EARLY INFLUENCES 247 



I now go on to my principal subject. Williamson's father, 

 John Williamson, originally a gardener, was well known for his 

 researches on the Natural History of the Yorkshire coast, and 

 was for 27 years curator of the Scarborough Museum. Previously 

 to that, John Williamson kept a private museum of his own, 

 and it was in the room next to this that William Crawford 

 Williamson was born on November 24, 1816. John William- 

 son's cousin, William Bean, was also an active local naturalist, 

 known especially for his work on the Yorkshire Fossil Flora; 

 the genus Beania is named after him. 



Our Williamson's mother, born Elizabeth Crawford, was the 

 eldest of 13 children of a Scarborough jeweller and lapidary. 

 Young Williamson used to spend much time in the Crawford's 

 workshop, watching them cutting and working with the diamond 

 the agates from the gravels of the coast. "A youthful training," 

 he says, "which became of the utmost value to me more than a 

 third of a century later, when scientific research required me to 

 devote much of my own time to similar work 1 ." 



In 1826 the famous William Smith and his wife established 

 themselves in the Williamson's house, and stayed there for 

 two years. Williamson's early recollections of the "Father of 

 English Geology" must have been inspiring. His father was 

 also a friend and correspondent of Sir Roderick Murchison. 



The appearance of Phillips' classic volume, Illustrations of 

 the Geology of Yorkshire, in 1829, gave young Williamson his 

 first introduction to true scientific work. His father at once set 

 to work to name from this book the fossils he collected, and his 

 son was called in to help. "My evenings throughout a long 

 winter were devoted to the detested labour of naming these 

 miserable stones." "Pursuing this uncongenial task gave me in 

 my 1 3th year a thorough practical familiarity with the palaeon- 

 tological treasures of Eastern Yorkshire. This early acquisition 

 happily moulded the entire course of my future life 2 ." 



Those were not the days of the half-educated. Young 

 Williamson, in addition to his special scientific training, had 

 the advantage of a classical education, at schools both in 



1 Reminiscences of a Yorkshire Nattiralist, p. 6. 



2 Reminiscences, p. 12. 



