- William Jory Henwood
William Jory Henwood FRS (
January 16 ,1805 -August 5 ,1875 ), English mininggeologist , was born at Perran Wharf,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. [ODNB article by Denise Crook, ‘Henwood, (William) Jory (1805–1875)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12997] , accessed 14 Nov 2007] . 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 lodes 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 in theduchy of Cornwall , a post from which he retired in 1838. Meanwhile he had commenced in 1826 to communicate papers on mining subjects to theRoyal Geological Society of Cornwall , and theGeological Society of London , and in 1840 he was elected Fellow of theRoyal Society .In 1843 he went to take charge of the Gongo-Soco mines in
Brazil ; afterwards he proceeded toIndia to report on certain metalliferous deposits for the Indian government; and in 1858, impaired in health, he retired and settled atPenzance .Publications
His most important memoirs on the metalliferous deposits of Cornwall and
Devon 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" ("Journ. R. Inst. Cornwall"). The
Murchison Medal of theGeological Society of London was awarded to him in 1875, and the mineralHenwoodite 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".
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