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Thomas Webster (Geologist)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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THOMAS WEBSTER (1773-1844), British geologist, was born in the Orkney Isles in 1773, and was educated at Aberdeen. He subsequently went to London and studied architecture, the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street being built from his design. In 1826 he was appointed house-secretary and curator to the Geological Society of London, and for many years he rendered important services in editing and illustrating the Transactions of the Society. In1841-1842he was professor of geology in University College, London. He was distinguished for his researches on the Tertiary formations of the Isle of Wight, where he recog - nized the occurrence of both fresh-water and marine strata; he continued his observations on the mainland of Hampshire, and subsequently in Dorsetshire, where he described the Purbeck and Portland rocks. To him Sir Henry C. Englefield (1752-1822) was indebted for the geological descriptions and the effective geological views and sections of the Isle of Wight and Dorset that enriched his Description of the Principal Picturesque Beauties, Antiquities and Geological Phenomena of the Isle of Wight (1816). The mineral Websterite was named after him. He died in London on the 26th of December 1844.