William Babington (physician)

William Babington FRS (May 21, 1756 – April 29, 1833) was a British physician and mineralogist.

Life and work

Babington was physician to Guy's Hospital from 1795 to 1811. He was president of the Geological Society of London from 1822 to 1824. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1805.

He was the curator for the enormous mineral collection of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. When Stuart died in 1792, Babington bought the collection.

The mineral Babingtonite is named after him.

William and Martha Elizabeth Babington were married before 1794, and had four sons and four daughters between 1794 and 1810. Babington died on 29 April 1833 and was buried at St. Mary Aldermanbury in London. [cite book | author = Munk, Willia, | title = The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London | year = 1878 | publisher = Royal College of Physicians | location = London | pages = 451 – 455 | url = | access-date = 2008-03-11] He left a son, Benjamin Guy Babington [ODNB article by J. F. Payne, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/968 ‘Babington, Benjamin Guy (1794–1866)’] , rev. Michael Bevan, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 10 March 2008.] , also physician to Guy's Hospital, and a daughter, Martha, who married the physician Richard Bright [ODNB article by J. F. Payne, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/977 ‘Babington, William (1756–1833)’] , rev. John C. Thackray, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 10 March 2008] .

A statue of Babington by William Behnes (1795-1864) is in St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Selected publications

* "A Systematic Arrangement of Minerals, founded on the joint consideration of their chemical, physical and external characters; reduced to the form of tables." (1796) London, T. Cox.
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=ktlW_QHoyIgC "A New System of Mineralogy, in the form of a Catalogue, after the manner of Baron Born’s Systematic Catalogue of the collection of fossils of Mlle Éléonore de Raab"] . (1799) London, T. Bensley.

References

Further reading

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External links

* [http://www.mineralatlas.com/mineral%20general%20descriptions/B/babingtonitepcd.htm Babingtonite]
* [http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=7400&inst_id=6 King's College London Archive Holdings for Babington] .