Thomas Northmore


Thomas Northmore was an English writer, inventor and geologist.

Origins

He was born at Cleve in the parish of St Thomas, Exeter, in Devon, the eldest son of Thomas Northmore of Cleve, by his wife Elizabeth Osgood, daughter and heiress of Richard Osgood of Fulham.

Career

He was educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1789, and M.A. in 1792. On 19 May 1791 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He retired to cultivate his paternal estate, where he lived for the rest of his life, spending time on mechanics, literature, and politics. He contested Exeter in June 1818 as a Radical, when he only polled 293 votes. He also unsuccessfully contested Barnstaple. He discovered about 1824 the bones in Kents Cavern at Torquay. He found beneath the bed of mud which lies under the stalagmitic flooring of the cavern the tusk of a hyæna, and then a metatarsal bone of the cavern bear. These finds proved important to later work on the antiquity of the human race. A much more thorough dig was undertaken by William Pengelly and the British Association.

Marriages and children

He married twice:
He died at Furzebrook House, near Axminster, on 20 May 1851.

Works

His works include:
In Nicholson's Journal he wrote on Effects on Gases by change in their Habitudes, or elective Attractions, when mechanically compressed, 1805, and on Experiments on condensed Gases, 1806.