In 1820 he met with a select group of “gentlemen”, leading shortly thereafter to the formation of the Philosophical Society. In 1828 he was retained as Land Steward at the prestigious Hackness Estate near Scarborough and during his period of tenure he went on to produce a detailed geological map of the Hackness district.
His works also had significance in other fields and even now are regarded as highly significant in the field of gas and oil exploration. In 1832 William Smith became the first recipient of the Geological Society’s Wollaston Medal together with a princely government pension of £100.00 per annum.
