred of them living happily together in a building next to the Castle!
The Castle stayed in the Cust family until 1895. The family also had homes in other parts of the world, including South America and North America. Sir Edward, Mary Anne's husband, was part of a group called the Canterbury Association. This group worked to start a new settlement in the South Island of New Zealand.
From 1830 to 1840, Lady Cust was a special helper to H.R.H. Duchess of Kent, who was Queen Victoria's mother. In 1831, her husband was knighted, and in 1876, he became a baronet. This meant Mary Anne became Lady Cust.
Mary Anne and Sir Edward had six daughters and one son. Their son, Sir Leopold, was named after his godfather, King Leopold I of Belgium. Sadly, two of their daughters died young: Louisa in 1843 and Henrietta, aged 18, in 1846. Lady Cust carved a butterfly on a large wooden cross as a memorial for Henrietta, which was placed in the Bidston Church. Years later, in 1865, her other children donated a window to the church in memory of their two sisters. Sir Edward died in London in 1878.
Lady Cust wrote a hymn called Whitsunday - No.III, which was included in a collection of hymns used in St. Margaret's Church in Westminster. She also gave money to a group that helped with religious education in the British West India Islands.
Lady Cust was the grandmother of Aleen Cust, who became the first female trained veterinary surgeon in Britain. Aleen said her own love for animals came from her grandmother. Aleen wrote that Lady Cust would travel with her favorite Persian cat, which was kept safe in a basket with five padlocks! She also studied how chameleons reproduced and wrote about them. Lady Cust drove a carriage with two Dalmatians running underneath it. She even treated her own horses and had special surgical tools for them.
Once, Lady Cust's carriage dog was involved in a court case. She left her dog outside a store, and a man was caught carrying it away. The man claimed he wasn't stealing the dog but had picked it up because it had wandered off. Sir Edward, who was a magistrate (a type of judge), was asked to identify the dog. However, he ended up judging the case himself and sentenced the man to 14 days of hard labor. Later, the Home Secretary (a government official) overturned the sentence because Sir Edward's actions in judging the case were against the law.
Lady Cust died on 19 July 1882, at the age of 82, at Leasowe Castle. She was buried at Bidston Church. A few months after her death, a large family tomb at the church was removed. Henrietta's body was then reburied in Lady Cust's grave in the churchyard.
Career
Naturalist
Lady Cust was very interested in nature and animals. She gave many different living animals to the Zoological Society of London. These included a Civet Cat from Africa, an Albino Brown Rat and a Hanover Rat from Europe, Bronze-Spotted Doves and an Occipital Lizard from West Africa, a Purple Gallinule from South-western Europe and Algeria, and a Common Quail from the British Islands.
She also donated specimens to museums. For example, she gave a young Chameleon (one of seven born alive, though it died a few days later) and nests of the Zebra Spider from Madeira to the Aquarium at the Derby Museum and the Free Public Museum (Liverpool).
Lady Cust had a collection of British bird eggs that was described as "nearly perfect" and even better than the one at the British Museum. She traded eggs with the Earl of Derby and got help from a famous bird expert, William Yarrell, to organize her collection.
She didn't just collect animals; she also collected plants. She often brought foreign plants home to grow in the gardens around Leasowe Castle. In 1885, a plant called Brass Buttons (Catula Coronopifolia) was found near the Leasowe Lighthouse. People thought Lady Cust might have accidentally brought it to Cheshire.
Scientific Illustrator
Lady Cust was known for her beautiful watercolor drawings of plants, animals, and fish. The British Museum has three volumes of her illustrations. These books contain 205 drawings of plants and fish.
These volumes include drawings of flowers, fruit, fish, and sea creatures that Lady Cust painted while traveling in the West Indies from January to July 1839. Her husband, Sir Edward, added detailed notes to these drawings. The volumes also contain paintings of flowers, fruit, fish, and sea creatures that Lady Cust painted in Tenerife and Madeira between 1866 and 1874.
Author
Lady Cust wrote several books, including The Invalid’s Own Book and History and Diseases of the Cat.
The Invalid’s Own Book is a collection of recipes from different books and countries. She dedicated it to the Duchess of Kent. Lady Cust wrote that she collected many of the recipes to help a sick family member.
Lady Cust wrote the first book specifically about cat care, called History and Diseases of the Cat. It was published in 1856 and dedicated to her friend, Professor Richard Owen. At the time, cats were not considered as important as other animals, and there weren't many books about their care. Lady Cust wanted to change this. She believed that cats were "nice household pets" because they were clean. Her book gave advice on how to give medicine to cats and suggested treating them like people, using similar medicines like laudanum and keeping them warm and comfortable.
Works
Here are some of the works Lady Cust created:
- The Invalid's Own Book: Receipts for Food and Drink (1853)
- History and Diseases of the Cat (1856)
- The voice of thanksgiving: a selection of passages, in prose and verse, from various Christian authors (1861)
- Thoughts upon cruelty. For the Liverpool branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (1863)
- The Cat: It's History and Diseases, with Methods of Administering Medicine (1870)
- The Cat: It's History, Diseases and Management
- Drawings and paintings of flowers, fruit, fish and marine invertebrates: Three volumes comprising 205 drawings and paintings (1839 and 1866–1874)
