DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE. 145
Opegrapha atra, Pers.
On trunk of hornbeam, Theydon Lane.
var. hapalea, Ach. On trunk of hornbeam, York hill; near
Debden Green; Loughton Camp; and Woodberrie
Hill; fertile.
Tribe-PYRENOCARPEI.
Verrucaria gemmata, Ach.
On trunk of beach, Great Monk Wood; near Debden
Green; York Hill; fertile.
DR. BENJ. ALLEN (1663-1738), OF BRAINTREE:
A FORGOTTEN ESSEX NATURALIST.
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S.
(Read 23rd May 1908.)
DURING the closing years of the Seventeenth Century and
the opening years of the Eighteenth, the little Essex
town of Braintree (which has, even now, a population of little
over five thousand souls and had then, in all probability, less
than three thousand) was more important, as a centre for the
active study of Natural Science, than any other town of equal
size in Britain. This pre-eminence was due to the residence in
the town, or its immediate vicinity, of three naturalists of high
repute, including the most famous then living in this country, if
not in Europe.
First and foremost in this trio was the learned and illustrious
John Ray (1627-1705), the Father of Modern Natural Science.
Ray was born at Black Notley, two miles south from the town,
probably on the 27th November 1627, his father being one
Roger Ray, a smith by trade. The son was educated at
Braintree Grammar School and at Catherine Hall, Cambridge,
and soon became eminent as a naturalist. In March 1679, his
mother, Elizabeth Ray, died at "Dewlands" (fig. 1), a house he
had built for her at Black Notley some years previously. In
the following June, Ray (then in his fifty-second year) retired to
Dewlands, where he lived the remaining twenty-six years of his
life. It was during these later years that he wrote those many
valuable works which laid the foundations of Natural Science as