ABSTRACT

Throughout his life, the patronage of influential friends was crucial to William Buckland. His entry to Winchester College, his appointments as Oxford's first reader in geology, canon of Christ Church and, finally, dean of Westminster each depended on active support from “persons of the highest weight in the country”, including no fewer than four serving or past prime ministers of the United Kingdom. Over the course of a century, Buckland's immediate forebears had risen from humble origins to become an established clerical family. But geology was an expensive pursuit for a clergyman, and with no substantial fortune of his own, Buckland continued to depend on influential friends whose patronage enabled him to establish the subject at the University of Oxford and to play an active part amongst the gentlemen of the metropolitan Geological Society. Once himself established, he was able to exert his own influence to promote his science, facilitate the work of others and act as champion for both the Geological Society and the British Association.