Quick Facts
Biography
Lady Eleanor Glanville (c. 1654 – 1709) was a 17th-century English entomologist from Tickenham in Somerset.
Entomologist
Lady Glanville was particularly interested in butterflies. She collected large numbers of butterfly specimens, many of which survive as some of the earliest specimens kept in the Natural History Museum. She would beat the hedges for "a parcel of wormes", neighbours reported.
The Glanville Fritillary butterfly is named after her.
Biography
Eleanor Glanville was the daughter of William Goodricke and Eleanor Poyntz, a descendent of the Poyntz family, anciently feudal barons of Curry Mallet in Somerset, later of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire. She married Edmund Ashfield and after his death Richard Glanville. She pursued her interest in entomology after separating from her second husband, and tried to leave her money away from her immediate family. However, on her death, her children overturned her will, arguing that she was insane because of her hobby.
In culture
In 2009, Fiona Mountain published a novel about Glanville's life.