Witham

Name: Henry Thomas Maire Silvertop Witham

Nickname/Alias: Henry Witham

Achievements: Made significant early contribution to paleobotany (fossil botany)

Born: 1779; Minsteractres, England

Died: November 28, 1844; Lartington Hall, Yorkshire, England (Aged 65)

Field & Discipline: Science; Geology; Paleobotany

Language: English

Father: John Silvertop

Mother: Catherine Lawson

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: Eliza Witham

Children: Four sons, of which: Thomas

Education: Unknown

Major Work:

"Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables"

Life & Times:

Witham inherited his father's Yorkshire estate, but  on his marriage to Eliza Witham, a niece and heiress of William Witham of Cliffe, Yorkshire, he took the name of Witham.  He passionately pursued geology and paleobotany all his life, studying particularly the internal composition of plants and fossils, but it was not until he was 50 that his name appeared on any scientific records: a note identifying him as a founding member and vice-president of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle upon Tyne.

As a member of the Werner Natural History Society, Witham presented a paper in 1829, "On the Vegetation of the First Period of an Ancient World".  He also belonged to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where he met the Scottish geologist and physicist [influenced by] Nicol*, whose method of making thin rock sections led to a revolution in both paleobotany and petrology.

In 1831, Witham published his "Description of a Fossil Tree Discovered in the Quarry of Craigleith,"  illustrated by the Aberdeen botanist William MacGillivray.  The fossil tree, discovered at a depth of 136 feet, was 36 feet long, and had a diameter at the base of three feet.  Witham had it taken to the grounds of the Natural History Museum in London, where he studied the tree's internal structure, using Nicol's thin sectioning technique. 

Later in 1831, Witham produced a small book, "Observations on Fossil Vegetables, Accompanied by Representations of Their Internal Structure as Seen through the Microscope,"  again with illustrations by MacGillivray.  In 1832, Witham wrote a short paper on petrified stem material that he described as "Lepidodendron Harcourtii".  The paper was illustrated by two plates showing cellular structure.

In 1833, Witham brought out a second edition of his "Fossil Vegetables" under the title "The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolite Deposits of Great Britain".  It turned out to be his best-known work. Containing 16 plates (the first two showing basic cellular organization of the stems of modern conifers, dicots, and monocots, and the others chiefly showing fossil gymnosperms) the book was acclaimed for being the first major account of the internal structure of fossil plants based on the use of thin sections.

Witham has often mistakenly been credited with developing the thin-rock sectioning technique, probably because he so carefully details it in the first edition of "Fossil Vegetables."  In his "Concluding Remarks" of the first edition, however, Witham makes it clear he was "indebted to Mr. Nicol" for the process. 

In fact the process was not wholly Nicol's invention, either.  He had based his development of the technique on a process developed by an Edinburgh gem-cutter, [used technique of] Sanderson*.

Witham worked on fossil trees at Lennel Braes, near Coldstream, and Wideopen, near Gosforth, in England.  He was the first investigator of "Lepidodendron harcourtii", "Pitus withami" (the Craigleith tree), "Pitus antiqua" and "Pitus primaeva" (the Lennel Braes trees), "Cordaites brandlingi" (the Wideopen tree), and "Anabathra pulcherrima" (a petrified xylem cylinder of "Stigmaria"). 

Examining the "Pitus" trees from Lennel Braes, he correctly concluded that they were fossil gymnosperms (and thus part of the group named Dicotyledons) and not vascular cryptograms, which contradicted the thinking of [opposed view of] Alexander Brongniart*, the "Father of Paleobotany", who stressed that the plants of the Carboniferous period were either vascular cryptograms or Monocotyledons.  Witham was able to show that gymnosperms were prevalent in Lower Carboniferous rocks, which was a huge contribution to the field of paleobotany. 

As well as collecting fossil plants, Witham also collected fossil fish and other sea life.  He set up a notable museum of geological and paleobotanical artifacts at his Lartington Hall estate, a collection that was transferred to the British Museum in 1933.

Extra Connections: He also knew [knew] Lyell*, [knew] Granville Penn*, [knew] Bute*, [knew] Buckland*, [knew] Zirkel*, [knew] Agassiz* and [knew] Sorby*

Assessment: Stimulated fossil botany research by publishing studies on the internal structures of fossils and by outlining techniques of examination

Oneliner: Henry Witham, early paleobotanist

Bibliography:

• Andrews, Henry N., The Fossil Hunters: In Search of Ancient Plants,  Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1980.
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography.