ETHELDRED

BENETT (1776-1845)  , one of the earliest of English women geologists, the second daughter of Thomas Benett, of Pyt House near Tisbury, was born in 1176 . Later she resided at Norton House, near Warminster, in Wiltshire, and for more than a quarter of a century devoted herself to collecting and studying the fossils of her native county . She contributed " A Catalogue of the Organic Remains of the County of Wilts " to Sir R . C . Hoare's County History, and a limited number of copies of this work were printed as a separate volume (1831) and privately distributed . She died on the 11th of January 1845 .