Julius Brenchley

Julius Brenchley 1816 - 1873

Julius Brenchley was born at Kingsley House, Maidstone on 30 November 1816. He was educated at Maidstone Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge.

He had originally planned a life in the church having been ordained at Holy Trinity, Maidstone in 1843. But, in 1845, his father persuaded him to come on a European tour, during which he was bitten by the travel bug.

From 1845 to 1867, Julius travelled the world collecting, recording and sending materials home. He was considered a 'gentleman explorer' and became a passionate collector art, ethnography and natural history.

He was quite the adventurer too, at one point falling inside an active volcano! He met Jules Remy in Hawaii and the two travelled extensively together, even disguising themselves as miners to avoid attack in the American West. This proved unsuccessful however, as Julius was subsequently shot in the neck by a Native American arrow.

Although Brenchley is a relatively little known figure, the timing of his collections is interesting as it contributed to the way in which Native Americans, and the American West, was perceived. By the 1860s, American Indians were generally believed to be a vanishing race. Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' had been published in 1859 and his theory of 'survival of the fittest' was applied to the American Indians, who were deemed to be on the brink of extinction.

Typical of the time, the objects Brenchley collected were largely un-curated, usually undescribed and easily misinterpreted. He probably did not intend to mislead anyone, rather just to document and record in an age before the discipline of anthropology.

Brenchley bequeathed his extensive collections to Maidstone Museum, where many items are still on display, along with a legacy to build a new wing and buy land to create the gardens which now bear his name.

He is buried in the family vaults at All Saints Church in Maidstone.