© Simon Knell, all rights reserved. From Simon Knell, Immortal remains: fossil collections from the heroic age of geology (1820-1850), Ph.D. thesis, University of Keele, UK, 1997.
The Yorkshire Philosophical Society’s primary object – ‘to elucidate the Geology of Yorkshire’ – was to be accomplished utilising its network of observers. The methodology, borrowed from Buckland,[1] would only prove effective if the Society held at its heart an individual, or group, with considerable experience in geology. Whilst the Society possessed several fellows of the Geological Society, none were experienced stratigraphers. If they were to elucidate the local geology then the project would not simply be one of research but also of self-education. This approach would be entirely appropriate for a provincial learned society; it was non-exclusive and provided a purpose for the entire membership. However, it could be realised more rapidly if specialist expertise were imported. Ultimately, it would be by this means that the task would be accomplished but the price of such intervention would be a diminishing of interest in research within the membership. It would be Phillips as field geologist rather than as curator, as he suggested, which would undermine this interest. If this was a cost to the Society of its association with John Phillips, it would be more than handsomely rewarded in terms of the scientific status it was to derive from the relationship.
The origins of Phillips’ lifelong connection with Yorkshire dates back to August 1794, when William Smith first visited the county as part of a journey from Bath to gather intelligence on canals and collieries. From his position on the chaise he interpolated the underlying formations from surface contours, and used what he had learnt to colour a geological map of Britain in 1800.[2] Smith was again in Yorkshire in 1813, meeting for the first time John Bird, the Whitby artist, who was exploring the local rocks and collecting fossils.[3]
Phillips first visited the Yorkshire coast as Smith’s assistant in October 1817. On this occasion they had two purposes: to see the coastal section and to examine local collections. The coast gave a fairly clear and continuous two-dimensional exposition of geological relationships and revealed what could only be guessed at from small and intermittent inland exposures. Britain’s extensive coastline was soon to be recognised as holding the key to understanding regional geology, yet in 1817 little of it had been adequately charted or interpreted:
…the range and variety of our coasts unveil the geological anatomy of England with an obviousness and convincing facility to the observer, that have greatly accelerated our inquiries.[4]
To Smith and Phillips, as map makers and surveyors, fossil collections gathered from these coastal rocks provided valuable insights into unfamiliar stratigraphy; if a formation’s lithology appeared atypical, these collections would reveal its true affiliations. The two began their trek along the coast at Whitby, where Smith reacquainted himself with John Bird who was still engaged in collecting fossils from the surrounding country. Phillips made a note of the species he had amassed taking particular notice of the localities from which they came.[5] Bird’s collection, however, lacked anything more than a local stratigraphic designation, if any stratigraphic context at all. Such information would not have been available to the Whitby collector, but to Phillips many of these fossils were like old friends; fossils which he had seen in Smith’s cabinet and perhaps in situ. Such information would enable the superimposition of southern stratigraphy on that of Yorkshire; indeed this was the goal of all provincial stratigraphers, and provided a livelihood for Smith and Phillips.[6] As they walked southwards along the coast they examined the section it exposed through the Yorkshire rocks. In Scarborough, they visited the collections of Thomas Hinderwell and John Hornsey[7] – two of the most widely regarded collectors then in the county.
To the men who had assembled these collections, fossils were curious and interesting local antiquities. Almost universally collectors sought the new, the rare, the spectacular and the well-preserved. Despite this mode of accumulation, Smith and Phillips, who were more interested in ubiquitous and well-provenanced material, found these collections an invaluable source of information. Such collections were not simply intellectual entertainment, but tools of considerable commercial value. Being uniquely equipped to infer stratigraphic position from cabinet fossils, at least amongst workers then in Yorkshire, Smith and Phillips saw each fossil as a new patch of colour on the geological map and the key to advising landowners on siting quarries, wells and crops. Each new fossil locality derived from these collections expanded their sphere of operation and their income making potential. Their motivation, however, was never purely commercial – their financial difficulties were probably compounded by their obsession with geological research from interest alone.[8]
Yorkshire had an obvious attraction for the two surveyors. Out of easy reach of London and devoid of geologists of any calibre, this was a huge county brimming with wealthy landowners determined to exploit their holdings for whatever agricultural or mineral treasures they might hold. A county composed of rocks of familiar age but poorly determined in map or section. That Yorkshire should also give rise to an active network of philosophers so easily converted to the novel pursuit of geology was merely a bonus, but one which would allow the two to indulge themselves in the more academic aspects of the subject.
In the latter half of 1820, Smith and Phillips returned to the Yorkshire coast and to Scarborough and Whitby to finalise Smith’s geological map of the county which was to be printed in the following spring. Despite Phillips’ full involvement in the mapmaking process, this was to be Smith’s map. This gives some indication of the relationship between the two, Phillips was still the student, the junior, the assistant. The resulting map did little to advance Smith’s reputation. Phillips distanced himself from the final product and claimed no part in the errors it held:
His Geological Map of Yorkshire published in the Spring 1821 has pretty accurately expressed the lines of Chalk, Kimmeridge Clay & Coralline Oolite. The inferior oolite is, however, in part confounded with the latter, the sandstone formation with Coal and Limestone is erroneously referred to the Calc Grit of the south of England and a still greater error introduced by referring the Alum Shale to the Oxford Clay. This confusion arose from the anomalous character of the strata which in this country represent the inferior oolite formation; and was quickly discovered by Mr Smith; though with an unfortunate disregard of his own reputation he neglected to correct his published map and thus exposed himself to criticism.[9]
Whilst Phillips soon set to work on correcting the map,[10] the damage had been done. The misidentification of the Alum Shale was quickly picked up by the likes of Conybeare and published in one of the most widely read geological texts of the time.[11] Smith’s mistakes, however, had one positive result. They gave the York philosophers a starting point for their own researches; there was considerable kudos in spotting the errors of distinguished workers.[12] In the hands of local observers, the ‘elucidation’ would proceed by refutation of facts at a detailed level. The social stratum from which the philosophers came was not one intimidated by lowly surveyors or indeed any other reputation purely built upon science. That such a respected geologist could be wrong would only encourage them to question existing wisdom, and to assert their own opinions.
By 1821 Phillips was also beginning to separate his own abilities from those of his uncle. An important event occurred at this time which gave Phillips a boost of confidence; an event which he related many times throughout his life. In this year Smith showed him three fossils found near Scarborough. Phillips immediately saw these as indicative of the Kelloways Rock. It was not until three years later, when Smith re-examined the cliffs with Salmond, that he accepted this conclusion.[13] For Phillips, this was the point of transition from mere assistant to his own manhood. It could be argued that all this represented was the impetuousness of youth; Phillips certainly became more cautious in later life. Smith, who had invented the principles of biostratigraphy, may have had good reasons for caution. Phillips, after all, was only applying what to him were laws of occurrence, he had not been through the process of trial and error which determined that methodology. Smith knew that his fossil indices were imperfect; he sought other supporting evidence as he did not expect identical fossils to infer identical rocks over the distance of half of Britain.[14] There is no doubt, however, that Phillips saw this as the triumph of his own understanding over that of his uncle.[15]
The following year George Young and John Bird published their Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast. Whilst recognising some descriptive merits, Phillips dismissed its ‘peculiarities of opinion’ as arising from ‘too limited experience… in geological induction’.[16] It referred beds to a local system, rejecting the principle of identification by organised fossils and failing to distinguish systematic or stratigraphic associations. ‘The regular stratification of the district is obscured by the attempt to refer all such phenomena to the operation of that great flood…’[17] William Williamson later referred to it as ‘prejudiced rubbish’.[18]
Phillips takes up the cause
Whilst Phillips was temporarily employed curating the fossil collections of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, early in 1824, Smith returned to the field.[19] Perhaps surprisingly then, it was the younger man who gained the greatest understanding of the field relations of Yorkshire rocks during this period. Phillips considered the York collections to be extremely limited in scope but, even so, he found the task of correlating these with fossils known from the south of England, extremely illuminating.[20] The process of curation involved arranging fossils from the poorly defined Yorkshire strata, according to this southern framework. Phillips found that the problems of field correlation could in large part be resolved on the museum bench without the confusion of lithology and structure. It would be a simple task to superimpose this museum arrangement on the strata of the coast.
Having established a methodology which he felt would provide answers to the problems of local stratigraphy, it was now that Phillips ‘resolved to follow out the recommendation of the Council of that Society, and to devote a considerable portion of my time to the Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire’.[21] Over the following years, he would return to York and to other collections with the purpose of extending his catalogue of Yorkshire fossils.[22] The arranged museum fossil collection became a model which simulated stratigraphy in the field; if that stratigraphy was unknown the collection was not simply an illustration but a primary research tool.
Although Phillips had taken the decision to pursue the York society’s geological goal, he did not visualise this as exclusively his domain. He intended to make a contribution. The York philosophers, however, pinned their hopes on Smith and encouraged him to improve his map. Smith, too, felt that he would meet the Society’s objective and promised to publish the documents upon which the map was based.[23] Despite their identical missions, Smith and Phillips were not rivals, though there can be little doubt that Phillips saw this as a route to an independent reputation. At this stage, the intended products of their research were, principally, to be graphical: a map and a section. It was by these means that the two had traditionally treated geology. Phillips would now work in the vertical; Smith in the horizontal. Each would assist the other.
In the autumn of 1824, Phillips began fieldwork for a geological section of the coast, which he would walk regularly over the next four years. The Yorkshire coast was a popular fair weather destination for the county’s philosophers and Phillips would often meet them during these trips. He would also undertake his fieldwork in the company of colleagues and friends, including Edward Sanderson George of Leeds, John Dunn of Scarborough, Chris Sykes of Rooss, near Hull, as well as York philosophers and, in the neighbourhood of Scarborough, his uncle. Coastal visits were also combined with lecture tours, as was the case this autumn when Smith and Phillips gave a course of lectures in Scarborough. Here they first met John Williamson and William Bean, collectors who were to become invaluable allies.
Scarborough provided Phillips with his first opportunity to compare his museum findings with the reality of the field. They were not contradicted and he kept the York philosophers appraised of their discoveries; they found the coastal succession ‘very clear and well characterised’.[24] But the task was larger than he had anticipated, he could not send back a section as he had perhaps expected: ‘I had hoped to send something better than a mere sheet of paper, I thought to have transported the whole Coast of Yorkshire from Flamborough head to Whitby’.
There was, however, help at hand. Smith and Phillips’ evangelistic lecturing converted the Scarborough philosophers into enthusiastic amateur geologists, or more precisely, fossil collectors. This had a reciprocal effect on Phillips’ confidence, which burgeoned. John Edward Lee, a member of the Hull society, who became a geological convert as a result of this lecture tour, later commented:
Dr Smith spoke with authority – he described things which he had actually seen, and he enunciated laws which he had actually discovered; but unfortunately, he had no great power of language. His nephew, John Phillips, on the contrary, had just the reverse – a ready, bright, and clear mode of expression. Whatever he advanced was intelligible even to the youngest of his audience. His lectures were extempore. He has been heard to say that he has never written a lecture in his life, and his fluency in speaking was extraordinary.[25]
Perhaps it was the local adulation that the two received that convinced Phillips he might accompany his geological section with prose from his own pen.
His lectures in Scarborough were on organic remains. Fossils were to feature strongly in Phillips’ published account, identified as indicators of stratum and environment. His interest was primarily in assemblages of fossils rather than simple presence/absence criteria for single indicator species. Assemblages tended to be unique to a formation; but certain species were known to extend into other formations. This was particularly true of the Cornbrash, a rock of peculiar importance to Smith and Phillips as a stratigraphic marker which could be traced across Britain. Identification of this rock relied upon the occurrence of an assemblage of fossils composed of species which were also present in the strata above or below.[26]
Phillips would also rely upon notes and memories from his early years, as well as contemporary regional accounts from other observers. Men such as Nathaniel Wetherell, a specialist in the capital’s London Clay; John Brown of Stanway, who reported on Essex geology; Samuel Woodward, who collected and wrote on Norfolk fossils; Gideon Mantell, the renowned Sussex collector; and later the younger Edward Charlesworth, a fanatical observer of the East Anglian Crag.[27] These published notes on their districts in Philosophical Magazine and the Magazine of Natural History, and also sent reports to the Geological Society. They were rooted in their own locale; in terms of geology their name and the locality became synonymous. These regional observers formed yet another network, which although not formalised, pursued the same geological details. Thus from his own memories of the Chalk of Wiltshire, Phillips had little difficulty in understanding that rock as seen at Flamborough. However, it was only as a result of seeing Mantell’s published illustrations of Gault fossils from Sussex and Kent, that he understood the true stratigraphic position of the Speeton Clay.[28]
Phillips also exploited local collectors in order to create the most comprehensive lists of fossils possible.[29] The Yorkshire Philosophical Society would want physical representations of these lists, believing that without these the Society could never establish itself as a northern centre for research. Phillips’ summer excursions along the coast could not satisfy this need; it would be impossible for him to compete with local collectors, and he cared not where the specimens were, provided he could use them in his research. Fossils from the Speeton Clay were particularly difficult to locate in 1824:
To make any tolerable collection of the beautiful fossils of Speeton requires patience and assiduity; for though they are really not scarce, yet it is only after rains have exposed a fresh surface that they can be found in plenty.[30]
Phillips asked Cooper Preston of Flasby, whose collection held many fine and unique examples, to contribute a suite of material to York.
Despite its enigmatic stratigraphy the Speeton Clay was well known to collectors. To John Williamson it was the Kimmeridge Clay[31] and in his opinion it held ‘the most beautiful and interesting fossils of any strata along our coast’.[32] Local fossil collectors had long lived without knowing the exact stratigraphy of the local rocks; their interest in the sequence was primarily as a means to locate the most interesting and productive beds. And in particular those likely to give new species or specimens of extraordinary quality.[33]
The finest spot for the geologist the whole earth contains
In November 1824, Scarborough became the centre of Phillips’ geological world: ‘The Castle Hill may rival any hill or mountain upon earth in the extraordinary Section of Strata which it presents round its precipitous sides’.[34] Smith and Phillips determined the section here for the first time:
1. Coralline Oolite – No 12 Smith’s Section;
2. Calcareous Grit -13 Do;
3. Grey earth, equivalent to 14, Oxford clay of Buckland;
4. Grit Rock equivalent to 15 containing same fossils as the Kelloways Rock of Wiltshire;
5. Grey calcareous rock with fossils;
6. Sandstone & shale with coal bands & spotes no fossils;
7. Grey calcareous rock with fossils.[35]
Rocks perceived as barren were now productive. The section revealed strata which reappeared along the neighbouring coast, as well as inland, and as such provided a key to the whole succession. A wave of excitement swept through Scarborough’s collectors and latent philosophers; the town was now portrayed as having a fundamental role in discerning the county’s geology. While these rocks had been identified they had not yet revealed their fossil contents. There were also other anomalies which might be resolved by local research:
two distinct calcareous rocks are to be seen on this coast in about the place of the Oolitic series; whether we shall be able to identify these two rocks by their fossils & thus to connect this difficult and anomalous portion of our Stratification with the better understood rocks of the South is uncertain.[36]
Fossil collecting in Scarborough was to become a fashion, and take on a new perspective. The collectors became stratigraphically motivated. Each stratum was treated as a discrete repository; their task was to unlock its fauna and flora. Such information would, of course, feed directly into Phillips’ fossil catalogues. With ‘time and perseverance’ the Scarborough collectors could make an important contribution to the understanding of British stratigraphy and organic remains. Collectors, were being given a unique opportunity to seek personal fame in science, they had found a new mission in life.
Towards the end of the year, Smith and Phillips sent a box of fossils to York which illustrated their discoveries. These were for exhibition at the next meeting. Unlike those that would be sent by Williamson and others they were:
not in such preservation as to be highly ornamental to a Cabinet, yet it is hoped they may prove interesting as tending to confirm some of the leading doctrines in Geology, and to elucidate the Stratification of Yorkshire.[37]
The fossils were wrapped in numbered papers, each representing one stratum but a number of coastal localities. They were accompanied by a map of the strata coloured to illustrate the results of their recent research, together with a list of the beds and their correlation with those in southern England.
Phillips’ work for the York society, his lectures and his communications from the coast brought him recognition in the Annual Report: ‘a gentleman with whose attainments the Meeting are well acquainted, and to whose intelligence and industry the Society has been greatly indebted’.[38] As a result he was called upon to give two lecture courses in his own right. However, the Society gave Smith the credit of their recent discoveries on the coast and indeed prided itself on having captured him for their cause. It still saw the older man as its champion, yet it was his nephew who eloquently described the results of their studies at the Annual Meeting in February.[39] He explained that the ‘laws of structure’[40] were now so well established that geological research was mainly interested in ‘exceptions and variations’ which could be determined from their geological position, mineralogical character, and fossil content. Despite lithological differences their research gave ‘strong confirmation to the geological axiom that “Deposits of equal antiquity enclose analogous fossils”’.
The two returned to Scarborough in April 1825 again focusing on the remarkable section in Castle Hill. ‘Scarborough Castle Hill is surely the finest spot for a geologist that the whole earth contains’.[41] However, whilst examining the strata near the drawbridge Smith discovered a fault which placed the Calcareous Grit level with the Kelloways. Phillips recalls ‘his eagerness on the occasion led him to overstrained exertion’,[42]resulting in paralysis of his legs and confinement to bed for several months. Phillips continued his researches, frequently accompanied by locals excited by the hill’s geological significance, and completed a large scale geological section of the coast in the autumn of 1825, indicating cliff heights and listing fossils. This became his chief visual aid for lectures at Leeds, Hull and York.[43] As well as a tool for explaining the succession to visiting alumni including Murchison during his investigations of the Brora coal, and the German geologists Oeynhausen and Von Dechen.[44]
Distribution and correlation
Phillips first showed his section at the October meeting of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.[45] His recent survey of the coast from Saltburn to Bridlington had raised a number of questions regarding the correlation of all the beds with those of the south. In particular, local philosophers began to discuss in detail the distribution of fossils both geographically and stratigraphically. William Bean discovered two beds overlying the Lias in Robin Hood’s Bay which seemed to lack southern analogy; each had its own peculiar fossil content and differed from the underlying rocks. A total of 60 fossils had been collected by Bean in an attempt to resolve the problem.[46]
In general, though, the fossil content of strata seemed to extend across large tracts of country, it having previously been believed, amongst Scarborough collectors at least, that fossil producing strata were local. Phillips could demonstrate no change in productivity and content for a distance of 15 miles from Scarborough. Indeed two thirds of the 20 species known from the Bridlington Chalk were also known in the south of England. However, he did not suggest that the same species would be seen in the same strata everywhere, indeed the known fauna of the Yorkshire Chalk was far less extensive than that from its southern counterparts. Such pronouncements would fire up local collectors perhaps hoping to prove that ‘their’ Chalk was no less fertile.
William Salmond had began investigating the Flamborough Chalk in January 1824, this having been identified by Conybeare and Phillips as an area requiring investigation.[47] William Marshall, the York society’s honorary curator of mineralogy, also took an interest in this rock. In October 1825, he donated 83 Flamborough fossils, with Salmond donating a further suite in the following February ‘which complete the analogy presumed between these and corresponding Strata in other parts of England and include undescribed varieties’.[48]
Members were particularly interested in the apparent distribution of fossils in the Chalk, Marshall noting that ‘Belemnites were generally diffused; Echini were very rare; Alcyonites were abundant. The Marsupites occurred high in the cliff, their fragments and scattered plates were plentiful but perfect specimens must be most rare’.[49] The observations of other members added further to the debate. Eustachias Strickland donated a collection of London Clay fossils from Sussex commenting:
A large bed of Green Sand extending from about middle tide to below the lower water mark was completely filled with these fossils. The different species lay in separate more or less compact and extended groups. In the higher part of the bed lay groups of Bivalves, all of the same species (Venericardia planicostata) but of various magnitude. Below them disposed in a similar manner a bed of Univalves tended perhaps a mile or two along the shore from east to west; the smaller and more delicate species lying towards the western extremity, the larger toward the Eastern where some of them were seen nearly a foot long but incapable of being taken up on account of their extreme brittleness.[50]
Other members had seen similar phenomena elsewhere. Indeed it was this type of knowledge which set apart the ablest of collectors, but some, such as William Bean, would be unwilling to share such information. Discussion of fossil distribution continued throughout the winter season and included topics of local interest such as the relationship of Red to White Chalk, as well as debate concerning rocks arriving from further afield such as those from corresponding members including Charles Vernon in Northumberland. These discussions probably helped Phillips to clarify his own thoughts on distribution and stratification; in the published account, for example, he remarked how the Yorkshire Chalk abounded in sponges but yet was deficient in other seemingly localised elements of the fauna such as fish and reptiles.[51] By 1835 the number of known Yorkshire Chalk species had doubled but these were still only a third as many as had been collected in Norfolk, Wiltshire, Sussex and Kent.[52] Such differences might point to geographical variation in faunal abundance but could equally reflect an incomplete succession, especially as certain species appeared restricted vertically. Faunal lists might provide answers to such questions, and would certainly justify further collecting.
Vernon’s lieutenant
Early in 1826, Phillips became Keeper of the Yorkshire Museum at direct financial cost to Vernon and a few others. Vernon was aware that Phillips’ ‘very superior scientific attainments’[53] could be usefully exploited in the name of the Society; indeed, his sponsors were becoming increasingly aware that Phillips was proving vital to the Society’s scientific standing. The new post would give Phillips further opportunities to direct the Society’s army of observers and to interrogate the material now forming the Museum. These collections would provide invaluable comparative material, enabling him for example to compare the recently collected fauna of Scarborough’s Lower Calcareous Grit with specimens from Brora, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, given by Murchison, Buckland, Smith and Sedgwick respectively.[54]
In May, Sedgwick finally published the results of his 1821 excursion to Whitby and the Yorkshire coast in the Annals of Philosophy. In this paper he correctly identified the link between the Alum Shale and the Dorset Lias, and the Scarborough oolite and its subjacent sandstone as Coralline Oolite and Calcareous Grit. By publishing now Sedgwick could at least claim priority for some of these discoveries, though the correct position of the Alum Shale had been described by Conybeare and Phillips in 1822. Phillips saw Sedgwick’s paper as the most important work published on the stratigraphy of the coast prior to his own book of 1829. Whilst the coast could no longer be considered virgin territory, Sedgwick’s conclusions did little to undermine Phillips’ own research.
Professor Sedgwick alone has discussed the geological relations of the coast; and he has confidently left the subject open to “those who have better opportunities of local ‘information’”.[55]
In September 1826, Vernon toured Scarborough, with Phillips as his guide, encouraging support from local fossil collectors for the county Society. The town also remained the focus for Smith’s fieldwork, and in October, to Phillips’ surprise, he presented his Geological Map of Scarborough at the Yorkshire Philosophical Society meeting.
the most valuable geological present which the Society has received [this year], is a map of the north-eastern part of Yorkshire, in which Mr Smith has laid down with accuracy his recent discoveries. He has, at the same time, announced his expectation of completing, in a short time, his description of the whole county, on the excellent sheets lately published by Mr Cary; and proposes to accompany his map with a work comprising a detail of the numerous observations on which the colouring is founded. The council cannot forbear from expressing a strong hope, that this work will be patronised by liberal subscriptions, and afford the author some remuneration for a long life of successful, but ill rewarded labour in the service of science.[56]
In the following January Phillips took off to the coast with his friend and colleague the Rev. William Taylor.[57] Phillips’ fieldwork varied according to purpose. Sometimes he made rapid progress up the coast simply charting the heights of the cliffs using a barometer lent to him by Francis Cholmeley of Brandsby, on other occasions he recorded gross structure. On this occasion he appears to have been collecting for the Society; the winter being the best time to do this. On the 15th, they were at Bridlington, walking along the shoreline checking cliff falls for fossils but finding none. They also took in the various dealers shops and museums. At Cowton’s, Phillips found an Inoceramus from the north cliff of Flamborough. At Wilson’s, they measured the bones making up a deer skeleton from Hornsea. The following day the two visited the museum at Boynton belonging to Arthur Strickland, making notes on the collections of recent marine invertebrates and deer antlers, together with the ‘Irish Elk’ recently found at Skipsea. Such information would be useful for identifying the increasing number of subfossil remains found on the coast and now entering the collections in York.
Moving northwards, with the weather turning to sleet and snow, their luck improved and at Reighton they gathered several ammonite nodules from the Speeton Clay. They continued north to Filey and on to Gristhorpe where Bean was collecting from the Kelloways.[58] They then continued on to Scarborough, where Phillips spent several days in the collections of Dunn, Williamson and Bean, before carrying away with them various specimens for the Museum. They returned to York on the 20th January apparently laden with fossils, many of which had been purchased. Phillips’ accounts showed the following not inconsiderable expenditure, particularly bearing in mind the price paid for Yorkshire’s reptilian fossils at this time:
Bought of Mawes [Maines?] men £1.5.0 Corals &
of Carter & Crawford 25+19 £2.4.0
of Judd £1.8.0
of Cowton & c £0.4.6
Total £5.1.6[59]
Phillips considers his mortality
On 2 September 1827, Phillips resolved to advance his career:
To compose a paper for GS & be proposed F[ellow]
To finish this year my section of the coast
To commence the introduction to fossils
And prepare if possible a new couzen movt
Began my paper for GS.[60]
He then returned to the coast, completing the section from Redcar to Scarborough by 16 October. During the trip he had also made sections and drawn plants for Adolphe Brongniart[61] as well as assisted Smith with his new geological map of Yorkshire. During the winter, he spent his time examining and curating the Yorkshire Museum’s fossil collections in preparation for publication and also for the following season’s fieldwork.
This would be his last season working on the section, needed particularly to confirm his view of the coast south of Scarborough. He organised his fieldwork to coincide with a lecture course in Hull in May. Here, Phillips spent his days socialising, and examining the collections of the Society and some of its members. In June, staying with the Rev. Christopher Sykes at Rooss and Isaac Stickney at Ridgemont, he took the opportunity to examine local diluvial deposits.[62] Fieldwork was not the only source of valuable information, however:
In my room is Mr Sykes collection of fossil shells & c. among the shells “Pecten grandis” very much resembles P. of Malton but has fewer and less prominent concentric lamellae.[63]
He then moved northwards along the coast, stopping again at Bridlington to examine the dealers’ shops and exhibitions including Cowton’s, Wilson’s and Oxley’s exhibition of birds and curiosities, sketching some of the specimens on sale. At Scarborough, he met his friend John Edward Lee and family who were visiting from Hull, as well as a colleague from York and the circle of local philosophers most engaged in fossil collecting, including his uncle who was now well and looking like ‘a happy farmer’.[64] Staying at Ling’s cottage on the cliff, Phillips spent the next few days once again examining local collections and making drawings of fossils for his forthcoming book. In payment he provided identifications, including those of Bean’s and Williamson’s insect collections.
Phillips continued his journey alone, indulging himself in romantic and melancholic reverie. He appeared to be isolated socially and frustrated by the pace at which his career seemed to be advancing.
I have met with clever people, good natured people, warm-hearted people. Yet on closely examining my feelings I much doubt if among them I find more than one or two with whom almost alone I could pass a tolerably contented life.[65]
Phillips would, during the course of his life, often contend: ‘For myself there is nothing I desire more than to contribute my endeavours in the general cause [of science]’.[66] Buried beneath this desire was a deeper wish that his name should survive beyond his lifetime. Just as Sharp, Bean and others attempted to build monuments in collections, and Vernon and Young in institutional buildings, so Phillips hoped to erect his in science. Ultimately, each were to use fossils as building blocks, artefacts which in themselves were memorials to other eras.
In an age of high mortality, society had a preoccupation with death and being remembered; Phillips had lost his parents at an early age, and they had lost an elder daughter Ann, who died in infancy. They had lived and died in anonymity. Phillips was to spend some time in 1829 going through his uncle’s notebooks and letters, some he gave to Benjamin Richardson as a keepsake, some he destroyed but two or three journals he retained for the writing of a memoir on Smith in the future. In 1832, he told Smith to send him all he had on the period 1790 to 1801 – ‘the keystone to your future reputation’ – so that it could be sent to Fitton who was publishing an account in the Edinburgh Review and who Phillips saw as a ‘powerful advocate’ for this purpose.[67]
Memory and reflection were part of life’s philosophy and something Phillips sought to enhance through diary keeping. On 7 September 1825, William Taylor showed him his meticulous diaries, which he had been keeping for 14 years.
What a delightful collection of all the interesting events of a life! How much have I lost by neglecting so simple a method. Thousands of plans, calculations, observations and inferences which have vanished from my memory might thus have been preserved to invigorate present pursuits. And oh! how sharp and perfect an image of friends and of kindred would have then been offered to the retrospective eye. I shall therefore commence a journal of interesting occurrences, useful observations, gleanings of scientific records and conversations, and such private reflections as appear worthy of being remembered or likely to have useful influence on future conduct.[68]
Phillips had kept notes for some time but the fruits of this new model had so many advantages. The notes would be a remarkable aid in later life when he reviewed and revised his earlier observations for numerous publications.[69] But these were not simply to assist his own memory, such jottings also created a unique and very personal image of the man.
Phillips could see his life advancing, the opportunities for a career in science were now apparent. At Scarborough he reflected:
There are many who look on my upward way with envy, and some who view my progress along the arduous paths of science with delight. There are thousands with whom I would not change places though kingdoms were given to make the balance even. Oh God! thou who hast loaded me with blessings, give me also a thankful heart.[70]
Amongst those enviously looking on, were doubtless those collectors upon whose efforts Phillips’ career would be built.
Progressing by way of Robin Hoods Bay, sketching and drawing sections but not collecting fossils, he reached Whitby on 25th June. Here he walked along the pier and shore, once his favourite walk ‘and thought of other more buoyant yet not more romantic days! My dreams have changed their object; but the romance of my life is not ended, its real history has not yet begun!’[71] The adulation he had received from men so much his ‘superiors’ had left him in little doubt of his potential. This made his present situation even less tolerable; at the age of 28 he was still seen as his uncle’s nephew. ‘Why because I know more should I enjoy less?’, he wrote in his notebook, ‘I have chosen the only principles which can lead to earthly bliss – good employment for the mind and friendly intercourse for the heart. My own happiness with God’s blessing is in my own power’.[72]He knew that he was capable of work on a much larger stage and that opportunities for men such as him – informed but not wealthy – were now opening, but perhaps wondered if the work he was about to create was sufficiently novel to carry his career forwards.
At Whitby he visited more local collections, and, indeed, was sought out by locals interested in making a sale and who knew Phillips as a client. At Ripley’s he drew fossils in his collection, and also called on Pearson, the collector, ‘who sold me 12/6 fossils and shells including Glycimeris which I packed up for Mr Bean as a present’. He also took the opportunity to revisit the Museum – its superb Lias fossils surrounded by generally undistinguished collections. At Staithes, ‘a collector of fossils came to offer his Scrapiana’; the next day he purchased 8/- worth of specimens.[73] This dealer had told him of seeing ‘5 specimens of Ophiura in a storm on the Scar below Colbourn [Cowbar] Nab. Promised to get them for us’.[74]
He continued on to Guisborough, where he walked the churchyard path as he had frequently done before. He again confronted his own mortality. How inadequate were society’s attempts to remember those who had gone before.
No walk is more frequently trodden by me than the still unobtrusive churchyard path, along which, with equal sadness, pride & pomp, and poverty, all are carried to the grave. It makes me sad to read the assurances on their “pail memorials” of mortality that the deceased will be long revered by his surviving relations and friends. The statement seems to hallow every stone. Will such a declaration be impressed upon my solitary tomb? Alas! It shall never be! Too well I know that of all the hundreds of my acquaintances, out of the scores of my so-called friends – few very few will –
With aching temples on their hands reclined
Muse on the last farewell, I leave behind
Some will miss a companion, others a pupil, others an instructor; if I do what I dare to promise, I may be for some time remembered – my place may remain for some time vacant – but this is all – no heart will burst on my untimely grave! Nor have I desired such a deep tribute of affection. My eyes can weep for few. The world is no friend of mine![75]
On his return to York he witnessed a burial in Helmsley, observing the familiar formal practice of mourning.
It is affecting to witness this preparatory ceremonial – it is soothing to think that one shall be at least formally bewailed. Much of the mourning is to be sure little better than mummery – the tears are forced – the groans brought forth with labour: but still I would not see the practice discontinued.[76]
Throughout his journey Phillips had made notes and sections to complete his memoir, including noting the positions of fossils, but appears to have collected little himself. Instead, he drew fossils from collections and purchased ‘cabinet quality’ specimens from the locals. His selfless pursuit of science was a means to establish himself. A decade later, his life motive was unaltered, he saw the taking up the post of survey palaeontologist as ‘founding or strengthening a claim to be remembered among the Geologists of this age’.[77]
Illustrations
In July 1828, Phillips sketched the title page of his work:[78]
To William Smith Esq.
first geological
Author of the ∆ Map of
the Strata ofEngland & Wales
(and other important geological works)(who has spent his life in
???establishing the principles and diffusing the benefits ofGeology.) This work
These Illustrations*is most respectfully dedicated
by his obliged nephew
and grateful pupil
John Phillips
tract
*
of a ∆County which his exertions have so greatly elucidatedA Section of the Cliff on the
YorkshCoast of Yorkshire
Geology of the Yorkshire Coast
includingorwith a Coloured Section of all the Cliffs
A Section &Descriptions withits Descriptions of the rocks & fossils
of
the∆ Rocks & fossils byaccompanied by a Geological map of the neighbouring county
and plates of the Organic Remains
1828
______
By John Phillips FGS.
Hon Mem Yorkshire P.S. Leeds PLS, Hull Phil Soc.
not to exceed
4to plates Price to Subscribers ∆ £1.0.0
Descriptions of its Rocks and Fossils accompanying a geological map of the neighbouring [?]
and plates of the Organic Remains 1828.
By the time of its publication in the early spring of 1829, it was:
Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire or, a Description of the Strata and Organic Remains of the Yorkshire Coast accompanied by a Geological Map, Sections, and Plates of the Fossil Plants and Animals.
It is uncertain when the change came about but in October 1828 the Yorkshire Philosophical Society received a complimentary copy of Mantell’s Fossils of the South Downs or Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex.[79]
Phillips dedicated his work to his uncle. A generous gesture, but only partly so. One of Phillips’ objectives with this book was to establish his own reputation but he feared that his ideas would be rejected as those of a mere local observer. The association of his uncle would at least give his work credibility. He also went to great pains to demonstrate that it was built on extraordinary field rigour and personal observation; built on ‘inductive’ as opposed to ‘speculative’ geology:
It is to the inductive philosophy that we owe the settlement of fixed geological data concerning the relative position of the rocks which compose the regularly formed crust of the earth; the different races of animals and plants which lie buried in the dark and secret depths, the convulsions which have partially disguised the beautiful method of its construction; and the extent and character of that great deluge which altered the former appearance of our planet and destroyed its ancient terrestrial inhabitants.[80]
He had drawn more than 400 of the nearly 600 known species of fossil and received the co-operation of all the coastal collectors and most of the county’s geologists.[81] Phillips’ book became particularly noted for its treatment of fossils, but his purpose was to illuminate local stratigraphy; to define the position, composition and context of rocks. The fossils were simply the key to this:
I have not only given a general section of the coast, but have measured the heights and have added sections in detail. It has been my object not only to figure the most remarkable fossils but to describe every ascertained species, and to construct a complete catalogue of all that have been hitherto discovered on the coast, distributed in the order of the strata to which they belong.[82]
Phillips arranged his fossil figures and tables in stratigraphic order, a reflection of the dominance of this discipline in geology during the 1820s. In his third edition, published at the end of his life nearly 45 years later, this information would be arranged systematically, fossils having then become the instruments of palaeontology, a discipline most closely allied to zoology and botany.
Phillips’ statement that his book listed all known fossil species from the coast caused a surge of interest in collecting. There had previously been nothing available to enable collectors to identify their finds.[83] Museum collections were equally poorly determined. Illustrations provided local collectors not simply with a means to curate their museums but more importantly a baseline against which to collect. They would attempt to extend these lists, but also answer Phillips’ queries[84] regarding the distribution of species. Within less than a year of publication Phillips had another 10 species awaiting description.[85] Bean, in 1839, boasted that he had extended Phillips’ list of 37 Cornbrash species to 134.[86]
The first edition of Illustrations began with an account of the ‘Principles of Geology’ as he saw them. The science was sufficiently new to his philosophical audience to warrant this. In later editions this was omitted. He suggested it was no longer needed. But as this book took him to national prominence, he began to view his audience differently. Illustrations had been written for the consumption of his philosophical friends, it would afterwards be viewed as the epitome of descriptive regional geology, a work of national significance. Phillips altered its content accordingly. His more general comments on geology would not be wasted, however, and were tailored for mass consumption in such works as his Guide to Geology, published almost simultaneously with the second edition of Illustrations.
The style of Phillips’ prose, however, remained unaltered throughout the three editions. He wrote with the eloquence of one who had lived and breathed geology all his life, had seen rocks throughout Britain and who wanted to combine this with a love of language. It was geology at its most accessible. As Playfair and Lyell were to Hutton, so Phillips took the methodology of Smith, the non-theorist, intellectualised it and placed it in a framework of contemporary geological knowledge.[87] Smith’s much promised geological notes from his Yorkshire mapmaking never appeared.
Phillips followed his general introduction with chapters examining the geographical distribution of the Yorkshire strata, a description of the coast and an introduction to fossil preservation. There then followed details of the stratigraphic distribution of fossils, which gave the provincial philosopher and collector the essentials of Smith and Phillips’ most arcane and hard-won knowledge. Phillips made it seem so simple:
The coralline oolite formation… appears to me to differ from all the formations above, by the presence of ammonites perarmatus, mya literata, and clypeus clunicularis, and by the absence of ostrea delta, hamites, and anachytes; and from all those below, by the presence of spatangus ovalis,? and ammonites perarmatus, and the absence of productae, axini, ammonites Walcottii, nerita costata, astart minima, and terebratula digona.[88]
The stratigraphic framework of the South had been superimposed on Yorkshire. It was built upon an advanced knowledge of fossil distribution based on just half a decade of collecting. Another territory had been civilised for the geological layman and savant. The Kelloways Rock, for example: ‘everywhere, characteristic fossils accompany it, and establish the agreement between this rock and that so named in Wiltshire, which had been already inferred from geological position’.[89] Such generalisations even Smith had been unwilling to admit not many years earlier.
Complete lists of fossils for each stratum were given, distinguishing those also found in other strata, and giving references to where figures of the species might be found, and from where collected. Almost inevitably such lists would make Phillips a desirable palaeontological ally in the stratigraphic battles which lay ahead. In addition to plates of fossils, Phillips gave his coastal section, the raison d’être for the book. From his fieldwork inland, he recognised the incompleteness of the coastal sequence; the geologist who wanted to see all of the county’s rocks would also need to examine inland watercourses and quarries.[90]
The book was to begin Phillips’ meteoric rise in geology. Sedgwick remarking on its content, clarity and accuracy, referred to it as ‘one of the most valuable and instructive Essays in our language… On the coast of Yorkshire Mr Phillips has left us nothing to desire’.[91]
With the publication of Illustrations Phillips felt he had at last established his independence. In August he left with Taylor on his first tour of Europe seeking an opportunity ‘to mix with the panorama of continental science’.[92] His scientific horizons had now found two foci: zoology and geology; his aim was to measure his own knowledge against that of science on the continent, in terms of field geology and collection building. Only by this means could geology further advance.
In 1831 he announced his next subscription volume which would describe the older rocks of Yorkshire, as exposed in the north west of the county.[93] This region provided a logical extension to the first volume which focused on Mesozoic and later strata; strata with which Phillips was already very familiar. This new project held even greater potential rewards; Phillips knew it could provide a palaeontological key to the stratification of some of the country’s oldest rocks which were then attracting considerable attention. During the 1830s Murchison and Sedgwick took the lead in research in this part of the stratigraphic column, but Phillips was also expected to make a contribution:
By a letter from Murchison last week I find he has been working away arranging the Greywacke family in which he has discovered many fossils. I trust ere long we may have something from you upon these interesting subjects.[94]
Phillips performed the same repetitive and meticulous summer fieldwork through the early years of the decade. Simultaneously, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society began to collect Mountain Limestone and Transition Series fossils in support of this project and received a great number from many parts of Britain and Europe:
the Council beg leave to call the attention of the geological members of the Society to the necessity for further labours in this field. The beds of limestone and shale which traverse the western parts of this county have not yet been adequately examined; and such labours would probably not only enrich the Museum with new and rare specimens, but set at rest some important theoretical questions, of which a satisfactory solution can only be obtained from closer research and a more copious induction of facts.[95]
This material proved crucial to Phillips’ research, but one collection, ‘unrivalled’ and ‘magnificent’, belonging to William Gilbertson[96] of Preston provided virtually all the material needed for the plates.[97] Gilbertson’s connoisseurship had produced a collection of quality cabinet specimens perfectly developed and all collected from a fairly restricted area.
Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire or a description of the strata and organic remains: accompanied by a geological map, sections, and diagrams, and figures of the fossils: Part II The Mountain Limestone Districtappeared in the spring of 1836. This presented a much wider treatment of geology; the territory gave Phillips an opportunity to consider structural factors also.
This was no provincial gap filling but a contribution to the construction of geological science:
The most exact details in natural science are valuable not so much for their own sake as for the solid foundation they afford for the establishment of laws of phenomena, the explanation of which is the province of theory. The search for theory, the noblest exercise of cultivated minds employed in the works of nature, would never have fallen under suspicion and prejudice, had it been conducted according to the only method likely to yield results [i.e. inductivism]…[98]
Phillips’ two volumes of illustrations, despite their wide treatment of provincial geology were most noted for the descriptions and stratigraphic context of fossils. In this he relied particularly upon the efforts the York society’s, and increasingly his own, network of collectors and observers. These men saw Phillips as building their reputation, but Phillips, despite his lifelong relationship with them and, indeed, dependence upon them, was quite dismissive of the simple fact collecting in which they participated. He would treat collections as raw data, dismissing the philosophical contributions of the collector; observations needed to be his own:
For many and obvious reasons it is desirable that the task of combining local truths (the first order of inferences in geology) should be attempted by the same person who has ascertained them. To him gradations and variations are often known too minute for description yet necessary to the train of argument, and influencing rightly his own conviction; the relative value of the observations has due weight with him in clearing up discrepancies and correcting results; and thus data are made available which would be too incomplete or apparently disagreeing for other men to employ with safety. Besides it happens in geology as in other sciences, that few persons but the observer will be at the trouble of necessary discussions, and thus vast collections of facts become almost useless, and years of labour end with no important result.[99]
In gathering his own observations, Phillips was protecting himself from the errors of others. Fossil collections, for example, held locality information which had once assisted him in his former career as surveyor; now such information would be treated with extreme caution in attempting to extract raw data for increasingly fashionable distribution studies:
Nothing is less easy than to determine positively on the identity of a fossil species by merely looking at a single specimen, while hastily reviewing a whole collection; still less is it safe to quote from carelessly executed engravings, or negligently recorded localities; and it would be utterly subversive of all accuracy to copy the names which are ostentatiously placed on the specimens of ill-arranged private or public collections.[100]
This second volume of Illustrations would be the last for Phillips: ‘I have neither the health, spirit, nor hope of leisure to try any other ground…’.[101] Now professor at Kings College his career aspirations were moving away from provincial geology to the larger arena. The first volume had established him as a previously unrecognised geological force; the second placed him at the forefront of geological topicality. His only constraint was inadequate personal finance.
For the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, this was the end of its most illustrious chapter:
It is with pleasure the Council have to state that arrangements are made for the publication of the Second volume of the Geology of Yorkshire during the present year: thus one great object proposed by the Society at its foundation will have been partly accomplished.[102]
By the mid 1830s it had established itself as a major centre for geology and held collections giving extensive illustration of subjects of contemporary geological interest. In amassing its collections it had incurred few expenses. Whilst geology would often return to the fore, other areas were now given greater emphasis – zoology, botany, archaeology and even the fine arts – the York philosophers were no longer simply a ‘geological society’.
[1] See also Morrell (1989:322) for an alternative perspective and a full discussion of Vernon’s geological interests.
[2] Phillips (1839:215).
[3] Phillips (1835: vii-vii); OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations. See also J.M. Eyles in Edmonds (1975a:410-1) and Phillips (1844) for further details of Smith’s visits to Yorkshire.
[4] W.H. Fitton. Anniversary Address of the President, 15 February 1828, Proc. Geol. Soc, 1, 59.
[5] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations; OUM Phillips Box 82 item 1, Notebooks and Journals 1817.
[6] Phillips complained that Nathaniel John Winch (1769- 5 May 1838), an earlier worker, had made ‘no attempt to lay open the analogy between the dubious formations of this coast and the well recognised rocks of the South of England’. OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations.
[7] John Hornsey opened a school in Scarborough in 1782 which he continued to run until his death. He sketched and collected natural science objects, creating ‘with care and judgement, an extensive and valuable museum, which was sold after his death’ (Baker 1882:448-9). Mentioned by Conybeare & Phillips (1822:270).
[8] In 1819 Smith spent 10 weeks in prison for debt (Grayson 1983:23).
[9] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations; the published version is more generous to Smith, dismissing the whole episode as unimportant (Phillips 1829:xii). Phillips’ criticisms here appear rather harsh, 70 years later the task of superimposing southern stratigraphy on the north remained problematic. Prof. J.W. Judd (quoted by Fox-Strangways 1904:4)): ‘No fact in connection with the English Jurassic strata is of more striking character and significance than the wonderful differences between the sections displayed in the typical localities of the south-west of England, and those of the north-east of Yorkshire. The more thoroughly and minutely the rocks in these two districts are studied, the more striking do the discrepancies between the several members of the series appear; these differences being equally marked alike in regard to thickness, their petrological character, and the distribution of their organic contents’. A sentiment with which Fox-Strangways obviously concurred.
[10] Corrected copies were sent to Sedgwick, Conybeare, Warburton, Greenough & Buckland. OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations.
[11] Conybeare & Phillips (1822:197). Smith’s reading of the Yorkshire sequence requires re-analysis. Certainly Conybeare and Phillips were equally at fault in other parts of the succession. Whilst some of Phillips’ criticism is the product of hindsight, what is important here, for the development of geological understanding, is that the inevitable imperfections of this early map drove local investigation.
[12] 5 February 1823 Daniel Tuke ‘noticed some errors in Smith’s Geological Map of Yorkshire’; 14 October 1823, Rev. Benjamin Eamonson stated that Smith’s map failed to delineate Magnesian Limestone on Winn Moor near Seacroft. Both in YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1.
[13] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations; Phillips (1828:viii).
[14] Phillips (1829:xii); Smith may have been aware of the notion of ‘centres of creation’ and its implications for the contemporaneity of species over large distances.
[15] It is interesting that Phillips (1829), who dedicated his book to his uncle, should at the same time begin it by chronicling his uncle’s two failures. It reveals perhaps Phillips’ keenness to emerge from Smith’s shadow and yet build his own reputation, in part, upon his uncle’s reputation.
[16] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19, 1828 Draft of Illustrations. Phillips crossed this through and reworded it in pencil to mean much the same thing but expressed slightly more generously. In publication he would express no strong opinion.
[17] ibid.
[18] Williamson (1896:56).
[19] Phillips (1835:ix).
[20] Morrell (1989:327) suggests he had ‘specimens galore to work on’ but certainly Phillips had seen much more expansive private collections, though probably not in Yorkshire. Morrell also shows that Phillips clearly saw this as a means to North-South correlation.
[21] Phillips (1836:vi).
[22] These fossil lists were maintained in this notebook. OUM Phillips Box 81 Item 10, Notes on fossils 1824 & c. They were subsequently published in Phillips (1829).
[23] HL&PS (1824) Annual Report, 1 & 2. See also Morrell (1989:325).
[24]Phillips, Scarborough to Goldie or Copsie, York, 1 November 1824 in Melmore (1943a); OUM Phillips Box 81 folder 12. Yorkshire Coast 1824, 1825, 1826.
[25] Lee (1881:1). Whilst this account matches those of other witnesses, Lee was a life long friend of Phillips and drew some kudos from their close relationship.
[26] Phillips (1829:145).
[27] Nathaniel Thomas Wetherall (6 September 1800 – 22 December 1875); John Brown (1780 – 1859); Samuel Woodward (3 October 1790 – 14 January 1838); Gideon Algernon Mantell (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852); Edward Charlesworth (5 September 1813 – 28 July 1893).
[28] Phillips (1829:76). The two met often. Their private opinion of each other following their first meeting on 3 June 1831 was as follows: Mantell on Phillips: ‘He is one of the most pleasant, modest, sensible men I ever met’ in Curwen (1940:96); Phillips on Mantell: ‘one of the most delightful men I have ever been blessed with knowing’, OUM Phillips Box 83 folder 22.
[29] Morrell (1989:322) shows that Conybeare had ‘hinted’ to Vernon in 1822 that the society should list fossils for each bed, and create a section and map. Smith and Phillips would have needed no such advice. Phillips had been listing Yorkshire fossils since 1817.
[30] Phillips (1829:76).
[31] Phillips (1829:125) demonstrated that this error was entirely admissible as at this location the Speeton Clay sits directly upon the Kimmeridge Clay, and characteristic fossils of both occur. It was inevitable that these should have indicated the better known Kimmeridge Clay.
[32] Williamson to the YPS, 8 December 1824, YPS Letter Book.
[33] Williamson to the YPS, 8 December 1824, YPS Letter Book; read January 1825, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1; YPS (1826) Annual Report for 1825; Kendall (1819).
[34] Phillips, Scarborough to Goldie or Copsie, York, 1 November 1824 in Melmore (1943a).
[35] Phillips, Scarborough to Goldie or Copsie, York, Monday 1 November 1824 in Melmore (1943a). In the published section these are identified and renumbered – these are given in parenthesis: 1 (6) Coralline Oolite; 2 (7) Lower Calcareous Grit; 3 (8) Oxford Clay; 4 (9) Kelloways Rock; 5 (10) Cornbrash Limestone; 6 (11) Upper Sandstone & Coal; 7 (12) Impure Limestone (Oolite of Bath) (Phillips 1829:32). Morrell (1989:323) suggests that Buckland two years earlier had signalled the critical importance of the Scarborough succession to Harcourt.
[36] Phillips, Scarborough to Goldie or Copsie, York, 1 November 1824, in Melmore (1943a).
[37] Phillips & Smith to YPS, 14 December 1824, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1.
[38] YPS (1825) Annual Report for 1824.
[39] Read 8 February 1825, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1.
[40] i.e. sequence of strata.
[41] Phillips, Scarborough to Goldie or Copsie, York, 11 April 1825, in Melmore (1943a); Phillips (1844:107).
[42] Phillips (1829:84) footnote.
[43] Phillips (1829:xiii; 1835:ix).
[44] Karl August Ludwig von Oeynhausen (4 February 1795 – 1 February 1865) & Ernst Heinrich Carl von Dechen (25 March 1800 – 15 February 1889) (Lambrecht & Quenstedt 1938:109&318) They took a copy of this on 1 May 1827, OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828 Draft of Illustrations. See Morrell (1989:325 & 330) on Murchison and Brora.
[45] 11 October 1825, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1. Bean’s donation noted for October, YPS (1826) Annual Report for 1825.
[46] 11 October 1825, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1; YPS (1826) Annual Report for 1825. These beds appear not to have been of any major stratigraphic significance as they are not identified with any clarity in Phillips (1829).
[47] Salmond to Goldie, 12 January 1824, in Melmore (1943b); Conybeare and Phillips (1822:56).
[48] YPS (1826) Annual Report for 1825.
[49] 11 October 1825, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1.
[50] 11 October 1825, YPS Scientific Communications Volume 1.
[51] Phillips (1829:120).
[52] Phillips (1835:46).
[53] Letter from W. V. Vernon Harcourt to Lord Milton, 18 January 1831. Published in Morrell and Thackray (1984).
[54] Phillips (1829:137).
[55] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828 Draft of Illustrations.
[56] YPS (1827) Annual Report for 1826.
[57] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 16. Journal 1826-1827.
[58] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 16. Journal 1826-1827.
[59] This material may also have included specimens other than fossils. OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 16. Journal 1826-1827.
[60] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 17. Notebook 1827.
[61] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 17. Notebook 1827; OUM Phillips Box 81 folder 12. Yorkshire Coast 1824, 1825, 1826; Phillips (1829:ix).
[62] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 17. Notebook 1827; OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828. Isaac Stickney (d. 1847), Quaker elder.
[63] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 2 June 1828.
[64] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 15 June 1828.
[65] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 7 June 1828.
[66] Phillips, Hull to [Goldie?], [York] Friday 7 January 1825, in Melmore 1943a.
[67] Phillips to Smith, 2 November 1829 & 29 September 1832, OUM Smith collection. This refers to Fitton (1933) ‘Notes on the history of English Geology’. Torrens (1990d) gives the background and politics to this paper; see also Morrell (1989) for more on the building of Smith’s reputation.
[68] OUM Phillips Box 81 Folder 13. Diary of 1825-26.
[69] Whilst Phillips didn’t always manage to keep the record he would have liked, for many years he would, for those periods when his discipline lapsed, at least make a retrospective list of the main events of each day.
[70] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 23 June 1828.
[71] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 25 June 1828.
[72] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 25 June 1828.
[73] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 26 June 1828.
[74] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 27 June 1828. This was one of Bean’s starfish sites, which Williamson was to search out; it is quite possible that Bean’s sites were actually discovered by lowly dealers. (see Chapter 6).
[75] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 27 June 1828.
[76] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 28 June 1828.
[77] Phillips, York to De la Beche, 30 January 1841, NMW Phillips.
[78] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 26 July 1828. All crossed through with a vertical line. Morrell (1989:328-31) gives a particularly illuminating account to the background to this book and its content.
[79] YPS (1829) Annual Report of 1828.
[80] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828, 26 July 1828.
[81] OUM Phillips Box 82 folder 19. 1828 Draft of Illustrations.
[82] Phillips (1829:xv).
[83] John Williamson’s son William recalled how his father’s collection, one of the most important in the county, was largely unnamed in 1828. With the arrival of Phillips’ book, the 13 year old William was engaged in naming fossils throughout the winter of 1829 and had by the end of it become an extremely knowledgeable palaeontologist. At the time he found this a tedious process but ultimately he built his whole career upon it, and emulated Phillips in becoming a self-made man of science. Williamson (1896:12).
[84] See, for example, Phillips’ (1829:133) discussion of the fauna of the Calcareous Grit and Coralline Oolite.
[85] Phillips, York to De la Beche, London, Saturday 13 March 1830, NMW Phillips.
[86] Bean (1839:58).
[87] Phillips (1829:4); See Morrell (1989:329) for the boost given to Smith’s reputation by this book.
[88] Phillips (1829:117).
[89] Phillips (1835:13).
[90] Phillips (1829:85).
[91] Sedgwick, Presidential Address, 19 February 1830, Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., 1, 199-200.
[92] OUM Phillips Box 81 folder 14(i) Tour of Scotland with tour of continent. Sunday 9 August 1829.
[93] YPS (1832) Annual Report for 1831. Murchison, Presidential Address, February 1832, Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., 1, 365.
[94] Henry Witham, Newcastle upon Tyne, to Phillips, Friday 2 September 1831, OUM Phillips 1831/75.
[95] YPS (1931) Annual Report for 1830.
[96] William Gilbertson (1789 – 10 February 1845).
[97] Gilbertson was one of a number of natural history collectors calling for the exchange of material, and published a notice to this effect in the Magazine of Natural History in 1831. This was also a thinly disguised advertisement for his collection which may have first brought Phillips’ attention to it: ‘I may mention the crinoidal remains and other fossils from the Mountain Limestone, so rarely to be met with in collections, many unfigured species of which I possess in sufficient number to furnish all the empty cabinets in the kingdom’ (Gilbertson 1831:72-3). He repeated his request in 1835 by which time he could mention Phillips’ involvement in describing his collection. Orange (1973:37) points out that Murchison speaking at the first meeting of the British Association in York in 1831 ‘brought out’ William Gilbertson.
[98] Phillips (1836:174).
[99] Phillips (1836:174).
[100] Phillips (1836:244).
[101] Phillips quoted by Orange (1973:50).
[102] YPS (1835) Annual Report for 1834.
Simon Knell 