Regency Personalities Series-Stephen Groombridge

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Stephen Groombridge
7 January 1755 – 30 March 1832

Stephen Groombridge

Stephen Groombridge was born at Goudhurst in Kent on 7 January 1755. He succeeded when about 21 to the business in West Smithfield of a linendraper named Greenland, to whom he had been apprenticed. Later, and until 1816, he was a successful West India merchant. He lived mainly at Goudhurst, where he built a small observatory; but moved to Blackheath in 1802.

In 1806, using a then new transit circle built by Edward Troughton, he began compiling a star catalogue of stars down to about eighth or ninth magnitude. He spent ten years making observations on the Groombridge Transit Circle and another ten years doing reductions of the data (correcting for refraction, instrument error and clock error). In 1827 he suffered a “severe attack of paralysis” from which he never fully recovered. Others continued the work, continuing with corrections for aberration and nutation among others.

Groombridge died in Blackheath. His Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars was published posthumously in 1838 with the help of fellow astronomer George Biddell Airy (1801–1892) and others. An earlier edition had been published in 1833 but was found to contain errors and was withdrawn. In 1842, one of the stars in his catalogue, Groombridge 1830, was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander to have a very high proper motion. For many decades its proper motion was the highest known; today it still occupies third place.

Groombridge, Stephen (1838). A Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars. London: John Murray.- edited by George Biddell Airy; has biographical information for Groombridge

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Regency Personalities Series-Richard Sheepshanks

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Richard Sheepshanks
30 July 1794 – 4 August 1855

Richard Sheepshanks

He was born the son of Joseph Sheepshanks, a Leeds textile manufacturer of the well-to-do Sheepshank family of Bilton, Harrogate and received education at the Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1816. He was called to the bar in 1824 and took orders in Church of England in 1825, but did not practice either profession as the death of his father left him with sufficient wealth to pursue his scientific interests.

He had six children from a relationship with an Irish dancer, one of whom was Eleanor Louisa Moravia Henry, also known as Nelly. Sheepshanks gave financial support to the dancer and her husband, who in turn claimed paternity.

He served as editor of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and greatly improved their content. In 1830 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society In 1832, he got involved in the lawsuit of Edward Troughton against Sir James South, in which Troughton demanded payment for an equatorial mounting that he had supplied to South, but which South claimed to be defective.

Sheepshanks informally served as legal counsel to Troughton; South’s legal counsel was Drinkwater Bethune. Troughton prevailed in the lawsuit. In 1833, he recommended withholding publication of an early edition of Stephen Groombridge’s star catalogue, which was being published posthumously, after discovering the edition contained errors.

A final corrected edition was later published in 1838 under the auspices of George Biddell Airy. In his later career he worked on establishing a standard of length for imperial measures. He was reportedly deeply sceptical of the work of Charles Babbage and of his ability to deliver a working Difference Engine or Analytical Engine. The two men publicly attacked each other.

He suffered a stroke (“apoplexy”) on 29 July 1855, died on 4 August and was buried at Trinity College. There is a memorial notice at St. John’s Church, Bilton in Harrogate.

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Regency Personalities Series-Edward Troughton

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Edward Troughton
October 1753 – 12 June 1835

Edward Troughton

A British instrument maker who was notable for making telescopes and other astronomical instruments.

Troughton was born at Corney, Cumberland. In 1779, after serving an apprenticeship with his elder brother John, he became his partner and soon established himself as the top maker of navigational, surveying and astronomical instruments in Britain.

In 1795 he delivered the Troughton Equatorial Telescope to the Armagh Observatory, a 2 inch aperture refractor telescope mounted equatorially, and its first major instrument since its founding in 1790 (It survived into the 21st century also). He created the Groombridge Transit Circle in 1806, which Stephen Groombridge used to compile his star catalogue. He did not merely build instruments, but designed and invented new ones.

Groombridge transit circle

Troughton was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1809. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1810.

In 1826, after his brother John’s death and in failing health himself, he took on William Simms as a partner and the firm became known as Troughton & Simms.

Troughton was involved in a lawsuit against Sir James South, who was dissatisfied with the quality of an equatorial mounting that Troughton made for him. Troughton sued for payment, and with informal legal counsel provided by Richard Sheepshanks, he prevailed.

Troughton was color blind. On his death in 1835 he was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

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