William Martin

William Martin (1767 – 31 May 1810) was an English naturalist and palaeontologist who proposed that science should use fossils as evidence to support the study of natural history. Martin published the first colour pictures of fossils and the first scientific study of fossils in English.

Biography

Martin was born in Mansfield in 1767. His father worked in the hosiery business, but he left to become an actor in Ireland with the stage name of Joseph Booth. His father was also an inventor and portrait painter who died in London in 1797. Martin's abandoned mother, who was born Mallatratt, was also an actress.

Whilst still a child he appeared on the stage, both as a five-year-old dancer, and later giving recitations. It was arranged for Martin to learn draughtsmanship from James Bolton in Halifax. From 1782 to 1785 he was with a Derbyshire acting troupe when he met White Watson with whom he was to collaborate in a work on Derbyshire fossils. His work with fossils and natural history eventually led to Martin being elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society. Like Watson, Martin was influenced by the work of Derbyshire geologist, John Whitehurst. Whitehurst had published An Inquiry into the Original State and Formation of the Earth in 1778 which contained an important appendix which concerned General Observations on the Strata in Derbyshire. However, it was Abraham Mills FRS who switched Martin from zoology to palaeontology at some time before 1789. Martin published Figures and Descriptions of Petrifications collected in Derbyshire in 1793.