Notes on an Infant (1867-1868) – Herbert “Bertie” Spencer Wallace

The Wallace Manuscripts Project has uncovered and transcribed for the first time Wallace’s ‘Notes on an Infant’. This little 8-page journal is part of notebook WCP5223. It is a record of Wallace’s first-born son, Herbert Spencer’s¹ development from birth to December 1868. On the last page, Wallace recorded the first few months’ growth of his two other children Violet Isabel², followed by William Greenell³.

WCP5223 consists of 237 images and is held by the Natural History Museum (NHMWP3/10). The first part of the notebook from the cover was numbered 1A to 115 by the archivist. These consist of verses copied in Wallace’s hand, extracts of works on the various subjects Wallace was interested in and a record of the Séances he attended. The second part began from the back cover was numbered 1-178. These are many exhaustive lists of plants and flowers and other botanic matters, a note on ‘Statistics of West Indies’ and the most interesting of all, the ‘Notes on an Infant’, which was numbered 6 to 12.

Wallace and Annie Mitten⁴ were married on 5 April 1866. A year or so later, in the summer of 1867, their first child was born. They named him Herbert Spencer, after Wallace’s brother Herbert Edward⁵ and Herbert Spencer⁶, the sociologist and philosopher whom he greatly admired.

Wallace lived at 9, St. Mark’s Crescent, Regent’s Park, N.W., London and the baby was born there on 22 June. The baby’s birth was registered in Pancras, London as “Herbert Spencer Wallis”⁷, an unfortunate mistake. When Annie had regained strength a few weeks later, Wallace rented out their home and they moved to stay with Annie’s family at the “Treeps”⁸. Wallace recollected in his autobiography,

“I let my house in London for a year, from Midsummer, 1867, and went to live with my wife’s family at Hurstpierpoint. There, in perfect quiet, and with beautiful fields and downs around me, I was able to work steadily, having all my materials already prepared.”⁹

Wallace was very busy working on the Malay Archipelago and in 1867 alone, he had over twenty publications¹⁰ to his name.

Darwin was in London for a week¹¹ and on 18 June, paid a surprise visit to Wallace. Unfortunately, Wallace was not home. Wallace wrote to Darwin the next day explaining that he had gone to the Zoological Gardens and suggested another venue where they could meet.¹² They did catch-up in London somehow. Darwin upon returning home on 24 June wrote to Wallace,

“I forgot to say when with you, but I then indeed did not know so much as I do now, that the sexual i.e. ornamental differences in fishes, which differences are sometimes very great, offer a difficulty on the wide extension of the view that the female is not brightly coloured on account of the danger which she would incur in the propagation of the species.

I very much enjoyed my long conversation with you; and today we return home & I to my horrid dull work correcting proof sheets.”¹³

When Darwin wrote again in October and after some talking-shop, Wallace also announced his son’s birth,

“I quite forget whether I told you that I have a little boy, now three months old, and have named him ‘Herbert Spencer’, — (having had a brother Herbert.)”¹⁴

Darwin duly sent his congratulations,

“I heartily congratulate you on the birth of ‘Herbert Spencer’, & may he deserve his name, but I hope he will copy his father’s style & not his namesake’s. Pray observe, though I fear I am a month too late, when tears are first secreted enough to overflow; & write down dates”¹⁵ [Darwin must be referring to the philosopher Herbert Spencer, not ARW’s brother Herbert, who he didn’t ever know. G.B.]

Sadly, the boy did not reach adulthood. He died age six at Hurstpierpoint. Wallace wrote to his close friend Arabella Buckley¹⁶ on 24 April 1874,

“Dear Miss Buckley,—… On coming home this evening I received the news of poor little Bertie’s death—this morning at eight o’clock. I left him only yesterday forenoon, and had then considerable hopes, for we had just commenced a new treatment which a fortnight earlier I am pretty sure might have saved him. The thought suddenly struck me to go to Dr. Williams, of Hayward’s Heath.… but it was too late. As he had been in this same state of exhaustion for nearly a month, it is evident that very slight influences might have been injurious or beneficial. Our orthodox medical men are profoundly ignorant of the subtle influences of the human body in health and disease, and can thus do nothing in many cases which Nature would cure if assisted by proper conditions. We who know what strange and subtle influences are around us can believe this.”¹⁷     

Buckley recollected,

“Mr. Wallace felt the death of this child so deeply that during the remainder of his life he never mentioned him except when obliged, and then with tears in his eyes.”¹⁸

Here are a few places little Bertie lived in in his short life.

~ St Mark’s Crescent, Regent’s Park, London, birth to “midsummer” 1867; summer 1868 – March 1870.

~Treeps, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, “midsummer 1867 – summer 1868; died here.

~ Holly House, Tanner Street, Barking, London, 25 March 1870 – 25 March 1872.

~ The Dell, Grays, Essex, 25 March 1872 – April 1874.¹⁹

Notes

1. Herbert Spencer Wallace, 22 Jun. 1867 – 24 Apr. 1874.

2. Violet Isabel Wallace, 25 Jan. 1869 – 7 Sept. 1945.

3. William Green Wallace, 30 Dec. 1871 – 6 May 1951.

4. Annie Wallace née Mitten, 1846-1914, daughter of William Mitten (1819-1906). William Mitten was a pharmaceutical chemist and authority on bryophytes.

5. Herbert Edward (“Edward”) Wallace, 1829–8 Jun. 1851. Travelled to Brazil to meet and work with Wallace in July 1849. Died of yellow fever in Pará.

6. Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903. English sociologist and philosopher and an early advocate of the theory of evolution.

7. Richard Middleton. 2020. The Ancestry and family of Alfred Russel Wallace. http://www.natstand.org.uk/pdf/WallaceAR000.pdf

8. Treeps, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, England. https://wallacefund.myspecies.info/2005-treeps-plaque

9. Wallace, A. R. 1905. My life: A record of events and opinions, vol. 1, p. 414.

10. Charles H. Smith, ed. The Alfred Russel Wallace Page. https://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/writings.htm

11. Darwin, C. R. 1838 – 1881. ‘Journal’. CUL-DAR158.1-76.

12. “WCP4102,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 17 July 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4102

13. “Letter no. 5404,” accessed on 17 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5404.xml

14. “WCP1882,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 17 July 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP1882

15. “Letter no. 5648,” accessed on 17 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5648.xml

16. Arabella Burton Buckley, 1840-1929. Sir Charles Lyell’s secretary and close family friend of Wallace.

17. Marchant, James ed. 1916. Alfred Russel Wallace letters and reminiscences, vol. 2, pp. 192-3. London: Cassell.

18. Ibid, p. 193.

19. Charles H. Smith; George Beccaloni, eds. 2008. Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace. OUP. https://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/essays/2008NaturalSelectionAndBeyond.pdf

Many thanks to the Wallace Literary Estate for the permission to publish the transcript and for the photograph of Annie & Bertie. Thanks also to Dr. George Beccaloni who read and offered suggestions to the above introduction. MS transcribed by Christine Chua for the Wallace Manuscript Project. Text © of the Wallace Literary Estate.

The transcript

[[6]]

A.R.W. & A.M. married – 1866? – Easter.

1867 Notes on an Infant, a male.

Born Saturday June 22nd. 7.30 am.

Within a few hours exhibited several very definite muscular motions. Opened and shut his eyes, caught hold of objects pretty tightly with his fingers, – put his fingers and hands into his mouth and sucked them with such force as to produce a loud “cluck”. Cried in various tones. Showed various contortions of the countenance exhibiting indicating pain and pleasure.

23rd. Weighed . . . 7 lb. 14 oz.

On putting my finger in his mouth, he pressed his tongue against it, and sucked so strongly as to almost painful, – I should say quite as strongly as a grown person would who did not use unusual exertion. This would indicate that the series of muscles necessary for suction possess an inherited correspondence of action and are at birth the most fully developed. of any

24th.

Measured Length or height. 21 in.

Across shoulders .. 6 1/2 in.

Shoulder to finger tips — 9 1/2 in.

Head round forehead — 13 1/2 in

[[7]]

25th. When food is given from a spoon, the tongue is seen to curl up at the sides and form a trough well adapted for sucking. Certain muscles must here act, which lose all power of action later in life when sucking is exchanged for mastication.

On this day I first observed signs that he saw. When his head was directed towards the window the eyes opened wide and the countenance expressed a pleasant sensation. Also while at the breast smiled strongly for the first time.

July 1st. weight 8 lbs. 4 oz 1/2. Head – 14 in. circumference.

July 7th. weight 8 lb. 10 oz. (about.) 9.13 1/2 w. clothes. Head – 14 1/4 in. [about]

July 14th. weight. 9 lbs. 10 oz. –

Head – 14 3/4 in. Height about 22 in. Arm. – 10 1/2 in.

[[8]]

July 20th. weight 10 lbs, 6 oz.

head round. 15 in.

NB. Hands clutch with great strength from soon after birth — the muscles of the hand & those of the mouth seem to be the only ones fully developed at an early age. ? the remnant of the power of grasping so useful to the infant quadrumana.—

Sund. July 27th. weight 11 lb. 4 oz. head round. 15 1/4 in.

Sunday Aug. 11th. weight 12 lb. 2 oz. Head round — 15 1/2 in.

Strong muscular action of all parts of the body especially the legs arms hands tongue are face muscles. Considerable expression indicating, pleasure, delight, and interest, or enquiry. Earnest gazing at objects, with expressions of curiosity often culminating as an inarticulate sound. Appears to distinguish voice and manner more readily than face an appearance of the various members of the family.

[[9]]

Sunday Aug. 25th weight. 13 lb. 4 1/2 oz.

Sunday Aug Sept. 2nd. weight 13. 4 1/2 oz.

Sept. 21st [weight] 14 lb. 3 oz.

Head round — 16 inches

Height about 2 ft. 1 in.

When about three months old showed dislike of black by crying after being taken by two ladies in mourning.

Puts his hand constantly to his mouth.

Oct. 8th. — 15 lb. 1 oz.

Head 16 1/2 in.

Height 2.2. in

————————————————————

Exercises his voice much. Uses his hands acquires power of touching objects —

Oct. 13th. — 15 lb. 1 oz.

Oct. 27th. — 15lb. 12 oz.

Nov. 6th. — 16 lb. 6 oz. Head 16 1/2 in.

[[10]]

Nov. 28th. — 17 lb. 7 oz.

Dec. 22nd. — 18 lb. 12 oz. Head 17 in round

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In December first emitted labial sounds burr – & spluttering: acquired pretty good command of hands; great attention, quick turning of head at unusual sounds, raises himself on hands and knees.

Jan 27th. 1868 19 lb. 7 oz.

Up to Jan 22nd, had been fed exclusively on milk and water.

Now begun to have oatmeal porridge rice &c.

Feb. 22nd. First stood up himself holding on to the a chair – and began to crawl along on all fours. Knows Tom as the name of the cat and looks down for him directly.

Feb. 27th. 21 lb. 4 oz. Head 18 in — Height 28 in.

[[11]]

1868 April 22nd. 10 months. walked small steps alone – by 10 1/2 months walked all over rooms & garden & upstairs.

1869 Jan. 12th. Went up stairs into my room & brought down my slippers, on being told.

Feb. 17th. round head 19 inches 1/8 – height. 32 3/4 in.

Dec. could speak pretty well, and first began to say “I” for himself which before was always “Bertie.”

[[12]]

Born Jan. 25th. 6am. Girl. Violet Isabel Wallace

1869

Jan^y 27th 7 1/2 lbs

Tues Feb. 16th. 9.0 1/2 – 2 1/2} 8 lbs. 14 oz.

March 21st 11.0 3/4 [-] 3 3/4 [=] 10.13 exactly 31 oz.  in 33 days.

May 9th. 13. 5 1/2 oz [-] 1 1/4 napkin [=] 13. 4. oz.

2 yrs 10 mo. first began to talk at all distinctly.

————————————————————

Born Dec^r. 30th. 1871 William Greenell Wallace

between 9 and 9.30 pm.

	lbs	oz.
31st. 11am weight ? Length — 22 in Jan. 9th. Jan. 21st.	8.   9. 10.	7   5     10.4 10
[Jan. 21st] round Head 14 3/4 in.
Feb. 4th. March 10th	11. 13.	15 11	13.14 [-] 3 [=] 13.11