Edward Charlesworth (1813–1893) was a notable 19th-century palaeontologist, geologist, curator, inventor, fossil dealer, and scientific controversialist. Raised in Suffolk, he developed an early interest in fossils and geology, producing an important paper on the Crag deposits of East Anglia in 1835 and becoming a Fellow of the Geological Society of London at just 22. After abandoning medical training, he held curatorial roles at the British Museum, the Zoological Society of London, and later the Yorkshire Museum, while also editing and founding natural history journals and societies. His career was marked by ambition, heavy workloads, financial difficulty, legal trouble, and public controversy. Following his resignation from the Yorkshire Museum in 1858, Charlesworth never again held a salaried post. He supported himself through fossil dealing, consultancy work, museum cataloguing, public lecturing, scientific societies, and inventions, including the commercially successful “Elevator Gun.” He catalogued collections for several museums, revived the British Natural History Society, and distributed thousands of fossil sets to subscribers. In later life he moved to Saffron Walden, where he remained active in local scientific and cultural life until his death in 1893.