Elizabeth Catherine Thomas Carne (1817–1873) was a British author and natural philosopher, geologist, conchologist, mineral collector and philanthropist. In later years, following her father's death in post, she also became a banker. Today we would probably place her contributions to science in the realm of human ecology, writes a recent author. She was the fifth child of eight children (three sons and five daughters) born to Joseph Carne, FRS, and his wife Mary Thomas of Glamorgan. Elizabeth was born at Rivière House, in the parish of Phillack, near Hayle, Cornwall, and baptised in Phillack church on 15 May 1820. At Rivière House, owned by the Cornish Copper Company of which her father was the Company Director, the cellars were fitted out as laboratories where smelting processes of copper and tin were tested, and minerals and rocks studied for their constituents. To that laboratory had come, before she was born, Davies Gilbert, PFRS, bringing with him the young Humphry Davy to view the workings of a scientific environment. Born into an influential and wealthy Methodist family of mining agents and merchants, Elizabeth was acutely aware throughout her life of poverty and deprivation in surrounding mining areas, and the dire need for education and social support for those less fortunate. She read widely, studied mathematics, the classics, and learned several languages. Both her grandfather, often styled 'the Father of Cornish Methodism', and her father had been staunch and active Wesleyan Methodist class leaders within the Church of England, and the local Methodist book room was lodged in their home. Educated at home in Chapel Street, Penzance, with her sisters, she assisted her father with his extensive mineral collections, and shared his keen interest in geological formations, age and density. A close and devoted friend, with whom she regularly corresponded, was the notable Quaker diarist, Caroline Fox of Falmouth's distinguished shipping and mining family. Wikipedia
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