Page "Mary Anning" Paragraph 20

One of the family's keenest customers was Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas James Birch, later Bosvile, a wealthy collector from Lincolnshire, who bought several specimens from them.

In 1820 Birch became disturbed by the family's poverty.

Having made no major discoveries for a year, they were at the point of having to sell their furniture to pay the rent.

So he decided to auction the fossils he had purchased from them on their behalf.

He wrote to the palaeontologist Gideon Mantell on 5 March that year to say that the sale was " for the benefit of the poor woman and her son and daughter at Lyme, who have in truth found almost all the fine things which have been submitted to scientific investigation ...

I may never again possess what I am about to part with, yet in doing it I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that the money will be well applied.

" The auction was held at Bullocks in London on 15 May 1820, and raised £ 400 ( worth the equivalent of over £ 26, 000 in 2010 ).

How much of that was given to the Annings is not known, but it seems to have placed the family on a steadier financial footing, and with buyers arriving from Paris and Vienna, the three-day event raised the family's profile within the geological community.