
Face to face with William Smith – a bust of the man by Joseph Brogden Baker of Scarborough and a portrait painted in 1837 by Hughes Forau
Have you heard of William “Strata” Smith? Well I hadn’t until 2001, when I read a review in a weekend magazine and bought Simon Winchester’s book about him, called The Map that Changed the World. He has been one of my heroes ever since.

My hardback copy of Simon Winchester’s book about William Smith
Until the end of February the National Museum of Wales has a small, free exhibition of some of Smith’s geological maps of England and Wales and the other day I went along to have a look – and to feel a bit of awe at the man, who became known as the Father of English Geology.

Up the stairs from the marble hall at the museum…
William Smith lived from 23 March 1769 to 28 August 1839 – so he saw the reigns of George III, George IV, William IV and the very beginning of Queen Victoria. I find it to be an “interesting fact” that Victoria was King William’s niece – he had eight surviving illegitimate children by actress Dorothea Jordan, all given the surname FitzClarence (son of Clarence) as the king was previously the Duke of Clarence. But he had no legitimate children to inherit the throne. Aren’t the rules of royalty funny? Had they been different, we might never have had Queen Victoria.
But back to William Smith, who had much humbler origins. He was born the son of a blacksmith in Oxfordshire but when he was eight years old his father died and he went to live with an uncle, who was a farmer. The lad was good at maths and enjoyed collecting the fossils he came across in farm fields. At the age of 18 he found work as an assistant surveyor in Gloucestershire and a few years later, after learning his trade, he went to work in Somerset.

The exhibition starts with a modern map from the British Geological Survey
In observing coal pits and the cuttings through rocks made for canals, railways and roads, he noticed how the layers (or strata) of rocks were arranged in a predictable pattern. He realised the layers of rock could always be found in the same relative position and each could be identified by the fossils it contained.
According to Wikipedia the Danish 17th century scientist Nicolas Steno had earlier ideas about stratigraphy and the law of superposition (that older rocks are usually underneath newer rocks), but Smith was surely the first person to map what he found – and that is basically his claim to fame.
When I was at university in the 1970s I had on my wall a poster of the then current geological map of Britain, as it is so fascinating. That map was very like the one pictured below, rather than the very bright modern one pictured above in the museum exhibition.

This modern map from Simon Winchester’s book is like the one I displayed at college four decades ago
In 1801 William Smith did his first sketch for what was to become the first geological map of Britain (or at least England and Wales), which he published in 1815. Recent research suggests about 350 copies of this map were printed, in at least six issues up until 1836. Around 150 copies survive, each unique because the maps were hand coloured.

One of William Smith’s original 1815 maps on display
The map is on a scale of five miles to the inch and based on a simplified topographical map by John Cary. The two men took nearly three years to prepare the 15 copper plates for printing and add faint lines to mark the boundaries between rocks.
Each map was hand-coloured, with most colours chosen to resemble the rocks themselves.

I always notice that the coal measures are black and the “old red sandstone” is red in this South Wales part of Smith’s 1815 map
Smith tried to show the strata in three dimensions by using darker shades at the base of each rock layer and lighter towards the top. He numbered each map as it came from the colourist and if he was happy with it, he signed it.

Very colourful rock strata in the Wiltshire area
Smith also noticed that the strata of rock were tilted down to the south east of the country.

The museum asks you to order these coloured wooden blocks in the order of the strata depicted above in a cross section from Snowdon to London – luckily some children had already done it for me…

Between 1816 and 1819 Smith published drawings of the typical fossils of 18 different strata – pictured are Crag and Greensand layers. He printed on paper the same colour as the rocks on the map

Fossil ammonites from the Jurassic strata of rocks
At his London home Smith displayed his fossils in order on sloping shelves that imitated the strata of rocks.

Smith’s display of fossils may have looked like this
I just HAD to buy a souvenir of the museum exhibition – and what better than the map itself? Although I was very tempted by the plastic pith helmets bought by two little girls who were off to explore the dinosaur exhibits!

The cover of the map I bought as a souvenir of the exhibition
Foolishly I unfolded the BIG map to scan in part of it for this blog post.

The geology of Dorset according to Smith’s 1815 map
And of course once you have messed around with a map it is VERY difficult to fold up again. I still haven’t got it to sit properly in its cover.
William Smith was from a humble background and not even that highly educated, so he was an outsider from learned society. Sadly, his maps were soon plagiarised by the Geological Society of London and sold at a lower price. Despite selling his geological collection to the British Museum, he went bankrupt in 1819 and spent some time in a debtor’s prison.
The society redeemed itself later. In 1831 it awarded him the first Wollaston Medal in recognition of his achievement and the then President, Adam Sedgwick, called Smith “the Father of English Geology”.
Today the William Smith Medal, created in 1977, is awarded annually by the Geological Society of London for outstanding research in applied or economic geology.

The William Smith medal of the Geological Society of London

My hero…
You may also be interested in my other geology/fossils blog posts…
On old red sandstone:
The red stones of Ross
The lovely stones – Tintern Abbey
On the Jurassic Coast:
Old Harry Rocks, the Jurassic Coast
The Cobb at Lyme Regis, Dorset
On fossils:
Walking with Mary Anning’s ichthyosaur
Wing walking: Hoatzins and pterosaurs
Others:
Stone diary: Memories of flint
Interesting post.. and y’know, there’s still time to go back and get hold of a plastic pit helmet!
I fear my head’s too big đŸ™‚
So very interesting Pat. I’m glad William Smith received recognition and that he was still alive when the Society awarded it. Thank you.
Did you notice the bit I put in just for you – about the FitzClarences? I was thinking of FitzChivalry the bastard in Assassin’s Apprentice…
All the best đŸ™‚
is Fitz always ‘wrong side of the blanket’?
The lady was a beauty.
But, imagine, a life with 8 illegitimate children?
Not sure about Fitz – may just be son of, as there are SO many out there with that name!
I wonder if he would have married her if it had been allowed? Whether he was with her and the kids a lot of the time anyway?
Thanks for this interesting post Pat – surprising that a man of his calibre should be so little known these days.
That’s what I thought when I first heard about him!
All the best đŸ™‚
Enjoyed this post so much. I’m also a fan of Smith, and Winchester’s book.
I’m glad you know about him – obviously I know you like rocks, but I wasn’t sure of his relevance to anyone outside the UK…
All the best đŸ™‚
Very interesting, I hadnt heard of him before. He suffered the usual fate of the “uneducated” in Victorian times which was to be shut out by the hierarchy.
Did you know there is even doubt about Victoria’s paternity?
Too true.
I didn’t know that about Victoria – must Google it to find out who the alleged father was!
All the best đŸ™‚
Looks like a fascinating exhibition. I love old maps and what beautiful maps these are- thank you for the post about this talented man and his work.
I love maps, too, although my husband annoyingly says I am hopeless at navigating in the car! I think it’s because I can navigate better at walking pace.
All the best đŸ™‚
Your assertion that Smith’s map was plagiarised by the Geological Society of London and sold at a lower price is not quite right. Cary sold Smith’s map for 5 guineas (£5, 5 shillings). The Geological Society’s map, published 1st May 1820, sold to members at 5 guineas and to the public at six guineas – so did’t undercut Smith. Greenough – the mastermind behind the GS map – claimed that a geological map would look similar because it. Gfreenough collected information from a range of sources and people, including Smith’s map tin compiling his map. The plagiarism accusation was put about by John Fareey Senior, a follower of Smith’s methods, who fell out with the GS because the editors of the GS Transactions has rejected a paper by Farey Snr for being too long and rambling, and asked for a re-write. Farey Snr refused and took umbridge, then started to suggest that the GS has plagiarised. In fact Greenough had a geological map ready for the engraver in 1814 and to be published in April 1815, six months before Smith’s map was published, but not being satisfied with the base map or the detail of the geology (information was still being sent to the GS) a committee decided to postpone, and re-draw the base map more accurately. It took another five years for the GS map to be ready, and corrections qwere still being added in March 1820, just six weeks before its publication. Ultimately, it was acknowledged that the GS map was more accurate and an improvement on Smith’s map, especially in the west – but by then Farey’s campaign had well and truly spread his accusation of plagiarism.
I stand corrected!
Hopefully anyone else misled by the information in the blog post will read your addendum with interest.
Best wishes đŸ™‚