Bio:Frances Acton

Frances (Knight) Acton was the daughter of Thomas Andrew Knight, a well-known botanist of his time, who was referenced several times by Charles Darwin in his work. (Thomas Knight's biography can be found at the "Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography". Frances assisted her father in his plant breeding experiments, including illustrating some of his books. Frances herself is included as a scientist in "The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists," 2004. She married T. P. Stackhouse Acton in 1812, and died in 1881.

The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century Volume 1, by Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Harvey, p. 6.