William Martin (naturalist)
William Martin (* 1767 in Marsfield , Nottinghamshire , † May 31, 1810 in Macclesfield ) was a British naturalist and paleontologist.
The son of a hosiery dealer, he left his hometown and family and went to the theater, worked as a painter in London and died in 1797. His mother also went to the theater and William Martin performed on stage as a child (he sang to the accompaniment of the flute). At the age of twelve he took drawing lessons from James Bolton in Halifax and became interested in natural science. He was influenced by the geologist White Watson , John Whitehurst and the mining manager Abraham Mills (1750-1828) and dealt with fossils in Derbyshire. In 1796 he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London . In 1797 he married an actress and widow (Mrs. Adams) and gave up acting in the same year, as did his mother. He became a drawing teacher in Burton-upon-Trent and then in Buxton , where he also acquired shares in a theater. In 1805 he became a drawing teacher at a grammar school in Macclesfield and he also gave drawing lessons in Manchester. When he died of tuberculosis, he had six children. His widow became a librarian at a subscription library in Macclesfield.
In 1809 he published a book with descriptions of fossils from Derbyshire, especially from Carboniferous limestones. The book contained the first color illustrations of fossils in Britain. Also in 1809 he published the first scientific book in Great Britain on paleontology. Most recently he had contacts with John Farey with plans to draw up a geological map of Derbyshire, which was not carried out due to his illness and death.
His son William Charles Linnaeus Martin (1798–1864) was the curator of the Zoological Society of London and the author of numerous books and essays on natural history.
Fonts
- Petrificata Derbiensia , Wigan 1809 (previously published in part as Figures and Descriptions of Petrifications collected in Derbyshire , nos. 1-4, Wigan 1793), Archives
- Outlines of an Attempt to establish a Knowledge of extraneous Fossils on Scientific Principles , 2 parts, Macclesfield 1809, Archive
- Account of some. . . Fossil Anomiae , Transactions of the Linnean Society, 1798, pp. 44-50
literature
- Bernard Barham Woodward: Martin, William (1767-1810). Dictionary of National Biography , Online
- HS Torrens: Martin, William (1767-1810). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Martin, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British naturalist and paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1767 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Marsfield |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 31, 1810 |
| Place of death | Macclesfield |