Joseph George Cumming - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

JOSEPH GEORGE CUMMING (1812-1868), English geologist and archaeologist, was born at Matlock in Derbyshire on the 15th of February 1812. He was educated at Oakham grammar school, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, taking the degree of M.A., and entering holy orders in 1835. In 1841 he was appointed vice-principal of King William's College, Castletown, in the Isle of Man, and this position he held until 1856. During this period his leisure time was devoted to a study of the geology and archaeology of the island. The results were published in a classic volume The Isle of Man; its History, Physical, Ecclesiastical, Civil and Legendary (1848). In 1856 he became master of King Edward's grammar school at Lichfield, in 1858 warden and professor of classical literature and geology in Queen's College, Birmingham, in 1862 rector of Mellis, in Suffolk, and in 1867 vicar of St John's, Bethnal Green, London. He died in London on the 21st of September 1868.