Henry Thomas Maire Witham

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FGS (1779–1844) was a British landowner remembered as an amateur palaeontologist and mineralogist. He was an early researcher into the internal structure of

fossil plant Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

Life

He was born Henry Silvertop the son of John Silvertop of

Minsteracres Minsteracres is an 18th-century mansion house, now a Christian retreat centre, in Northumberland, England. It is a Grade II listed building. The house was built in 1758 by George Silvertop. Originally erected with two storeys, a third storey was ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. His mother was Catherine Lawson of Brough. He was a compulsive gambler and ran up debts of £105,000 (a truly huge sum in the 1820s) and was forced to sell off much of his property to settle his debts. From 1826 to 1832 he lived in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

at 14 Great King Street. During his time in Edinburgh (in 1827) he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

, his proposer being Thomas Allan. Though having no botanical training, he applied William Nicol's method of examining fossils and rocks under the microscope by slicing them into

thin section In optical mineralogy and petrography, a thin section (or petrographic thin section) is a thin slice of a rock or mineral sample, prepared in a laboratory, for use with a polarizing petrographic microscope, electron microscope and electron mic ...

s. Nicol's first published account of this process is contained in Witham's 1831 publication, ''Observations of Fossil Vegetables''. Witham's findings were also published in his 1833 book ''The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboniferous and Oolitic deposits of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

'', illustrated by

William MacGillivray William MacGillivray FRSE (25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist. Life and work MacGillivray was born in Old Aberdeen and brought up on Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied Medicin ...

. He worked strenuously for the Mechanics Institute, which provided education for the working classes and the Relief of the Sick Poor. He was a Fellow of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

and of the

Wernerian Natural History Society The Wernerian Natural History Society (12 January 1808 – 16 April 1858), commonly abbreviated as the Wernerian Society, was a learned society interested in the broad field of natural history, and saw papers presented on various topics such as ...

of Edinburgh. He died at his home at

Lartington Hall Lartington Hall is a 17th-century country house, at Lartington, Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is a listed building, Grade II* listed building. Architecture The earliest part of the house, built for the Appleby family, is the three-storey ...

on 28 November 1844.

Family

In 1800 he married Eliza Witham, daughter of Thomas Witham,

Esq. Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman a ...

Headlam Headlam is a village in the borough of Darlington and the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies to the west of Darlington. The population taken at the 2011 Census was less than 100. Details are included in the parish of Ingleton. ...

, in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, and niece and heiress of William Witham, esq. of Cliffe, in

Richmondshire {{Infobox settlement , name = Richmondshire District , type = District , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png , blank_emblem_type = Coat ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, and thus inherited the Witham name and

Coat of Arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

. Their son Henry John Silvertop (b.1802) kept his father's original surname. The family were all Roman Catholic.

Publications

*''The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables'' (1833)

Botanical Reference

References

External links