Sir Richard Griffith

Sir Richard Griffith was an Irish geologist and mining engineer born September 20, 1784, in Dublin, Ireland, who died September 22, 1878, in Dublin, and who was appointed professor of geology and mining engineer to the Royal Dublin Society in 1812, served as government inspector of mines in Ireland, and completed the first complete geological map of Ireland, published in Outline of the Geology of Ireland in 1838. As chairman of the Board of Works of Ireland he conducted boundary surveys and produced the property valuation of Ireland, known as Griffith Valuation, between 1825 and 1868, and he is also credited with discoveries of nickel and cobalt ores in Cornwall. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1807, was created a baronet in 1858, and received the Wollaston Medal in 1854; he was known as the father of Irish geology and remained the oldest surviving fellow of the Geological Society of London at his death.