Born near Hyde, Lancashire and after leaving school worked for a firm of calico printers in Manchester. Subsequently he became a partner in Strines Printing Company where he remained until he retired. His obituary in EMM., 22, 1885, p.46 states that he was ‘a born naturalist, and obtained much proficiency in Botany and Entomology, making important discoveries in the latter branch, especially in Coleoptera. Latterly he attended to other departments of science, and he published important papers on Astronomy, Microscopy and Photography’. He was also ‘known and respected in his magisterial capacity as a JP.’ In about 1785 he suffered badly from pneumonia and ‘frequent visits to the south of France became necessary in consequence’. Mentioned in the Gorham diary at Birmingham (eg. 1871) and the Janson diary at Cambridge (eg Dec. 1871). Doubt has recently been cast on the validity of some of Sidebotham’s rarer discoveries, sometimes recorded when collecting with ‘Wainwright’ or R.S.Edleston, eg. Peritelus griseus, Sibinia pellucens, Eusomus ovulum, Lebia marginata, Oxythyrea sticta ,etc. A note by Power in EMM, 1, 1865, pp.235-6, referring to Sidebotham’s record of Agriotes pilosus, is interesting in this respect: ‘Mr Sidebotham is in the habit of giving bottles to working men, that they may put into them anything which they may find; and from such a bottle this insect was obtained, having been taken near Manchester.’ Another find, Brachinus sclopeta, turned up from a bottle he had left with Mr Murton, a Lepidopterist, who lived at Silverdale. Sidebotham’s main collection is at Manchester. It amounts to 24,000 specimens and includes the first collection of J.K.Taylor and the collection of R.S.Edleston. Johnson (2004) pp.14-15 notes that the locality data is ‘variable, often poor. Some seemingly British or extremely rare British species might really be represented by French specimens, due to a confusion of material and localities’. Colour codes are used in the collection. There are also specimens collected by Sidebotham at Liverpool and Doncaster. (MD 11/04)
Dates
1823 – 30 May 1885