George Fairholme
George Fairholme (1789–1846) was a land owner, banker, traveler, naturalist and scriptural geologist, born in Lugate, Midlothian, Scotland, January 15, 1789.[1]
Biography
His father, William Fairholme (mother Elizabeth) made his living from banking and was a serious art collector. Nothing is known of George's childhood years and there is no record of his attending any university. But he was probably tutored at home and self-taught in keeping with his family’s wealthy financial situation. In 1800 an uncle bequeathed to him the Greenknowe estate (5000 plus acres) near Gordon, Berwickshire.[2]
On November 15, 1818, He married Caroline Forbes who was the eldest daughter of the eighteenth Lord Forbes and granddaughter of the sixth Duke of Atholl.[3] They lived in Perth; Greenknowe; Berne, Switzerland; Brussels; Ramsgate, Kent; and many other locations in Europe.[4] They had five children, William, James, George, Charles and a daughter.
Being a gentleman of wealth, he did more widespread travel throughout Europe and Great Britain examining geology directly than such contemporary geologists as Smith, Hutton and Cuvier. Fairholme, as were most scriptural geologists, was well aware of geology. He penned his first manuscript (1833) in reaction to Lyell's Principles of Geology. He believed Lyell and Hutton were mistaken to have diverged from Biblical truths.[5] He stated that explanations of the Bible by theologians badly informed of geology and in compliance to the dictates of non-Biblical philosophy encouraged disbelief. In his second book, Fairholm was saddened to report the otherwise traditional William Buckland's divergence to the new geology. He was well read in both foreign and British publications, and he published in reputable scientific journals. Arguments presented by scriptural geolgists against the new geology ranged fom the courteous ruminations of Fairholme and Granville Penn to the splutterings of Henry Cole.[6]
George died on November 1846 in Royal Leamington Spa, willing homes, paintings and nearly 3000 pounds to each child.[7][8]
Writings
During the formative era of geology in the early 1800s, Fairholme wrote two books on geology[9] and published articles on coal, Niagara Falls, and human fossils.
- General View of the Geology of Scripture (1833)
- The Mosaic Deluge (1837).[10]
Footnotes
- ↑ Burke, John Bernard (1965). Burke's Landed Gentry III. pp. 315–16.
- ↑ Jenkins, Mrs. Waveney, ed. (1838). "George Fairholme". Notes on the Family of Greenknowe and on the History of the estate from 1470 to the present time. Isle of Man. p. unnumbered page of the preface of the unpublished manuscript in the possession of Jenkins.
- ↑ George and Elizabeth Fairholme's contract of marriage.
- ↑ Evans, Susanna (1982). Historic Brisbane and Its Early Artists. p. 24.
- ↑ Millhauser (1954). "Scriptural Geologists": 72–74.
- ↑ O’Connor, Ralph (2007). "Young-Earth Creationists in Early Nineteenth-century Britain? Towards a reassessment of ‘Scriptural Geology’" (PDF). History of Science (Science History Publications Ltd) 45 (150): 357–403. ISSN 0073-2753.
- ↑ "Death Notices". Leamington Spa Courier XIX (963). November 21, 1846. p. 3.
- ↑ "Gentlemen's Magazine, N.S.". Vol. XXVII. 1847. p. 108.
- ↑ Roberts, M.B. (2009). "Adam Sedgwick (1785-1873): geologist and evangelical". In Kölbl-Ebert, Martina. Geology and religion: a history of harmony and hostility. Geological Society of London. pp. 164–170.
- ↑ Livingstone, Hart & Noll 1999, pp. 178–179
References
- Livingstone, David; Hart, Darryl G.; Noll, Mark A. (1999). Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511557-0.
- Millhauser, Milton (1954). "The Scriptural Geologists: An Episode in the History of Opinion". Osiris (Saint Catherines Press) 11: 65–86. doi:10.1086/368571. JSTOR 301663.
- O’Connor, Ralph (2007). "Young-Earth Creationists in Early Nineteenth-century Britain? Towards a reassessment of ‘Scriptural Geology’" (PDF). History of Science (Science History Publications Ltd) 45 (150): 357–403. ISSN 0073-2753.
|