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John Phillips (geologist)
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
.
Life and work
Philips was born at MardenMarden, Wiltshire
Marden is a small village in the County of Wiltshire, in the south west of England.-Location:The village lies on the River Avon some six miles to the south-east of the town of Devizes, near the edge of Salisbury Plain...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. His father belonged to an old Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
family, but settled in England as an officer of excise and married the sister of William Smith
William Smith (geologist)
William 'Strata' Smith was an English geologist, credited with creating the first nationwide geological map. He is known as the "Father of English Geology" for collating the geological history of England and Wales into a single record, although recognition was very slow in coming...
, known as the “Father of English Geology." When both parents died when he was a child, Phillips came under the charge of his uncle William Smith. After being educated at various schools, Phillips accompanied Smith on his wanderings in connection with his geological maps. In the spring of 1824 Smith went to York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
to deliver a course of lectures on geology, and his nephew Phillips accompanied him. Phillips accepted engagements in the principal Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
towns to arrange their museums and give courses of lectures on the collections contained therein. York became his residence, and he obtained in 1826 the situation of keeper of the Yorkshire museum
Yorkshire Museum
The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It is the home of the Cawood sword, and has four permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology and astronomy...
and secretary of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society
Yorkshire Philosophical Society
The Yorkshire Philosophical Society is a charitable learned society aimed at promoting the natural sciences, archaeology and history. The society was formed in York in December 1822 by James Atkinson, William Salmond, Anthony Thorpe and William Vernon....
at the same time as Henry Robinson was Librarian of the YPS.
From that centre Phillips extended his operations to towns beyond the county, and by 1831 he included University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
within the sphere of his activity. In that year the British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Association for the Advancement of Science
frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
was founded at York, and Phillips was one of the active minds who organized its machinery. He became the first assistant secretary in 1832, a post which he held until 1859. In 1834 he accepted the professorship of geology at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
, but retained his post at York.
In 1834 Phillips was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
. In later years he received honorary degrees of LL.D. from Dublin and Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, and D.C.L. from Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
; while in 1845 he was awarded the Wollaston Medal
Wollaston Medal
The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London.The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831...
by the Geological Society of London
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
. In 1840 he resigned his charge of the York museum and was appointed on the staff of the geological survey of Great Britain under Henry De la Beche
Henry De la Beche
Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche FRS was an English geologist and palaeontologist who helped pioneer early geological survey methods.-Biography:...
. Phillips spent some time in studying the Palaeozoic fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s of Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
and West Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, of which he published a descriptive memoir (in 1841). He also made a detailed survey of the region of the Malvern Hills, of which he prepared the elaborate account that appears in vol. ii. of the Memoirs of the Survey (1848). In 1844 he became professor of geology in the University of Dublin
University of Dublin
The University of Dublin , corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin , located in Dublin, Ireland, was effectively founded when in 1592 Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter for Trinity College, Dublin, as "the mother of a university" – this date making it...
.
Nine years later, on the death of Hugh Edwin Strickland
Hugh Edwin Strickland
Hugh Edwin Strickland , was an English geologist, ornithologist,naturalist, and systematist.Strickland was born at Reighton, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He was the second son of Henry Eustatius Strickland of Apperley, Gloucestershire, by his wife Mary, daughter of Edmund Cartwright, D.D. [q...
, who had acted as substitute for Dean Buckland
William Buckland
The Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus...
in the readership of geology in the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, Phillips succeeded to the post of deputy. At the dean’s death in 1856, Phillips became himself reader, a post which he held to the time of his death. During his residence in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
he took a leading part in the foundation and arrangement of the new museum erected in 1859 (see his Notices of Rocks and Fossils in the University Museum, 1863; and The Oxford Museum, by H. W. Acland and J. Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, 1859; reprinted with additions 1893). Phillips was also keeper of the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
from 1854–1870. In 1859–1860 he was president of the Geological Society of London, and in 1865 president of the British Association.
On April 23, 1874, he dined at All Souls College, but on leaving he slipped and fell down a flight of stone stairs. He died on the following day, and was buried in York Cemetery
York Cemetery, York
York Cemetery is a cemetery located in the city of York, England. Founded in 1837, it now encompasses 24 acres and is owned and administered by The York Cemetery Trust with support of the Friends of York Cemetery. It is situated on Cemetery Road in the Fishergate area of York. It has approximately...
, beside his sister Anne and his benefactor Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
. His coffin was accompanied to Oxford Station by 200 university academics.
Phillips also made astronomical observations of the planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
during its 1862 opposition. Crater
Impact crater
In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
s on Mars and the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
are named after him.
Selected writings
- Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire (in two parts, 1829 and 1836; 2nd ed. of pt. 1 in 1835; 3rd ed., edited by R. Etheridge, in 1875) Part 1 & Part 2;
- A Treatise on Geology (1837–1839);
- Memoirs of William Smith (1844);
- The Rivers, Mountains and Sea-Coast of Yorkshire (1853);
- Manual of Geology, Practical and Theoretical (1855);
- Life on the Earth: its Origin and Succession (1860);
- VesuviusMount VesuviusMount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
(1869); - Geology of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames (1871).
To these should be added his Monograph of British Belemnitidae (1865), for the Palaeontographical Society, and his geological map of the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
(1847).