Richard Cowling Taylor (18 January 1789 – 26 October 1851) was an English surveyor and geologist.

Life

Taylor, third son of Samuel Taylor, farmer, was born at Hinton, Suffolk, on 18 January 1789. He was educated at

Halesworth Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tributary of the River Blyth, upstream from Southwold. T ...

, and articled to Mr. Webb, land surveyor at

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, in July 1805. He received further instruction from William Smith (1769–1839), the "Father of British geology", and finally became a land surveyor at Norwich in 1813, moving to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in October 1826. In the early part of his career he was engaged on the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was ...

of England. Subsequently he was occupied in reporting on mining properties, including that of the British Iron Company in South Wales, his plaster model of which received the Isis medal of the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

. In July 1830 he went to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

, and, after surveying the Blossburg coal region in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, spent three years in the exploration of the coal and iron veins of the Dauphin and Susquehanna Coal Company in Dauphin County in the same state. He published an elaborate report with maps. He also made surveys of mining lands in Cuba and the British provinces. His knowledge of theoretical geology led him to refer the old red sandstone that underlies the Pennsylvania coalfields to its true place, corresponding with its location in the series of European rocks. He was elected 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 ...

. He died at Philadelphia on 26 October 1851, having married in 1820 Emily, daughter of George Errington of Great Yarmouth, by whom he had four daughters.

Works

He devoted much time to archæology, and published ‘Index Monasticus, or the Abbeys and other Monasteries … formerly established in the Diocese of Norwich and the Ancient Kingdom of East Anglia,’ 1821. His other principal works were: * ‘On the Geology of East Norfolk,’ 1827. * ‘Statistics, History, and Description of Fossil Fuel,’ 2nd edit. 1841. * ‘Statistics of Coal,’ Philadelphia, 1848; 2nd edit. revised, 1854. * ‘The Coalfields of Great Britain, with Notices of Coalfields in other parts of the World,’ 1861. He compiled the index to the new edition of

William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Cole ...

's ''Monasticon'' (1860), which took him two years. He also contributed fourteen papers to the archives of the United Friars of Norwich, and many articles to the ''Magazine of Natural History''.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Richard Cowling 1789 births 1851 deaths People from Blythburgh English surveyors 19th-century British geologists Fellows of the Geological Society of London