In 1808 he joined the newly formed Geological Society of London and two years later was elected one of the secretaries. Throughout his long life he was ardently devoted to the welfare of the society; he was elected president in 1846 and again in 1860. In 1811 he read his first paper "On the Mineralogy of the Malvern Hills" ("Trans. Geol. Soc." vol. i.) and subsequently communicated other papers on the Brine-springs at Droitwich, and the "Geology of the S.W. part of Somersetshire".