Couch, Jonathan, 1789-1870

Epithet: Surgeon

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000572.0x000340

Jonathan Couch was an English naturalist and physician from the fishing village of Polperro in Cornwall.

From the description of Papers, 1840-1870. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 173466245

In many ways, Jonathan Couch was a prototype of the Victorian provincial naturalist, a trained physician whose eclectic, but intensely local interests ran from the life sciences to geology, folk beliefs, and local history. The only child of Richard Couch and Phillipa Minards, Couch was born on March 15, 1789, at Polperro, a fishing village on the Cornish coast. After receiving a sound classical education at the Dame School and later at Bodmin Grammar School, Couch began a medical apprenticeship under Dr. John Rice of East Looe in 1803, and from 1808 to 1810, he completed his medical studies at the united St. Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital in London. Returning to Polperro to practice medicine, Couch seldom again left Cornwall.

Despite the burdens of a busy medical practice, Couch began exploring an array of topics of antiquarian and natural historical interest from almost the moment of his return home. Bracketed by a profoundly local perspective, his interests ran the gamut from history and archaeology to Cornish folk beliefs, dialect, and the local flora and fauna. He became best known for his work on the life-blood of Polperro, its fisheries. Training the local fishermen to make natural historical observations and to assist him in bringing in rare specimens, Couch dissected and illustrated hundreds of fish over more than three decades of research, taking meticulous care to depict the colors of the live fish as accurately as possible. In recognition of his contributions, he was made a fellow of the Linnaean Society.

Couch was a regular contributor to several journals, including the Imperial Magazine, the Transactions and Proceedings of the Linnaean Society, and the Annals and Magazine of Natural History . His major publications include A Cornish Fauna (Truro, 1838, 1841), a three-volume translation of Pliny's Natural History (London, 1847-1849) published by the Wernerian Club of London, and the posthumously published The History of Polperro (Truro, 1871). His most important publication was the exhaustive four-volume History of the Fishes of the British Islands (London, 1860-1865), a seminal work that contained over 250 colored plates.

Thrice married, Couch was followed in medicine by all three of his sons, and his eldest son, Richard Quiller Couch, became a noted naturalist in his own right. Couch died in Polperro in 1870 at the age of 81.

From the guide to the Jonathan Couch Papers, 1839-1891, (American Philosophical Society)