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Smith, William

Name: William Smith

Nickname/Alias: “Strata Smith”

Achievements: Founded stratigraphic geology.

Born: March 23, 1769; Churchill, Oxfordshire, England.

Died: August 28, 1839; Northampton, England (Aged 70)

Field & Discipline: Science; Geology; Surveyor

Language: English.

Father: John Smith

Mother: Ann (daughter of an unrelated William Smith)

Siblings: four

Spouse: Unknown

Children: Unknown

Education: Village school and self-educated

Major Work:

“A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales. With part of Scotland”

Life & Times:

In 1787, Smith was taken on as an assistant to Edward Webb, a surveyor, who had come to Churchill to survey the common land of the parish before its enclosure. In 1791, he went on assignment near High Littleton in Somerset, to examine and draw plans of the coal mines.

While he was there Smith made a map of the area and became seriously interested in investigating the age and succession of strata. His headquarters on the trip was Rugborne Farm, which he called “the birthplace of English geology.”

In 1794, he started working as engineer to the Somerset Coal Canal and went on a six-week tour of Northern England  to study excavation techniques in mines and canals there.  By the end of the tour, he felt that he had formed a picture of the lie of the strata of England.

Smith worked for the next five years on the construction of the canal from Bath to Newbury and Reading.  The work introduced him to sequences of rock of different ages and gave him the opportunity to collect many fossils. This collection led to his discovery that beds of the same kind of rock, but at different levels, could be distinguished from one another by similar fossils found in each level.

He started to make notes of his observations,  and made sketches of the different sections.  From this, he was able to tabulate the different strata and make geological maps. By 1799, he had produced detailed maps of the area around Bath and had prepared less detailed maps for the rest of the country.

In 1800, Smith was employed by [employed by] Coke*, a famous landowner in Holkham, Norfolk.  By this time, his plan for a geological map of England was well formed and, in 1802, he discussed the idea with [encouraged by] Banks*, who encouraged him to complete the project.

Smith intended to publish maps of the strata in a work he would call “Accurate Delineations and Descriptions of the Natural Order of the Various Strata That Are Found in Different Parts of England and Wales.”

The research was expensive and, at the time, he was busy earning his living on jobs like the construction of sea defences on the east coast of England and South Wales, supervising the sinking of coal mines in Lancashire and Yorkshire and valuing estates, so he found it slow and difficult to raise subscriptions.

Then, in 1812, John Cary, the map engraver, offered to publish Smith’s geological map of England, with a specially engraved topological map.  Over the next two years, Smith drew the lines of the strata onto his map and introduced the new idea of graduating colour, deeper at the base, to emphasise the idea of the superimposition of deposits through time.

In March 1816, four hundred maps were published, under the title “A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales. With part of Scotland” as a result of which the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce awarded Smith their prize.

Smith stayed in employment and undertook draining operations in Norfolk and Suffolk.  He planned canals in Yorkshire and worked as surveyor of the coal field in the New Forest in Hampshire.  In 1816, in his spare time, he began to write “Strata Identified by Organised Fossils” but completed only four parts.

The next year, he wrote “A Stratigraphical System of Organised Fossils” and a further geological map, on a reduced scale, was published in 1819.  Around the same time, Smith started work on the “New Geological Atlas of England And Wales,” which he completed in 1824.

By now Smith had spent all his money on the production of his map and he lost his home in Bath, which left him penniless.  In an attempt to stay afloat, he sold everything he had, with the exception of his papers, drawings and maps. He continued to work as a surveyor, travelling from place to place, without a home of his own.

Smith still spent all of his spare time as a geologist and, in 1824, he made a successful appearance as a public speaker and continued to lecture in Hull, Sheffield and Scarborough, in Northern England.  He eventually settled in Scarborough, where he designed the museum, improved the water supply and worked at geology.

In 1831, the Geological Society gave him the first Wollaston Medal,  presented to him in Oxford in 1832, at the second meeting of the British Association, when [prize presented by] Sedgwick* spoke of Smith’s services to science.

Smith retired, but made a comeback in 1838, when he was selected, along with men like collaborated with] Barry* and the sculptor, C H Smith, for a committee travelling the country visiting quarries to select the stones for the building of the new Houses of Parliament.

In August 1839, Smith was invited to a meeting of the British Association but on the journey there, he fell ill and died later that month.

Extra Connections: His work related to that of [work related to] Cuvier* and [work related to] Brongniart*

Assessment: Smith was the first in Britain to discover and teach identification of strata and to date their succession by the identification of fossils. He is considered by many to be the father of British stratigraphy and geology.

Oneliner: William Smith, first strata geologist

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