George Tate (topographer)

George Tate (21 May 1805 – 7 June 1871) was an English tradesman from Northumberland, known as a local topographer, antiquarian and naturalist. His major work was a history of his native town, Alnwick.

He was son of Ralph Tate, a builder, and the brother of Thomas Tate, the mathematician and chemist. His life was passed in Alnwick, of which he was a freeman by right of birth. There, in his earlier years, he carried on the business of a linendraper. In 1848 he was appointed postmaster, and held the office till within two of his death. He was active in the public life the town, helping to organise the Alnwick Mechanics' Scientific Institution, of which he acted as secretary for thirty years, and as the secretary of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club from 1858 until his death.

Tate died on 7 June 1871, and was buried on the 9th in Alnwick churchyard, on the south side of the church. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society, and honoured by other learned societies.

Tate's History of the Borough, Castle, and Barony of Alnwick, which appeared in parts between 1865 and 1869, was his major publication. It included the history of Alnwick Castle and the Percy family, with accounts of old customs, sports, public movements, local nomenclature, the botany, zoology, and geology of the district, and biographies of the notabilities of the town. On the completion of its publication a banquet was given in Tate's honour in the town-hall, 21 May 1869.

Tate also published in 1865 Sculptured Rocks of Northumberland and Eastern Borders. He examined ancient British remains, and wrote papers on them for the proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. Besides monographs on the Farne Islands, Dunstanburgh Castle, Long Houghton church, and Harbottle Castle, he prepared accounts of the Cheviot Hills, St. Cuthbert's beads, porpoises, the bulk and colour of the hair and eyes of the Northumbrians, the orange-legged hobby, and the common squirrel.

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