John Jeremiah Bigsby
| John Jeremiah Bigsby | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1792-08-04 Nottingham, England |
| Died | 1881-02-10 London, England |
| Occupation | Army surgeon, geologist, boundary commissioner |
| Father | |
John Jeremiah Bigsby (4 August 1792 – 10 February 1881 (aged 88)) was a British army surgeon and geologist who served as assistant secretary and medical officer to the Anglo-American boundary commission in British North America between 1819 and 1826, conducting geological surveys across the Great Lakes region and participating in the mapping of the territory from Fort William to the Lake of the Woods in 1823.[1]
Early life and education
Bigsby was born on 4 August 1792 in Nottingham, the son of Jacob Bigsby. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1814, subsequently serving as a resident physician at the Edinburgh Infirmary. He enlisted as an assistant surgeon in the British Army on 14 March 1816 and was briefly posted to the Cape of Good Hope in 1817 before being sent to British North America in August 1818, where he was stationed at Quebec City.[1]
Career in British North America
Shortly after arriving in Canada, Bigsby responded to a typhus epidemic along the Ottawa River at Hawkesbury in September 1818. During this period he made the acquaintance of Louis-Joseph Papineau on a steamship journey. In the spring of 1819 he received orders to undertake geological study of Upper Canada, and spent the following years collecting specimens across a broad territory encompassing the Ottawa River valley and the shores of lakes Nipissing, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, working on a modest retainer of £26.[1]
In the winter of 1819–20 Bigsby was appointed assistant secretary to the British side of the boundary commission established under the Treaty of Ghent to demarcate the international border following the War of 1812. He worked alongside the boundary commissioner David Thompson and his American counterpart Joseph Delafield. The commission's survey work took Bigsby to Manitoulin Island and Drummond Island in the summer of 1820, and to the Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie area in 1821.[1]
Fort William and the Lake of the Woods survey
In 1823 Bigsby participated in the boundary commission's survey of the territory stretching from Fort William westward to the Lake of the Woods. This work brought him to the western shore of Lake Superior and into the interior, and his geological observations of the region contributed to the early scientific understanding of the Canadian Shield. The geological reports he produced between 1820 and 1825 were published in Benjamin Silliman's American Journal of Science. He also submitted an account of his Canadian geological findings to Governor George Ramsay (Dalhousie), which was read before the Geological Society of London in 1823, and he contributed anonymously to the Canadian Review in 1824.[1][2]
Later career and recognition
Bigsby was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1823, was named an honorary member of the American Geological Society in 1824, and joined the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia in 1825. He left Canada in late 1826 or early 1827 and returned to England, eventually settling in Nottinghamshire and establishing a medical practice in Newark-upon-Trent. He served the town as alderman and mayor between 1827 and 1830, and became senior physician at Newark Hospital in 1840. He continued to publish geological papers at the Geological Society of London into the late 1820s.[1]
In 1846 Bigsby moved to London, where he devoted himself increasingly to scientific writing. He published a memoir of his Canadian travels, The Shoe and Canoe, in 1850, and continued issuing papers on North American geology through to 1864. He began preparing a major fossil glossary, the Thesaurus Siluricus, the first part of which appeared in 1868. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869 and was awarded the Murchison Medal. In 1877 he donated funds to the Geological Society of London to establish the Bigsby Medal, awarded biennially to a scholar of American geology under the age of 45. He published Thesaurus Devonico-Carboniferous in 1878 and was working on a "Permian Thesaurus" near the time of his death. He bequeathed his library and geological works to Nottingham for the use of University College students.[1][3]
Death
Bigsby died on 10 February 1881 in London, England.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Anthony W. Rasporich."Anthony W. Rasporich, "Bigsby, John Jeremiah," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1982.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ Joseph Delafield, ed. Robert McElroy and Thomas Riggs."The Unfortified Boundary: A Diary of the First Survey of the Canadian Boundary Line from St. Regis to the Lake of the Woods."[book].1943.New York.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Robert Etheridge."Memoir: John Jeremiah Bigsby."[book].Geological Society of London, Quarterly Journal, vol. 37 (1881).1881.pp. 39–41.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ "Obituary notice."[newspaper].The Times (London).1881-02-15.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)