Mary Jane Hancock

Mary Jane Hancock was an enthusiastic botanist, who was inspired by her love of the natural history of the North to paint it in water colours. 

 Her attachment to nature, including birds, insects and flowers, started when she was a girl and enjoyed outings with her brothers to Tynemouth, Gibside, Winlaton Mill and the wetlands of Prestwick Carr. The wetlands, close to her Newcastle home, were well known for their wading birds. 

 At a time when career opportunities for women were limited, she was a person of influence in the area through her family connections. She had a supporting role as a housekeeper for her unmarried brothers Albany and John. Albany was key to setting up the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN), while John played a leading part in the building of a new museum – now the Great North Museum: Hancock – near to where the family lived in St Mary’s Terrace, Newcastle. 

 Mary Jane became an elected member of the Natural History Society in 1884, the year the then Hancock Museum was officially opened. She counted Lord and Lady Armstrong at Cragside, and the family of wood engraver Thomas Bewick, among her friends. She knew many scientists, naturalists and engineers. 

She ensured that the family’s collections were given to the NHSN, after Albany Hancock’s death, for the benefit of the public, while over 300 of her own botany specimens and more than 60 of her paintings are also held by the society. 

Entry written by Maggie Davidson