William smith geologist biography sample

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    Smith, William

    (b. Churchill, Oxfordshire, England, 23 March ; d. Northampton England, 28 August ) geology.

    Smith’s father, John, was a by blacksmith; but his grandparents and great-grandparents were small farmers in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. His mother, Ann, daughter of an unrelated William Smith, was also descended from a farming family. William was the eldest of fem children and was only sju when his father died. His first eighteen years were spent in the village of Churchill,with the exception of two years spent in London. He attended the village school until he was eleven: there he learned simple arithmetic and how to write in a good, klar hand. Later, with some older friends and neighbors, he pursued further studies, including mathematics.

    The year , when he was eighteen, was a turning point in Smith’s life. 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 com

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    WILLIAM SMITH BIOGRAPHY

    Portrait of William Smith aged 68 (courtesy of The Geological Society)

    Cary’s New Map of England & Wales, with part of Scotland ()

    William Smith’s Geological Map of Oxfordshire (). Location of Smith’s birth place at Churchill shown by the red star

    William Smith (–), surveyor and geologist, was born on 23th March at The Forge, Churchill, Oxfordshire, the son of John Smith (–), the village blacksmith, and his wife, Ann (–). He was educated at the village school, which he attended until about In later life he was to write “If I could have felt the same confidence in writing that I have in Draining and Floating, this Essay might have made its appearance sooner; but I find less difficulty in directing the labours of the spade, than those of the pen” and later “and there can be no doubt but it would be much better for society, and much more conducive to improvements in agriculture, if farmers’ sons were well instructed in practical geometry a

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    "It&#;s all there locked in the stone,

    the truth is told in fossilized bone."

    Devonian blues by Ray Troll ()

    "Fossils have been long studied as great curiosities, collected with great pains, treasured with great care and at a great expense, and shown and admired with as much pleasure as a child's hobby-horse is shown and admired by himself and his playfellows, because it is pretty; and this has been done by thousands who have never paid the least regard to that wonderful order and regularity with which nature has disposed of these singular productions, and assigned to each class its peculiar stratum."

    William Smith, notes written January 5,



    William Smith was born March 23, in the village of Churchill, in the county of Oxfordshire, into a respectable farming family. His father died when he was seven, so his mother brought him to the farm of his uncle.
    And just here the young William makes an encounter that will change his life. In these parts of Oxfordshire

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