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BLACKWELL, ALEXANDER and
ELIZABETH, husband and wife. The former was brother to the more celebrated
Dr Thomas Blackwell, the subject of the following article. His father,
Thomas Blackwell, was at first minister of Paisley, whence he was removed,
in 1709, to be one of the ministers of Aberdeen. He was there appointed to
be Professor of Divinity in the Marischal college, and afterwards, in
1717, raised by the crown to the rank of Principal, which he held till his
death in 1728. Alexander, his son, exhibited at an early period such
symptoms of genius as induced his father to employ great personal care in
his education. At fifteen, he was a perfect Greek and Latin scholar, and
he afterwards distinguished himself very highly at college. It would
appear that his union to Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the daughter of a
merchant at Aberdeen, took place under clandestine circumstances, and was
connected with a step which gave a direction to all his future fortunes.
This was a secret elopement to London, where he arrived before any of his
friends knew where he was. Blackwell appears to have been a man of
mercurial and adventurous temperament; possessing, with these qualities,
exactly that degree of ability and accomplishment, which has enabled so
many of his countrymen to prosecute a successful career in London. His
first employment was that of corrector of the press to Mr Wilkins,
an eminent printer. Afterwards, he was enabled to set up as a printer on
his own account, and for this purpose he occupied a large house in the
Strand. But he did not long pursue this business before an action was
brought against him for not having served a regular apprenticeship to it.
The unsuccessful defence of this action ruined him, and one of his
creditors threw him into jail, where he remained two years.
Hitherto we hear nothing of
his wife—and, perhaps, but for the misfortunes of the husband, the
virtues of this noble woman might have only decorated a private station,
and never emerged into the light of public fame. Like the flower, however,
which blooms most by night, the better quality of woman’s nature is
chiefly developed under the cloud of sorrow; and it is only when the
powers of man have been prostrated, or found of no avail, that her
weakness shines forth in its real character—latent strength. Elizabeth
Blackwell happened to possess a taste for drawing flowers;—a taste then
so very rare, that there was hardly any engraved work in existence,
containing representations of this interesting department of creation. The
acknowledged want of a good herbal occurred to her as affording the
means of exerting this gift in a useful way; and some of her first
attempts being submitted to Sir Hans Sloane, Dr Mead, and other eminent
physicians, she soon received sufficient encouragement to proceed in her
work. A document, attesting their satisfaction with Mrs Blackwell’s
specimens, and recommending her contemplated work to public attention, was
signed by six eminent physicians, including these gentlemen, and bears
date, "October 1, 1735." By the advice of Mr Rand, an eminent
apothecary, demonstrator to the Company of Apothecaries in the Botanic
Garden at Chelsea, Mrs Blackwell hired a house near that establishment,
where she had an opportunity of receiving the necessary flowers and plants
in a fresh state, as she wanted them; she also received great
encouragement and assistance from Mr Philip Miller, so well known for his
publications connected with horticulture.
Mrs Blackwell not only made
drawings of the flowers, but she also engraved them on copper, and
coloured the prints with her own hands. Her husband lent all the aid in
his power, by attaching the Latin names of the plants, together with a
short account of their principal characters and uses, chiefly taken, by
permission, from Miller’s "Botanicum Officinale." The first
volume of the work appeared in 1737, in large folio, containing two
hundred and fifty-two plates, each of which is occupied by one distinct
flower or plant; and was dedicated to Dr Mead, with the following address;
"As the world is indebted to the encouragers of every public good, if
the following undertaking should prove such, it is but justice to declare
who have been the chief promoters of it; and as you was the first who
advised its publication, and honoured it with your name, give me leave to
tell the readers how much they are in your debt for this work, and to
acknowledge the honour of your friendship." The second volume,
completing the number of plates to five hundred, appeared in 1739, and was
inscribed to Mr Rand, in an address breathing as fervent a spirit of
gratitude, and acknowledging that, in her own ignorance of Botany, she was
entirely obliged to him for the completeness of the work, so far as it
went. The drawings are in general faithful; and if there is wanting that
accuracy which modern improvements have rendered necessary, in delineating
the more minute parts, yet, upon the whole, the figures are sufficiently
distinctive of the subjects. The style of the engravings is what would now
be called hard, but it is fully on a level with the prevailing
taste of the age; and, as a piece of labour, executed, it would appear, in
the space of four years, by the hands of one woman, the whole work
is entitled alike to our wonder and admiration. While Mrs Blackwell was
proceeding in her task, she attracted the attention of many persons of
eminent rank and character, and also a great number of scientific persons,
who visited her at Chelsea, and afforded her many marks of kindness. On
the completion of the first volume, she was permitted in person to present
a copy to the College of Physicians, who acknowledged her extraordinary
merit by a handsome present, as well as a testimonial, under the hands of
the president and censors of the institution, characterising her work as
"most useful," and recommending it to the public. It seems to
have been at this period of her labours, that, after having all along
supported her family by her own exertions, she was enabled to redeem her
husband from confinement.
Blackwell, after his
release, lived for some time at Chelsea with his wife, and, on her
account, was much respected. He attempted to perfect himself in the study
of physic, and also formed schemes for the improvement of waste lands.
This latter subject he studied to such a degree, as to be enabled to write
an agricultural treatise, which attracted some attention. Among his other
occupations, for some time, was a prosecution which he entered into
against some printsellers, for pirating his wife’s botanical plates. By
his success in this affair, he revenged in some measure the persecution to
which he had been subjected for his inadvertent breach of another
exclusive law. His agricultural knowledge gradually became known, and he
was often consulted on difficult points connected with that science, and
received handsome fees for his trouble. At one time he was employed by the
Duke of Chandos in superintending some agricultural operations at Cannons.
His work on agriculture, which was published at this time, recommended him
to the attention of a still higher patronage—the Swedish ambassador,
who, having transmitted a copy to his court, was directed to engage the
author, if possible, to go to Stockholm. Blackwell accepted this
engagement, and sailed for the Swedish capital, leaving his wife and one
child in England, with a promise that he would soon send for them. He was
received in the kindest manner at the court of Stockholm, was lodged in
the house of the Prime Minister, and was allowed a pension. The king of
Sweden happening soon after to be taken dangerously ill, Blackwell was
permitted to prescribe for him, and had the good fortune to effect a cure.
He was consequently appointed one of the king’s physicians, and styled
Doctor, though it does not appear that he ever took a degree in medicine.
While enjoying all this good fortune, he was not forgetful of his wife,
but sent her several sums of money, and she was on the point of sailing to
join him at Stockholm, when all his prospects, and life itself, were
overwhelmed at one blow. It is probable, from the character of his brother
Thomas, that he was a fervent admirer of the principles of civil liberty.
Nothing, moreover, can be more probable than that a man, accustomed to all
the freedom of speech which is so harmlessly permitted in Britain, might
not very readily accommodate himself to that prudence of the tongue
which is demanded from the subjects of an arbitrary monarchy. It is
at least certain, that he was apprehended on suspicion of being connected
with a plot, which had been formed by one Count Tessin, for
overturning the constitution of the kingdom, and altering the line of
succession. Being put to the torture, he is alleged to have confessed a
concern in this conspiracy. Every reader, however, will acknowledge, that
confessions under the torture form historical documents of a very
questionable nature. Being tried for his supposed offence before a royal
commission, he was sentenced to be broken alive on the wheel, and put to
the death of a traitor. In the course of his trial, some imputations were
thrown upon his Britannic Majesty, for which, in conjunction with other
circumstances, the British ambassador was recalled from Stockholm. The
unfortunate Blackwell was executed, July 29th, 1747, but not,
it would appear, with the tortures assigned by his sentence. On the
scaffold, he protested to the people his entire innocence of the crimes
laid to his charge, and, as the best proof of what he stated, pointed out
his utter want of all motive for engaging in an attempt against the
government. He prayed with great devotion, but happening to lay his hand
wrong upon the block, he remarked good-humouredly, that, as this was his
first experiment, no wonder he required a little instruction. The date of
Mrs. Blackwell’s death is not ascertained. [Soon after the death of
Blackwell appeared "a genuine copy of a letter from a merchant in
Stockholm, to his correspondent in London, containing an impartial account
of Dr Alexander Blackwell, his plot, trial, character, and behaviour, both
under examination and at the place of execution, together with a copy of a
paper delivered to a friend upon the scaffold, in which he denied the
crime imputed to him." This publication does not appear to have been
genuine, and as it contains some particulars of the life of Blackwell
totally at variance with the above more authentic and probable account,
which is chiefly derived from a letter signed by G.J. and dated from Bath,
in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1747, we have entirely rejected it. This
spurious work is, nevertheless, chiefly used by Mr Nichols, in an account
of Blackwell given in the Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century.]
Her work was afterwards re-published on the continent.
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