Edwin Burrell Muskett, medical practitioner and plant collector, was the son of William Muskett and Elizabeth Anna Maria Burrell. He qualified as Master of Surgery (MC) and Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1865. The next year he came to the Cape Colony, where he was licensed to practice in October 1866. He was appointed district surgeon of Hopetown in 1867 and remained there until his death in 1892. In 1875 the University of the Cape of Good Hope admitted him to the MD degree on the basis of his degree from the University of Aberdeen. He appears to have published only one medical paper, "On the specific treatment of anthrax and anthracaemia, and of carbuncle" (The Lancet, 1888).

Following the discovery of diamonds in the Kimberley area, Muskett published an article on "Diamonds at the Cape" in the Journal of the Society of Arts (London, 1869). The next year he requested leave in order to search for diamonds. However, his main scientific activity outside medicine was plant collection. He corresponded with H. Bolus* and sent him plant specimens which are housed in the Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town.

Muskett was married in 1866 to Ellen Rhoda, born Muskett, with whom he had a son and a daughter. After her death in 1873 he married Charlotte Edmonson Pakeman, with whom he had five daughters.

List of sources:

Cape of Good Hope Government Gazette, 9 January 1885, pp. 41-45, List of medical practitioners in the Cape Colony...

FamilySearch: Edwin Burrell Muskett. https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LRF3-R18

General directory and guide-book to the Cape of Good Hope and its dependencies, 1886, pp. 170-178, List of medical practitioners; pp. 288-289, Hopetown.

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by Edwin B. Muskett.

Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Hall, A.L. A bibliography of South African geology to the end of 1920. Pretoria: Geological Survey, Memoir No. 18, 1922.

Muskett, Edwin Burrell. South African Settlers. Retrieved from http://www.southafricansettlers.com/?p=21727 on 2018-12-11.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Muskett, Edwin Burrell / Muskett, Edwin B.

University of the Cape of Good Hope. Calendar, 1884/5.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-05-28 12:17:51