[Freke, Henry (Evolution / Evolutionist)] / [Freke Family Provenance] / Castle Freke / Castlefreke / “Algy” Freke [Algernon (Algy) William George Evans-Freke, 9th Lord Carbery and his wife Mary Carbery] / Jacobo Freke [″Jacob”] / [Henry Longfield Conner, Manch] Poitevin, M.P.

Dictionnaire de la Langue Française – Glossaire Raisonné de la langue écrite et parlée [Personal copy of evolutionist Henry Freke, with his signature to the titlepage, dated 1851 in Paris, possibly obtained during his studies at Trinity College Dublin, between getting his M.B. in 1845 and his M.D. in 1855].

Paris, Librairie de F. Chamerot, 1851. Quarto (18 cm x 25,5 cm). XVI, 1040 pages. Hardcover / Original Half-leather with marbled-paper-covered-boards. Excellent, firm condition with some minor signs of wear only. Special edition: Signed by the editor M.P.Poitevin and publisher F.Chamerot. Provenance: Originally owned by early evolutionist Henry Freke [H.Freke], Paris, 1851 and passed on to extended family. From the library of Daniel Conner and Henry Longfield Conner (Connerville / Manch House who owned several Volumes of the Freke Family – Library, many with Armorial Bindings from Trinity College Dublin). With an important, further historical gift-inscription: “A.G.Freke, Kingstown, Nov. 1903 – given to me by aunt Mary [Carbery].” [this is Mary Carbery and Algernon (Algy) William George Evans-Freke, 9th Baron Carbery from the family of Castle Freke, West Cork].

Algernon (Algy) William George Evans-Freke, 9th Lord Carbery Sold Laxton Hall. He and Mary had issue:
Mary, wife of Algernon, married again on 11th February 1902 to “Kit” Dr Arthur Wellesley Sandford who was born at Kilvernon Rectory, Co Tipperary in 1859, son of Rev William Sandford, rector of Clonmel. Arthur Sandford had the Cork Eye Ear and Throat hospital built. Mary was close friend to Doty Bandon (Source: bandon-genealogy).

Henry Freke (1813-1888) was an Irish physician and early evolutionary writer. Freke took a B. A. at Trinity in 1840, his M. B. in 1845 and his M.D. in 1855. He worked as a physician in various hospitals in Dublin and worked at the first Irish lunatic asylum founded by Jonathan Swift. He is credited for developing the concept of negative entropy.
His early writings in the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science experimented with evolutionary ideas such as all organisms descending from a single germ. Freke proposed an evolutionary theory in 1851 and more fully in a book for 1861.

Freke argued to have published on evolution before Charles Darwin. In 1851 he wrote a pamphlet that claimed animals and plants had evolved from a single filament. He sent a copy of the pamphlet to Darwin who described the writing style as “ill-written” and “beyond my scope”. However, in the Historical Sketch which first appeared in the 3rd Edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1861), Freke is listed as an early evolution proponent. On page 83 of his “On the Origin of Species by Means of Organic Affinity” (1861), Freke developed a theory of pangenesis, in which he proposed that all life was developed from microscopic organic agents which he named granules, which existed as ‘distinct species of organizing matter’ and would develop into different biological structures. (Wikipedia)

Publications of Henry Freke during his lifetime:

Reflections on Organization, or Suggestions for the Construction of an Organic Atomic Theory (1848)
On the Origin of Species by Means of Organic Affinity (1861)
An Appeal to Physiologists and the Press (1862) (Source: Wikipedia)

• Keywords: Castle Freke · Castlefreke · Castlefreke – Rathbarry Collection · Daniel Conner Library · Darwin · Evolution · Freke Family Provenance · Freke, Algernon (Algy) William George Evans-Freke, 9th Lord Carbery · Henry Freke (Evolutionist) · Henry Longfield Conner (Manch) · Library & Collection Building · Mary Carbery
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 29946AB