William Jory Henwood FRS (16 January 18055 August 1875), Cornish mining

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

, was born at

Perran Wharf Perranarworthal ( kw, Peran ar Wodhel) is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is about four miles (6.5 km) northwest of Falmouth and five miles (8 km) southwest of Truro. Perranarworthal p ...

, Cornwall. In 1822 he commenced work as a clerk in an office of the Perran Foundry, owned by the Fox family of Falmouth, a post previously held by his father, John Henwood. He received some tuition in science at the home of Charles Fox. Henwood soon took an active interest in the working of mines and in the metalliferous deposits. He was funded by the Fox family and local gentry to survey Cornish mines. He developed a theory on how metal

lode In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 17t ...

s had been formed. Unfortunately, he saw Robert Were Fox, who was researching in the same field, as a plagiarist. In 1832 Henwood was appointed to the office of assay-master and supervisor of

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

in the

duchy of Cornwall The Duchy of Cornwall ( kw, Duketh Kernow) is one of two royal duchies in England, the other being the Duchy of Lancaster. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch obtains possession of the duchy and the title of 'Duke of Cornwall' at ...

, a post from which he retired in 1838. Meanwhile, he had commenced in 1826 to communicate papers on mining subjects to the

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society based in Penzance, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in the world ...

, and 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 in 1840 he was elected Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. In 1843 he went to take charge of the

Gongo Soco Gongo Soco was a gold mine in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, to the east of Belo Horizonte in the mid-19th century. It was worked by skilled miners from Cornwall and by less skilled Brazilian labourers and slaves. Machinery powered by a water ...

mines in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

; afterwards he proceeded to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

to report on certain metalliferous deposits for the Indian government; and in 1858, impaired in health, he retired and settled at

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

Publications

In 1839 a paper entitled "''On the Expansive Action of Steam in some of the Pumping Engines on the Cornish Mines''", published in the Philosophical Magazine, won him the

Telford Medal The Telford Medal is a prize awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers. It was introduced in 1835 following a bequest made by Thomas Telford, the ICE's first president. It can be awarded in gold ...

in silver.Phil.Mag. vol 14, No 92 Suppl. July 1839 His most important memoirs on the metalliferous deposits of Cornwall and

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

were published in 1843 by the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. At a much later date he communicated with enlarged experience a second series of ''Observations on Metalliferous Deposits, and on Subterranean Temperature '' (reprinted from ''Trans. R. Geol. Soc. Cornwall'', 2 vols, 1871). In 1874 he contributed a paper on the ''Detrital Tin-ore of Cornwall'' (''Journal of the

Royal Institution of Cornwall The Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC) is a Learned society in Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It was founded in Truro on 5 February 1818 as the Cornwall Literary and Philosophical Institution. The Institution was one of the earliest of seven ...

''). The

Murchison Medal The Murchison Medal is an academic award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. First awarded in 1873, it is normally given to people who have made a significant contribution to geology by means of a substantial body of research and ...

of the

was awarded to him in 1875, and the mineral Henwoodite was named after him. He was concerned about the conditions of slaves, working in mines, and he published a pamphlet on the subject in 1864, reprinted in volume eight (1871) of the ''Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henwood, William Jory 1805 births 1875 deaths Geologists from Cornwall Fellows of the Royal Society Brazilian people of Cornish descent British emigrants to Brazil