Sedgwick, Adam (1817-1834)

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In Venn:
Adm. sizar (age 19) at TRINITY, Nov. 18, 1803. S. of [the Rev.] Richard (1756), of Dent, Yorks. (by his 2nd wife, Margaret Sturgis). B. Mar. 27, 1785, at Dent. School, Sedbergh. ' Matric. Michs. 1804; Scholar, 1807; B.A. (5th Wrangler) 1808; M.A. 1811; Hon. LL.D. 1866. Fellow, 1810; Vice-Master, 1844-62. Senior Proctor, 1827-8. Ord. deacon (Norwich, Litt. dim. from Bristol) July 20, 1817; priest (Salisbury) 1818. Woodwardian Professor of Geology, 1818-73. On his election to the Chair, he was practically ignorant of geology. The stipend was only £100 a year and the office had been regarded almost as a sinecure, but he succeeded in realizing what he described in his last published words as the ‘three prominent hopes’ of his life–to form a collection worthy of the University, to secure the building of a suitable museum and ‘to bring together a class of students who would listen to my teaching, support me by their sympathy and help me by the labour of their hands.’ Took Charles Darwin on a geological tour. F.R.S., 1830; Copley medal, 1863. Secretary to Prince Albert (when Chancellor) 1847. Canon of Norwich, 1834-73. Hon. D.C.L., Oxford, 1860. President of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1831 and 1853. F.G.S.; President, 1831. President of the British Association, 1833. Member of the Royal Commission to inquire into the condition of the University, 1850. Died, unmarried, Jan. 27, 1873, in Trinity; buried in the Chapel. 'Monumental inscription.'M.I. there and at Dent, Yorks. Commemorated in Cambridge by the Sedgwick prize, founded in 1865, by the Sedgwick Museum of geology and by a bronze statue by Onslow Ford, R.A. Brother of James (1812) and John (1809); great-uncle of the next. (D.N.B.; Boase, III. 475; C.U. Hist. Reg.)

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