In 1800 he was employed by a famous landowner and agriculturist Thomas Coke of Holkham in Norfolk and in 1801 Coke introduced him to Francis, Duke of Bedford, who then employed Smith on his Woburn estate. Smith had already drained some land for local landowners, and this type of work offered him prospects of traveling about the country and seeing more of its geology. A contemporary copy, and also a map by Smith of the country five miles around Bath “colored geologically in 1799,” is held by the Geological Society of London. In June 1799 his engagement with the Canal Company was terminated and about this time he dictated to two local clergymen, Joseph Townsend and Benjamin Richardson, both collectors of fossils, a list of the strata found around Bath and the fossils characteristic of each. He also began to color maps to show how the different beds outcropped around the neighboring hills. He collected fossils, and his notes show that by January 1796 he had made the great discovery that lithologically similar beds can be distinguished by the assemblage of fossils found in them, a concept virtually unrecognized by the geologists of that period. Smith was employed by the Canal Company from 1794 to 1799 and during this period, he became familiar with the strata through which the canal passed, from Triassic marls to the Lias and Oolites of the Jurassic. From their meeting point a canal two miles long would connect with the Kennet and Avon Canal, also under construction: the latter was intended to link Bath with the towns of Newbury and Reading in the Thames Valley. Two branches, each extending from the coal-mining areas along nearly parallel valleys and each about six miles long, were to be constructed. Work on the canal, which became known as the Somerset Coal Canal, began in July 1795. While in London he had visited booksellers in order to find books on geology, but with little success. The tour provided him with valuable additions to his knowledge of the strata, a subject in which he was increasingly interested. In March 1794 he gave evidence before Parliament in connection with the act authorizing the canal construction and in August he went with two members of the canal committee on a carriage tour to the north of England to see other canals and collieries. In 1793 Smith was engaged by a group of local landowners to make a survey for a proposed canal, on which the coal from their mines could be carried to a wider market at a lower cost. He also prepared a map of High Littleton that still exists. At that time the district had many active coal mines, and Smith went underground to examine some of them and draw plans. The house is still standing, almost unaltered since Smith lodged there. Smith later designated this farmhouse “the birth-place of English geology.” for it was there that he began to think about the succession of the strata. He went there on foot and lodged at Rugborne Farm, near High Littleton, about eight miles southwest of Bath. In the autumn of 1791 Webb sent Smith to survey and value an estate in north Somerest. There is no evidence that he was articled to Webb, but he learned all the duties of a land surveyor and valuer and must have become well qualified. Here Smith lived with Webb and his family for nearly five years. Evidently Webb realized that he had made a good choice, for he took Smith into his business, carried on in the large house (now known as Manor House) on the corner of the market square in Stow. He needed the assistance of an intelligent lad to hold the chain and to take notes, and Smith got the job. A local surveyor, Edward Webb of Stow-on-the-Wold, came Churchill to make a detailed survey of the parish preparatory to the enclosure of the common lands. The year 1787, when he was eighteen, was a turning point in Smith’s life. Later, with some older friends and neighbors, he pursued further studies, including mathematics. He attended the village school until he was eleven: there he learned simple arithmetic and how to write in a good, clear hand. His first eighteen years were spent in the village of Churchill,with the exception of two years spent in London. William was the eldest of five children and was only seven when his father died. His mother, Ann, daughter of an unrelated William Smith, was also descended from a farming family. Smith’s father, John, was a village blacksmith but his grandparents and great-grandparents were small farmers in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Northampton England, 28 August 1839) geology. Churchill, Oxfordshire, England, 23 March 1769 d.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |