Philip Pearsall Carpenter

Philip Pearsall Carpenter Rev. Dr. (4 November 1819 – 24 May 1877), who in 1841, was ordained Presbyterian minister in England, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in 1860, and whose field work as a malacologist or conchologist in North America is still well regarded today. A man of many talents, he wrote, published, taught, and was a volunteer explaining the growing study of shells in North America.

Philip P. Carpenter was born in Bristol, England on 4 November 1819. His father was Lant Carpenter. His mother was Anna or Hannah Penn, daughter of John Penn and Mary. Anna was christened on 11 May 1787 in Bromsgrove, Worcester, England.

P. P. Carpenter, as he was called, was educated at Trinity Bristol College, and then Manchester College at York, gaining a BA from the University of London in 1841, the year of his ordination as a minister.

Carpenter was a Presbyterian Minister in Warrington between 1846 and 1862 and he studied the collection of shells in the local museum between 1860 and 1865, before moving to Canada.

He married Minnie Meyer in 1860. Minnie was born about 1830 in Hamburg, Germany. Her parents are unknown. In 1881 she was still living in their house in the Saint Antoine Ward of Montreal.

P. P. Carpenter died 24 May 1877 in Ste-Antoine Ward, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, of typhoid complicated by rheumatism.

A memorial drinking fountain to Carpenter is situated in Bank gardens by the town hall in Warrington.

Mary Carpenter was born on 3 April 1807 in Kidderminster, Worcester, England. She died on 14 June 1877 and was buried in Arnos Vale, Bristol, England. Mary was founder of the Ragged school movement. Mentioned in brother William's insert in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography by Charles Coulton Gillispie. She was a social reformer.

William Benjamin Carpenter was born on 29 October 1813 in Exeter, Devon, England. He died on 19 November 1885 in London and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.

Russell Lant Carpenter was born in 1816 in Kidderminster, Worcester, England. and was christened in Devon. He died in 1892.

• Gould, A.A., and P.P. Carpenter. 1856. Descriptions of shells from the Gulf of California and the Pacific coasts of Mexico and California. Part II. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1856(24): 198–208.
• Carpenter, P.P. 1856. Monograph of the shells collected by T. Nuttall, Esq., on the California coast, in the years 1834-5. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1856(24):209–229.
• Carpenter, P.P. 1857. Report on the present state of our knowledge with regard to the Mollusca of the west coast of North America. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1856: 159–368 + 4 plates.
• Carpenter, P.P. 1857. Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells, in the British Museum: collected by Frederick Reigen. London. 552 pp.
• Carpenter, P.P. 1857. Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells, in the British Museum: collected by Frederick Reigen. 2nd ed. Oberlin Press, Warrington i–viii + i–xii + 552 pp.
• Carpenter, P.P. [1857] 1967. [reprint of] Catalogue of the collection of Mazatlan shells, in the British Museum: collected by Frederick Reigen. [British Museum, London] Paleontological Research Institute, Ithaca, NY i–iv + ix–xvi + 552 pp.
• Carpenter, P.P. 1860. Lectures on molluscs. Smithsonian Report 1860:117.Carpenter, P.P. 1872. The molluscs of Western North America, 1872. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 12: 1–446.