George Fairholme
George Fairholme (1789–1846) was a land owner, banker, traveller, naturalist and scriptural geologist, born in Lugate, Midlothian, Scotland on 15 January 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] Like many in his day he used his wealth to pursue his study of geology both in Britain and in Europe.
On 15 November 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 (a naval officer lost on the Franklin Expedition), George, Charles and Elizabeth Marjory.
George died in November 1846 in Royal Leamington Spa, willing homes, paintings and nearly 3000 pounds to each child.[5][6]
Writings
During the formative era of geology in the early 1800s, Fairholme wrote two books on geology[7] and published articles on coal, Niagara Falls, and human fossils.
- General View of the Geology of Scripture (1833)
- The Mosaic Deluge (1837).[8]
Notes
- Sir John Bernard Burke, Burke's Landed Gentry (1965-72), III:315-16.
- George Fairholme, Notes on the Family of Greenknowe and on the History of the estate from 1470 to the present time (1838), unnumbered page of the preface to this unpublished manuscript in the possession of Mrs. Waveney Jenkins of the Isle of Man.
- George and Elizabeth Fairholme's contract of marriage.
- Susanna Evans, Historic Brisbane and Its Early Artists (1982), 24.
- Death Notices, Leamington Spa Courier, Vol. XIX, No. 963 (21 Nov. 1846), 3
- Gentlemen's Magazine, N.S. Vol. XXVII (1847), 108.
- Kölbl-Ebert, Martina (2009). Geology and religion: a history of harmony and hostility. Geological Society of London. p. 164.
- 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. S2CID 144093595.
- 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. doi:10.1177/007327530704500401. ISSN 0073-2753. S2CID 146768279.