Abstract
Following Sherburne’s Astronomical Appendix, more than 30 years would elapse before anything more concerning William Gascoigne appeared in print. It came thanks to the exertions of the Reverend William Derham (1657–1735)—Anglican rector of Upminster and member of the Royal Society. Astronomy was one of Derham’s great passions, but like many early members of the Society he was also drawn to all manner of topics concerning the natural world. He collected bird, insect and botanical specimens; kept registers of atmospheric pressure and temperature, and made one of the earliest worthwhile measurements of the velocity of sound. He also made prolific observations of sunspots and the planet Jupiter.
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Notes
- 1.
Derham, William, Physico-Theology: or, a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God from His Works of Creation, 5th edition (London, 1720), Book II, 37–8.
- 2.
Atkinson, A.D., William Derham, FRS (1657–1735), Annals of Science, v8 (1952), 368–9.
- 3.
Rogers, Pat (Ed.), Johnson & Boswell in Scotland. A Journey to the Hebrides, New Haven & London, 1993, 256.
- 4.
Philosophical transactions, xxvii (1712), 280–289.
- 5.
de facie ignotus: of unknown countenance.
- 6.
Easily the prince of astronomers.
- 7.
Philosophical transactions, xxvii (1712) 280.
- 8.
The Optical Part of Astronomy (1604).
- 9.
Philosophical transactions, xxvii (1712) 287.
- 10.
New Astronomy (1609) and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (1618–1621).
- 11.
Philosophical transactions, xxvii (1712) 288–9.
- 12.
Ibid., 290.
- 13.
Philosophical Transactions, xxx (1717), 603 (and extended from the Preface of Tabularum Astronomicarum of Philippe de la Hire, published in Paris in 1687).
- 14.
Royal Society archive, EL/D1/60. Letter of Derham to Waller (30 November 1713).
- 15.
Letters of eminent men addressed to Ralph Thoresby, FRS (London, 1832), ii, 302.
- 16.
Thoresby, Ralph, Ducatus leodiensis: or, The topography of the ancient and populous town and parish of Leedes, and parts adjacent in the West-riding of the county of York, etc, (London, 1715).
- 17.
Ibid., 181.
- 18.
Philosophical Transactions, xxx (1717), 606–7.
- 19.
Ibid., 607–8.
- 20.
Ibid., 608.
- 21.
Ibid., 608.
- 22.
Ibid., 604.
- 23.
Ibid., 608–9.
- 24.
Ibid., 609.
- 25.
Ibid., 605.
- 26.
Ibid., 605.
- 27.
Ibid., 609–10.
- 28.
Chapman, Allan, Jeremiah Horrocks and the transit of Venus of 1639, in Transits of Venus: New views of the Solar System and Galaxy (IAU Colloquium 196), (Cambridge, 2004), 12.
- 29.
The National Archives, Public Records Office, Prob/11/672.
- 30.
The National Archives, Public Records Office, Prob/11/833.
- 31.
Bodleian Library, MS.Eng.e.3655, George Scott Letter book, v.35, 23–25. A typed transcription also exists in Essex Record Office, D/DU 546/3.
- 32.
Prince, Daniel (bookseller), A catalogue of books; being the library of…William Derham. Which will begin to be sold Oct.18, 1757 (Oxford, 1757).
- 33.
Bodleian Library, MS.Eng.e.3655, George Scott Letter book, v.35, 50–51. A typed transcription also exists in Essex Record Office, D/DU 546/3.
- 34.
Bodleian Library, Vet.A5.e.7132, Sale Catalogue of George Scott, sixteenth day’s sale (Manuscripts, Octavo).
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Sellers, D. (2012). Derham and De La Hire. In: In Search of William Gascoigne. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 390. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4097-0_5
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