Heritage Centre :

George Edwards: The Bedell and his Birds

2 December 2005 - 22 April 2006

George Edwards

George Edwards was born in Stratford, then rural Essex, to a middle class family. He began a seven-year apprenticeship with a London trader in 1709, but soon found that business did not appeal. He spent most of his free time reading in his employer’s library and his early passion for natural history grew. Edwards later wrote:‘I could not think of confining myself to business… My head was filled with a confused mixture of voyages, travels, astronomy, natural history, painting… and many other things’.

Edwards left his apprenticeship in 1716 and spent several years travelling through Europe and also in self-confessed idleness. He journeyed through France dressed as a vagrant and was arrested in Norway as a spy. Edwards’ travels were not on the scale of the then fashionable Grand Tour, but did enable him to become fluent in French.

Edwards sketched as he travelled and became expert in producing natural history drawings. These were highly sought-after by wealthy collectors of specimens and Edwards’ drawings came to the attention of Sir Hans Sloane President of the Royal Society and of the Royal College of Physicians.

Sloane became Edwards’ most significant patron and also gave him the job of College Bedell in 1733. Edwards spent the next 27 years working for the College as their custodian and administrator. With a steady income secured, Edwards could pursue his artistic activities in earnest and the physicians encouraged him to publish his drawings. His books A Natural History of Birds and Gleanings of Natural History bought Edwards great acclaim.

Edwards resigned from the College in 1760 but continued to serve unofficially for many years, finally moving back to Essex as his health declined. Edwards died in 1773 and his tombstone read: 'His Natural History of Birds will remain a lasting monument to his knowledge and ingenuity’.


This page last updated on December 1, 2005