William Smith

William Smith 1769-1839, English geologist. Through direct observation as a canal-site surveyor, Smith made a systematic study of the geological strata of England and identified the fossils peculiar to each layer. He thereby introduced the method of estimating, from the fossils present, the age of geological formations. His large (8 1/2 ft × 6 ft/2.6 m × 1.8 m) and accurate geological map, titled A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland (1815), was one of the first of its kind and was followed by similar maps of English counties. Smith is widely known as the father of English stratigraphic geology and field paleontology.

Bibliography: See S. Winchester, The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology (2001).

Smith, William (1769–1839) A land surveyor engaged on canal construction whose work led him to see that strata could be identified and correlated by their fossil content. In 1815 he published the first geologic map and sections of England, showing the sequence of strata.

Smith, William (1769–1839) The ‘Father of English Geology’, William Smith, was born in 1769 at Churchill, Oxfordshire, and received a village school education. Apprenticed to a surveyor, he soon mastered the business. He was interested in the local rocks, and in 1791 set up for himself in the Somerset coalfield, where he was engaged in underground mine surveys and calculations of coal resources. He was soon surveying for a proposed canal and this gave him a further chance to note the disposition of the local strata. He collected fossils and marked the facies changes of formations as they were traced across country. By 1796 he had conceived the idea of identifying the rock units by the fossils they contain, irrespective of lithology. In nearby Bath he discussed his ideas with friends and studied the soil maps that accompanied some of the County Agricultural Reports. By about 1793, he was probably making similar maps to indicate rock outcrops. He coloured each formation distinctively and later gave a list of the characteristic fossils of each. The succession around Bath was published in 1801. Meanwhile he was travelling incessantly around the country as a surveyor, and took every opportunity to record the rocks he saw.

By 1801 he had completed a small geological map of England and Wales, which shows seven major rock units. During the following decade he made several other maps and increased the number of mapped formations. A map-publisher friend undertook to produce Smith's magnum opus, the epoch-making, A delineation of the strata of England and Wales with part of Scotland … (1815). The scale was 5 miles to the inch, the topography newly improved, and some 20 or more formations were listed. A short memoir came with the map, and also a table of formations found in the various counties. Then came his Strata identified by organic remains (1810–19), with engravings of the fossils. He also produced a series of sections, showing his interpretation of the geological structure.

In 1819 he was at work again in northern England, eventually settling in Scarborough among congenial clients and friends. In 1831 the Geological Society of London awarded its first Wollaston Medal (still its most prestigious gift) to William Smith. He continued in semi-retirement in Yorkshire. An essentially practical geologist, he had virtually invented the geological map and set stratigraphy upon a course that still runs. He died in 1839.

D. L. Dineley