In the second instalment of a series on the unsung citizen scientists of the Northumberland coalfield, archives volunteer Maureen Flisher explores the life and times of another Cramlington miner
Joseph Taylor was born in Earsdon in 1841. He started working in the mines as a young boy and by the 1860s was employed by West Cramlington Colliery. He lived in a colliery house, with his wife Ann and their three children; Ann was John Simm’s younger sister.
Like John, Joseph was an ardent collector of coal measure fossils and a member of the Cramlington Microscopist Group, and advertised in Hardwick’s Scientific Gossip offering slides in exchange for books/slides/equipment. He too exhibited at Mechanical Institutes, winning top prizes for his fossil exhibits. In what little free time both men had, they could often be found on the shale heaps of the surrounding mines, particularly Newsham, looking for new finds as well as good specimens they could sell on.
John and Joseph were keen advocates of the ‘Self-Help’ movement, culminating in both becoming leading figures in the Co-operative Movement – John as an Auditor in the first Co-operative Society in West Cramlington, and Joseph later in life becoming the Chairman of the Shiremoor Co-op.
The Self-Help movement may have been the catalyst for both men deciding to use their knowledge and growing expertise in the field of geology and palaeontology to showcase their own skills. It allowed them to break into scientific circles, which at that time were dominated by wealthy middle- and upper-class gentlemen, and provided them with an additional income.
In the late 1860s, their skills as discerning fossil collectors and microscopists caught the attention of Alderman T. P. Barkus. In Barkus’ 1873 illustrated book A Manual of Coal Measure Palaeontology, he credits both men with preparing the slides for his book and allowing him, over a period of five years, to study “their large and valuable fossil collections”. Barkas had already, in 1871, identified three fossil vertebrae found by Joseph as belonging to a new undiscovered species, which he named Amphicoelosaurus Taylorii.
Joseph was certainly corresponding with other eminent collectors of the time, inviting them to study his cabinet collection. For example, he sent parcels of fossilised fish remains to Thomas Stock, Assistant Curator of the Natural History Department at the Museum of Science and Art in Edinburgh (now the National Museum of Scotland). It included a spine that Joseph believed was new to the scientific world. Mr Stock agreed and named it “Lophacanthus Taylori, in honour of the discoverer.”
In 1880 and 1881 Mr Stock would go on to publish scientific papers in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, acknowledging that he was “greatly indebted to my friend Joseph Taylor of Shiremoor for the opportunity of studying 3 comb plates from Newsham”. Stock sold his private collection of coal measure fossils to Harvard University when he emigrated to America. I can find no evidence however that fossils collected by Joseph are in that collection –yet!
John and Joseph’s reputation grew worldwide. Edward Young, an American government statistician, mentioned both men in his 1876 report Labour in Europe and America, under the heading ‘Miners with Scientific Tastes’. Both men are also named in the forward to A Catalogue of the British Fossil Vertebrata published in 1890 by A.S. Woodward and C.D. Sherborn of the British Museum.
John, Joseph, and another miner from Newsham Colliery, John Salt, were also corresponding with other miners interested in geology and palaeontology.
One Alexander Butters, a former miner, describes in a letter home – published in the Blyth Weekly News for 2 October 1891 – how he became interested in geology and palaeontology some 25 years ago having emigrated from “Low Cramlington” to Illinois in the 1850s. He had assisted the Illinois State Geologist, Professor Amos. H. Worthern, selling him a collection of fossil fish for £200.00/1000.00 dollars. He adds: “if I be spared to come to England I hope to do some collecting in the mines of Northumberland. I have a correspondent at Shiremoor that I have never seen, but we have exchanged specimens and correspondence for some time and I look forward to the time when I can go through his collection with him with pleasure. His name is Joseph Taylor.”
Joseph was one of the first miners in Northumberland to take part in the University Extension Movement – the effort, beginning from Cambridge University, to make university-level teaching available to working people – at a local level. He worked hard to educate himself, passing the necessary exams to become a deputy at the Blue Bell Pit, Shiremoor; a great advocate for further education, he would go on to become chairman of the local Technical Education Committee. Tragedy struck in 1902, when as a result of a mining accident he lost several fingers, his disability forcing him to retire and to give up his hobby of fossil collecting.
In 1906, he offered some of his collection to NHSN. The proceedings record special mention of this generous act: “In the geographical department the chief accession of the year is an excellent set of local Coal Measure Fossils presented by Mr Jos Taylor. The donor has had unusual opportunities in the course of his occupation and his gift represents the carefully selected results of the many years’ collecting. “
Joseph passed away in 1925 and his remaining fossil collection was donated to the Gateshead Museum (Saltwell Tower) now held by Sunderland Museum. Both fossil collections can be viewed by appointment via Great North Museum: Hancock.
The author wishes to thank:
Joanna Lawson, Great-Great-Granddaughter of Joseph Taylor, for the insight she provided into his life, and for photographs of Joseph and his collection.
Anna Christensen and Robert Young Special Collections Library, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University – for allowing me to view their collection of letters From Thomas Stock to Alexander Agassiz in 1883.
Dr. Sarah Stewart Assistant Curator of Palaeobiology, National Museum Scotland – for information and photographs of the Thomas Stock Sunderland Collection.
Sylvia Humphrey Assistant Keeper of Geology – for patiently answering the many queries I posed regarding the GNM – Hancock collection of Coal Measure Fossils.
Jim Fagan – for further newspaper and genealogy research.
Dr Brian Stevenson Ph.D., whose fascinating website on the history of microscopy deserves to be more widely known.
