SEDGWICK, Adam (1785-1873), geologist, was born in 1785 at Dent, Yorkshire, where his father was vicar of the parish. He was educated at Sedbergh school and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as fifth wrangler in 1808, and was elected a fellow in 1809. For some years he devoted himself chiefly to the studies and duties of academic life, but gradually he acquired an absorbing interest in geology and natural science, which was fostered by long excursions into the country, rendered necessary by the state of his health. In 1818 he succeeded Professor Hailstone in the Woodwardian chair of geology. Among his principal discoveries, which appeared for the most part in the Cambridge Transactions and the Transactions of the Geological Society, were those of the true position and succession of the Palaeozoic strata of Devonshire and Cornwall, of the geological relation of the beds afterwards named Permian in the north and north-west of England, and of the general structure of North Wales,—a subject which led him. into controversy with Murchison. In 1834 he published a Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, which reached a fifth edition. By his generosity and energy he succeeded in rendering the geological collection of the Woodwardian Museum one of the most complete in the kingdom. He was one of the original secretaries of the Cambridge Philosophical Society established in 1819, and was president of the Geological Society of London from 1829 to 1831. Having taken holy orders, he was advanced to the dignity of canon of Norwich cathedral, and for some time also he was vice-master of Trinity College. Sedgwick died at Cambridge on 25th January 1873.