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Frederick Merrifield

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Frederick Merrifield (1831 – 28 May 1924, Brighton) was an English barrister, entomologist and campaigner for women's suffrage.

Merrifield was a London attorney and clerk to the County Council of East Sussex.

An expert on Lepidoptera, he was especially interested in the effect of temperature on the colour and patterning of butterflies, rearing larvae and pupae in controlled temperature incubators and recording the effect on the colouration of adults. Examples of his very many scientific papers on this subject are (1890). Systematic temperature experiments on some Lepidoptera in all their stages. Trans. Entomol. Soc. London, 131-59 and (1891). Conspicuous effects on the markings and colouring of Lepidoptera caused by exposure of the pupae to different temperature conditions. Trans. Entomol. Soc. London, 155-67. He was President of the Royal Entomological Society (1905-1906).

Frederick was a Liberal and attended meetings of the Reform League that campaigned for better 'representation of the working classes'.[1] He and his wife Maria Merrifield (nee de Gaudrion, 1825-1894) were part of establishing the Brighton branch of the National Society for Women's Suffrage in 1872, along with Henry Fawcett and Millicent Fawcett and with Mrs Merrifield as treasurer. Frederick was also a member of the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts since the legislation adversely affected women.[2] With his younger daughter, Flora Merrifield, he campaigned for women's suffrage in Lewes[3] and was present at the formation of the Brighton branch of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage.[4] After his death, he was described as being 'from the beginning...a stout supporter of women's suffrage'.[5]

Frederick Merrifield's mother was the author and artist, Mary Philadelphia Merrifield and he assisted her with her work, along with his elder brother, the mathematician Charles Watkins Merrifield. In 1877, he was the chair of Brighton's School of Art, which later developed into the University of Brighton.[6]

Frederick's eldest daughter Margaret de Gaudrion Verrall (1857-1916) became a spiritualist medium.[7] Frederick was also a spiritualist, but lost respect for the medium Daniel Dunglas Home after claiming to have observed him cheat. At a séance in the house of the solicitor John Snaith Rymer in Ealing in July 1855, Merrifield observed that a "spirit-hand" was a false limb attached on the end of Home's arm. Merrifield also claimed to have observed Home use his foot in the séance room.[8]

References

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  1. ^ "Reform League Meeting". Brighton Guardian. 18 November 1868 – via British Newspaper Archives.
  2. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2006). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain & Ireland: A Regional Survey. Oxford & New York: Routledge. pp. 205–206, 216. ISBN 978-0415477390.
  3. ^ "Corn-Exchange Meeting". Sussex Agricultural Express. 4 November 1910 – via British Newspaper Archives.
  4. ^ "Notes & Commentary". Women's Franchise. 25 March 1909 – via British Newspaper Archives.
  5. ^ "In Memoriam". International Women's Suffrage News. 6 February 1925 – via British Newspaper Archives.
  6. ^ "The Royal Visit to Brighton". Sussex Agricultural Express. 6 February 1877 – via via British Newspaper Archives.
  7. ^ A. W. Verrall. M. A. Bayfield, J. D. Duff. (2012). Collected Literary Essays: Classical and Modern. Cambridge University Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0521238083
  8. ^ Joseph McCabe. (1920). Spiritualism: A Popular History from 1847. Dodd, Mead and Company. pp. 110-112. A Mr. Merrifield was present at one of the sittings. Home's usual phenomena were messages, the moving of objects (presumably at a distance), and the playing of an accordion which he held with one hand under the shadow of the table. But from an early date in America he had been accustomed occasionally to "materialise" hands (as it was afterwards called). The sitters would, in the darkness, faintly see a ghostly hand and arm, or they might feel the touch of an icy limb. Mr. Merrifield and the other sitters saw a "spirit-hand" stretch across the faintly lit space of the window. But Mr. Merrifield says that Home sat, or crouched, low in a low chair, and that the "spirit-hand" was a false limb on the end of Home's arm. At other times, he says, he saw that Home was using his foot."
  • [Merrifield, F.]. (1903). A Sitting With D. D. Home. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 11 76–80.
  • [Merrifield, F.]. (1924). Entomologist's Monthly Magazine (3) 60 156.
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