Laetitia Jermyn

[2] She was mentored by William Kirby, to whom she dedicated her best remembered work: The Butterfly Collector’s Vade Mecum,[3] meaning 'ready reference'.

George in turn died in 1799, and Laetitia's mother ran the business until her marriage to John Raw, who published the first book under his imprint in 1802.

[11] As Peter Marren has written, in the 'resolutely masculine atmosphere of the Victorian age', women were often unwilling or unable to publish scientific works under their own name.

[11] Jermyn dedicated the book to her neighbour and mentor William Kirby:Whose ardent and unremitting zeal in the study of entomology, and whose valuable and judicious labours in that science, demand the grateful acknowledgement of every true friend and admirer of natural history.

[12]Jermyn also used the work to defend the practice of butterfly collecting 'against the scorn of those who attack the study of natural history as a trifling and worthless pursuit.