31-724: Richard Griffith may refer to: Sir Richard Griffith, 1st Baronet (1784–1878), Irish geologist and surveyor Richard Griffith (general) (1814–1862), United States general Richard Griffith (chess player) (1872–1955), English chess player Richard Griffith (priest) , 17th-century Irish Anglican priest Richard Griffith (politician) (1752–1820), Irish politician Richard Griffith (physician) (1635?–1691), English physician Richard Griffith (Royal Navy officer) (died 1719), British navy captain See also [ edit ] Richard Griffiths (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by
62-515: A "blizzard of facts". Charles Darwin attended Robert Jameson's natural history course at the University of Edinburgh in Darwin's teenage years. Darwin found the lectures boring, saying that they determined him "never to attend to the study of geology". The detailed syllabus of Jameson's lectures, as drawn up by him in 1826, shows the range of his teaching. The course in zoology began with a consideration of
93-464: A double series, and in a gradual manner." – this was the first use of the word "evolved" in a modern sense, and was the first significant statement to relate Lamarckism to the geological record of living organisms of the past. Attribution has been disputed, the concepts point to Jameson as the author, combining the directional geological history of Earth proposed by Neptunism with progressive transformism ( transmutation of species ) shown by fossils. It
124-623: A larger scale (1 in. to 4 m.) was issued under the Board of Ordnance in 1839, and it was further revised in 1855. For this work and his other services to science, he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society in 1854. In 1850 he was made chairman of the Irish Board of Works, and in 1858 he was created a baronet. After research in the 20th century, it is now known that to a large extent
155-533: A later chapter described how "like the formation of rocks, we observe a regular succession of organic formations, the later always descending from the earlier, down to the present inhabitants of the earth, and to the last created being who was to exercise dominion over them", summarising elements of the ideas of Giambattista Brocchi . As a teacher, Jameson had a mixed reputation for imparting enthusiasm to his students. Thomas Carlyle , who gave serious attention to Natural History, described Jameson's lecturing style as
186-499: A primaeval ocean, initially pitted him against James Hutton (1726–1797), a fellow Scot and eminent geologist also based in Edinburgh (but not in the university), who argued for the uniformitarian deistic concept of Plutonism , that features of the Earth's crust were endlessly recycled in natural processes powered by magmatic molten rocks. Later, Jameson was willing to join forces with
217-456: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Sir Richard Griffith, 1st Baronet Sir Richard John Griffith Bt. FRS FRSE FGS LLD (20 September 1784 – 22 September 1878), was an Irish geologist, mining engineer and chairman of the Board of Works of Ireland, who completed the first complete geological map of Ireland and was the author of
248-776: Is housed by the National Portrait Gallery in London, and a bust of him is in the Old College of the University of Edinburgh . Jameson never married and had no children. He was the uncle of Robert William Jameson , Writer to the Signet and playwright of Edinburgh , and therefore also the great-uncle of Sir Leander Starr Jameson , Bt, KCMG, British colonial statesman. His sister Janet Jameson (1776-1853) married Patrick Torrie (1763-1810). They were parents to Thomas Jameson Torrie FRSE
279-549: Is possible that the article was written by one of his students, Ami Boué or Robert Edmond Grant . Jameson's references to the Deluge in notes to his translation of Georges Cuvier 's Essay on the Theory of the Earth had done much to foster Catastrophism , but his 1827 edition referred to a "succession of variations" caused by environmental conditions having "gradually conducted the classes of aquatic animals to their present state". and
310-533: The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal and became its sole editor in 1824. He died at his home, 21 Royal Circus in Edinburgh , on 19 April 1854 after two years of illness, and was interred at Warriston Cemetery . He lies on the north side of the main east–west path near the old East Gate. He was succeeded in his post at Edinburgh University by Prof Edward Forbes . A portrait of Robert Jameson [1]
341-489: The University of Edinburgh including Robert Brown , Joseph Black , and Thomas Dick . In 1799 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . His proposers were Andrew Coventry , Thomas Charles Hope and Andrew Duncan . In 1804, Jameson succeeded Dr Walker as the third Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, a post which he held for fifty years. During this period he became
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#1732869602735372-544: The Museum of Edinburgh University became one of the largest in Europe during Jameson's long tenure at the university. Jameson was born in Leith on 11 July 1774, the son of Catherine Paton (1750–94) and Thomas Jameson (c.1750–1802), a soap manufacturer on Rotten Row (now Water Street). They lived on Sherrif Brae. His early education was spent at Leith Grammar School , after which he became
403-661: The Regius Professor of Natural History, John Walker (1731–1803), Jameson abandoned medicine and the idea of being a ship's surgeon, and focused instead on science, particularly geology and mineralogy. It is worth noting that Walker was a presbyterian Minister who had actually combined the Regius Professorship with a period of service as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1790. In 1793, Jameson
434-517: The apprentice of the Leith surgeon John Cheyne (father of John Cheyne ), with the aim of going to sea. He made his first trip to Shetland to study its geology in 1789, aged only 15, publishing his findings in 1793. He attended classes at the University of Edinburgh (1792–93), studying medicine, botany , chemistry , and natural history . His father's brother Robert Jameson, was also a physician and lived with them on Rotten Row. By 1793, influenced by
465-705: The first eminent exponent in Britain of the Wernerian geological system, or Neptunism , and the acknowledged leader of the Scottish Wernerians, founding the Wernerian Natural History Society in 1808 and presiding from 1808 until around 1850, when his health began to decline, together with the fortunes of the Society. Jameson's support for Neptunism, a theory that argued that all rocks had been deposited from
496-465: The foundation of his first geological map of the country (1815). He also succeeded Dr. Richard Kirwan as government inspector of mines in Ireland. In 1822 Griffith became engineer of public works in counties Cork , Kerry and Limerick , and was occupied until 1830 in repairing old roads and in laying out many miles of new roads in some of the most inaccessible parts of the country. Meanwhile, in 1825, he
527-458: The improvements of detail in the maps for which Griffith was praised and the geological research for Griffith's papers were due to Patrick Ganly , whose pioneering work went entirely uncredited by Griffith. He died at his residence, 2 Fitzwilliam Place in Dublin, on 22 September 1878 in his 95th year. At the time of his death, he was the oldest surviving fellow of the Geological Society of London and
558-456: The mining districts in various parts of England, Wales and Scotland . While in Cornwall he discovered ores of nickel and cobalt in material that had been rejected as worthless. He completed his studies under Robert Jameson and others at Edinburgh, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1807, a member of the newly established Geological Society of London in 1808, and in
589-431: The most sagacious naturalists of our day" for having "expressed himself in the most unambiguous manner. He admits, on the one hand, the existence of the simplest infusory animals; on the other, the existence of the simplest worms, by means of spontaneous generation, that is, by an aggregation process of animal elements; and maintains, that all other animals, by the operation of external circumstances, are evolved from these in
620-974: The museum, and in Britain the natural history collection was second only to that of the British Museum . Shortly after his death, the University Museum was transferred to the British Crown and became part of the Royal Scottish Museum, now the Royal Museum , in Edinburgh's Chambers Street. He was also a prolific author of scientific papers and books, including the Mineralogy of the Scottish Isles (1800), his System of Mineralogy (1804), which ran to three editions, and Manual of Mineralogy (1821). In 1819, with Sir David Brewster (1781–1868), Jameson started
651-513: The natural history of human beings, and concluded with lectures on the philosophy of zoology, in which the first subject was Origin of the Species of Animals . ( The Scotsman , 29 October 1935: p. 8). Over Jameson's fifty-year tenure, he built up a huge collection of mineralogical and geological specimens for the Museum of Edinburgh University, including fossils, birds and insects. By 1852 there were over 74,000 zoological and geological specimens at
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#1732869602735682-461: The new 6" maps became available from the Ordnance Survey and which he was required to use as provided for by statute. He continued to work on this until 1868. On Griffith's valuation the various local and public assessments were made. His extensive investigations furnished him with ample material for improving his geological map, and the second edition was published in 1835. The third edition on
713-523: The proponents of Hutton, in 1826 writing that "the Wernerian geognostical views and method of investigation, combined with the theory of Hutton; the experiments and speculations of Hall; the illustrations of Playfair", had taken root in Edinburgh and spread to give Britain unsurpassed success in geology. In the April–October 1826 edition of the quarterly Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal edited by Jameson, an anonymous paper praised "Mr. Lamarck, one of
744-410: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Griffith&oldid=1217281935 " Category : Human name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
775-546: The same year, he returned to Ireland. In 1809, he was appointed by the commissioners to inquire into the nature and extent of the bogs in Ireland, and the means of improving them. In 1812 he was elected Professor of Geology and Mining Engineer to the Royal Dublin Society . Shortly afterwards he expressed his intention of preparing a geological map of Ireland. During subsequent years he made many surveys and issued many reports on mineral districts in Ireland, and these formed
806-625: The valuation of Ireland; subsequently known as Griffith's Valuation . Griffith was born in Hume Street, Dublin , Ireland on 20 September 1784, the son of Richard Griffith, MP of Millicent House, and Charity Yorke Bramston, daughter of John Bramston of Oundle . His paternal grandmother was the acclaimed actress, essayist and novelist, Elizabeth Griffith . He went to school in Portarlington and later, while attending school in Rathangan, his school
837-401: Was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist . As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor John Walker 's concepts based on mineralogy into geological theories of Neptunism which held sway into the 1830s. Jameson is notable for his advanced scholarship, and his museum collection. The minerals and fossils collection of
868-453: Was appointed by the government to carry out a boundary survey of Ireland. He was to mark the boundaries of every county, barony, civil parish and townland in preparation for the first Ordnance Survey . He was also called upon to assist in the preparation of a parliamentary Bill to provide for the general valuation of Ireland. This Act was passed in 1826, and he was appointed Commissioner of Valuation in 1827, but did not start work until 1830 when
899-490: Was attacked by the rebels during the rebellion of 1798 . He also studied in Edinburgh . In 1799 he obtained a commission in the Royal Irish Artillery , but a year later, when the corps was incorporated with that of Great Britain, he retired, and devoted his attention to civil engineering and mining. He studied chemistry, mineralogy and mining for two years in London under William Nicholson , and afterwards examined
930-727: Was given the responsibility of looking after the University's Natural History Collection. During this time his geological field-work frequently took him to the Isle of Arran , the Hebrides , Orkney, the Shetland Islands and the Irish mainland. In 1800, he spent a year at the mining academy in Freiberg, Saxony , where he studied under the noted geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749 or 1750–1817). As an undergraduate, Jameson had several noteworthy classmates at
961-845: Was the last survivor of the long-since disbanded Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery. He was buried alongside his wife, Maria Jane (née Waldie m. 21 Sep 1812) in Mount Jerome Cemetery , Harold's Cross, Dublin; on his grave is the epitaph: Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, Serving the Lord . In 1812 he married Maria Jane Waldie of Hendersyde Park in Kelso . They had one son, Sir George Richard Waldie-Griffith, 2nd Baronet . See memoirs in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xxxv. 39; and Geol. Mag. , 1878, p. 524, with bibliography. Robert Jameson Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854)