Hv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in the midst of them on the 17th of December, 1857. Whilst de- 

 ploring his loss, society should be thankful that such a man was 

 spared so long for the benefit of mankind. Although most of the 

 preceding record is but the echo of the tribute already paid to this 

 great man by one of his most distinguished friends, I have thought 

 it due to the members of this Society to preserve it that they all 

 may be able to dwell on the character and merits of one who has shed 

 so much lustre on this and other scientific societies. May the officers 

 both of army and navy be encouraged to imitate so bright an example, 

 and not be. deterred from doing so by the senseless dread of becoming 

 too learned ! 



Thomas Best Jervis, Lieut. -Colonel E.I.C. Engineers, F.R.S., 

 F. Geol. S., F. Ast. S., F.L.S., F.A.S., F. Geog. S., M.I.C. Eng., Cor. 

 M.N.H.S. Boston, Soc. Ethnogr. Paris, &c. &c, was the second son of 

 John Jervis, Esq., civil servant of the E.I.C, who, having for some 

 time held a high post at Madras, was transferred to Jaffnapatani, on 

 the north of the island of Ceylon, where Thomas Best Jervis was born, 

 August 2, 1796. Lieut. -Col. Jervis throughout life valued himself 

 less upon his ancestry, although his family is most ancient and respect- 

 able, than on the fact that several of his relatives had been eminent for 

 their patriotism, learning, and integrity. The head of the family, James 

 Jervys,Esq., possessed the property of Chatkyll, in Staffordshire, in the 

 fifteenth century ; and Colonel Jervis would recount with satisfaction 

 the fact of King Charles having been protected and hidden after his 

 retreat to the oak, by Miss Lane, one of the staunch royalist mem- 

 bers of the family. In later times the celebrated divine, Bishop 

 Hooker, and the Earl of St. Vincent (Sir J. Jervis), have nobly main- 

 tained the honour of the family. On his mother's side Colonel Jervis 

 was descended from a Polish family of the name of Bitzo, who had 

 been for generations in the royal household of the Georges, whom 

 they accompanied from Hanover. Baron Grimm's family still reside 

 in Prussia, where the present Dr. Grimm is physician to the king of 

 Prussia, and one of the principal medical officers of that country. 



George, Thomas, and John, the three sons of Mr. John Jervis, were 

 sent home to England at a very tender age, in accordance with the 

 necessity imposed by the tropical climate, for their education, and 

 were consigned to the care of their uncle Chief- Justice Thomas Jervis, 

 of the Chester circuit. Thomas was first transferred to a maiden aunt, 

 Miss Jervis, at Lichfield, an excellent Christian person, from whose 

 watchful care he acquired that deeply-rooted principle which was 

 always one of his most marked characteristics. The first school he 

 went to was kept by a Dame ; and, being there taught along with little 

 girls, he Avas thoroughly grounded in English grammar, and other sub- 

 jects too often neglected or omitted at boys' schools. From* hence he 

 probably derived an habitual gentleness of disposition, so that he had 

 an uncommon tenderness of feeling, even towards the brute creation, 

 never liking to inflict pain even on an insect. From Lichfield he was 

 placed at a school at Hugely (Staffordshire), and subsequently sent up to 

 town to Judge Jervis, whose wife, having children of her own, always 



