USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
James Bowdoin was born in Boston in 1727, graduated at Harvard College in 1745, and died in 1790.2 Inheriting a large fortune, he was able to devote himself to public affairs, in which he took always a conspicuous part before and after the Revolu- tion. He was president of the convention which formed the State government, and was governor in 1785 and 1786; but he is here to be commemorated as a princely patron and cultivator of science. Before Harvard Hall was burned in 1764 he had given largely to the philosophical apparatus ; and after the fire he contributed more than any one else to repair the loss. He was the first president of the American . Academy of Arts and Sciences (incorporated May 4, 1780), and delivered a public inaugural address, November 8, on the Benefits of Science. This address is a run- ning commentary on the following clause of the Act of Incorporation : -
" And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the end and design of the institution of the said Academy is to promote and encourage the knowledge of the antiquities of America, and of the natural history of the country, and to determine the uses to which the various natural pro- ductions of the country may be applied; to promote and encourage medical discoveries, mathemat- ical disquisitions, philosophical enquiries and experiments, - astronomical, meteorological, and geographical observations, and improvements in agriculture, arts, manufactures, and commerce ; and, in fine, to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dig- nity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."
The address closed with a prophetic vision of what some American Livy or Thucydides might say when the Academy was a century old.
Mr. Bowdoin corresponded with Dr. Franklin, and the letters have been published. He also printed three memoirs on the Theory of Light.3 Dr. Franklin had criticised the corpuscular theory of light,4 which the authority of Newton's great name had brought into universal acceptance, and suggested a theory of undulations similar to that which at the present day has no competitor. Franklin probably did not know that Hooke and Huyghens, a century earlier, had held the same view, and carried it to finer issues. Mr. Bowdoin attempted to answer Franklin's objections to the New- tonian doctrine of light ; and finally launches forth into speculations which had but little support in fact, as may be inferred from the subject of his third memoir, which was : Observations tending to prove, by Phenomena and Scripture, the Existence of an Orb which surrounds the whole visible material System ; and which may be necessary. to preserve it from the Ruin to which, without such a Counterbalance, it seems liable by that universal Principle in Matter,- Gravitation. At this time the elder Herschel was indulging in bold speculations concerning the construction of the heavens, but his speculations were ballasted by the weighty observations furnished by his gigantic
1 Mem. Amer. Acad., i. 57.
8 Mem. Amer. Acad., i. 187-233.
2 [See Vol. II. p. 268. See his portrait in
Vol. III. p. 195. - ED.]
4 Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects, p. 264 (1769).
497
BOSTON AND SCIENCE.
telescope. Bowdoin bequeathed his library to the Academy, and also one hundred pounds in money.
Andrew Oliver was born in Boston in 1731, and graduated at Harvard College in I 749. After his marriage he removed to Salem, where he was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas before the Revolution, and where he died in 1799. He had a taste for mathematics and natural philosophy. He wrote an Essay on Comets, which was pub- lished in 1772, and again in. 1811. It was translated into French at Paris, and the eminent but ill-fated historian of astronomy Bailly refers in favorable terms to Mr. Oliver's arguments and conjectures in relation to the tails of comets. Mr. Oliver's application of Franklin's electrical repulsion to' the case suggested to Bailly a resem- blance between his views and those of Buffon in regard to heat and light, and he con- cludes his analysis of the essay with these words : "Tout cet ouvrage est infinitement ingénieux ; le système est très-vraisemble : et peutetre l'application de la force ré- pulsive et des phénomènes électriques aux phénomènes de la queue des cometes merite-t-elle un autre nom." Many years afterward De Luc ' produced views upon the constitution and use of comets closely resembling those of the Essay. Mr. Oliver also published two other papers,2-one on Thunder-storms, and the other on Water-spouts. He was a member of the American Academy and of the Philosophical Society.3
Edward Wigglesworth was born in 1732, graduated at Harvard College in 1749, and was Hollis Professor of Theology from 1765 to his death in 1794; retiring, how- ever, from active service in 1791. He manifested considerable interest in science, observing the total eclipse of the sun Oct. 27, 1780. He published in 1775 calcu- lations on American population ; and, in 1791, tables showing the probable duration and expectation of life in Massachusetts, etc.4
Joseph Willard was born in Biddeford, Maine, in 1738, and graduated at Harvard College in 1765 ; where he was tutor from 1766 to 1772, and president from 1781 to his death in 1804. Between 1772 and 1781 he was pastor of a church in Beverly. At school he manifested a taste for arithmetic and navigation, and at college for mathematics. The duties of a minister or a president are engrossing ; but Mr. Willard found, or made, time to gratify his scientific taste, especially for astronomy.5 At Beverly he observed the solar eclipse of Oct. 27, 1780 ; at the president's house in Cambridge, the lunar eclipse of March 29, 1782, the solar eclipse of April 12, 1782, and the transits of Mercury of Nov. 12, 1782, and Nov. 5, 1789. President Willard also cultivated mathematical astronomy. He constructed tables for facilitating com- putations, and himself computed the longitude of Cambridge from Greenwich and Paris by a comparison of the observations made in Europe and in this vicinity on the solar eclipses of Aug. 5, 1776, and June 24, 1778 ; and on the transit of Mercury of Nov. 5, 1743, and the transit of Venus of June 3, 1769. His result for the distance of Harvard Hall west of Greenwich (namely, 4" 44™ 315) was probably as exact as that for any two places on the earth at that time, if determined without the aid of geodesy. There is evidence that Dr. Bowditch, whose standard of excellence was high, placed President Willard among the few good mathematicians of New England.6- The Rev. Manasseh Cutler was settled within eight miles of Beverly, and observed with Mr.
1 Journal de Physique, 1802.
2 Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., ii. 1786.
3 [See Vol. III. Index, for various references
to his family connections. - ED ] VOL. IV .- 63.
4 [See the chapter on "Insurance " in this volume. - ED.]
5 Mem. Amer. Acad., vols. i. and ii.
6 Sidney Willard's Memories, etc., i. 93.
498
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Willard the solar eclipse of Oct. 27, 1780. He also observed at Ipswich the transit of Mercury, Nov. 12, 1782 ; an eclipse of the moon, March 29, 1782 ; and an eclipse of the sun, April 12, 1782.1
Phillips Payson was born in Walpole in 1736, graduated at Harvard College in 1754, and was ordained minister at Chelsea in 1757, where he continued to preach until his death in 1801.2 He had a zeal for science, especially mathematics and natural philosophy. In a communication to the Academy, of which he was a mem- ber, he says : 3-
" The extensive territories of the United States of America are a foundation in nature of a vast empire. The geography of its interior parts, though of great importance, is at present but little better than conjectural ; to perfect which, and fix the interesting boundaries and lines, the best and indeed the only proper method is that of astronomical observations, which it is probable the Supreme Council of America will soon adopt, now the glorious revolution is so happily completed. To promote such observations, both at noted headlands upon the sea-coast and at distant places in the interior country, highly merits the attention of this Academy. For though they should not at first be made with such accuracy as modern astronomy can boast of, they will prove great helps for future improvements."
As his contribution to this end, he observed many eclipses of Jupiter's satellites in 1779 ; the solar eclipses of June 24, 1778, of Oct. 27, 1788, and of April 12, 1782 ; the lunar eclipses of May 29, 1779, and of Nov. 11, 1780 ; also the transit of Mercury, on Nov. 12, 1782. From his observations he calculates the latitude and longitude of Chelsea.
Daniel Treadwell, who is described as an " eminent mathematician," was born at Portsmouth, N.H., and graduated at Harvard College in 1754. In the same year he was elected professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in King's College (now Colum- bia College), New York ; but consumption put an end to his career in 1760, when he was only twenty-six years old.
John Hancock, who graduated at Harvard College in 1754, who put his name to the Declaration of Independence and was afterward governor, deserves to be men- tioned as a liberal patron of science, giving five hundred pounds to replace the library and philosophical apparatus of Harvard College, in fulfilment of a purpose which his uncle had failed to express in his will.
Samuel Williams was born in Waltham in 1743, and graduated at Harvard College in 1761. He was settled over a church in Bradford in 1765, where he remained until 1 780. Scientific tastes were early developed in him, for he was one of the two men- bers of the Senior class selected by Professor Winthrop to assist him in the observa- tions of the transit of Venus in 1761, because they had made " good proficiency in mathematical studies." Mr. Williams observed the lunar eclipses of Nov. 12, 1761, and March 17, 1764, both at Waltham. While at Bradford he observed the lunar eclipses of April 6, 1773, July 30, 1776, Dec. 3, 1778, and May 29, 1779 ; and on the last night an eclipse of Jupiter's second satellite. He also observed the solar eclipse of June 24, 1778, which was almost total in New England, and wholly so in some of the Southern States.4 The Rev. Samuel Williams succeeded Mr. Winthrop in the professorship of mathematical and physical science in 1780, having already mani- fested great zeal in the study of astronomy.5
1 Hist. Coll. Essex Inst., iv. 272.
2 [See Vol. II. p. 379, ED.]
8 Mem. Amer. Acad., i. 124.
4 Ibid., 81.
5 Although eclipses of the sun are more fre- quent than those of the moon, a total eclipse of the sun is visible only within an area of about one hundred and seventy miles in diameter, and
499
BOSTON AND SCIENCE.
Caleb Gannett was born in Bridgewater in 1745, and graduated at Harvard College in 1763. From 1767 to 1771 he preached in Nova Scotia, and then for two years in New England. He was tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy between 1773 and 1780, and bursar from 1779 to his death in 1818, taking a great interest in astronomy and meteorology, and co-operating in observations of the eclipse of the sun Oct. 27, 1780. After Professor Winthrop's death Mr. Gannett gave his lectures for one year. As an executive officer he was a model.1
The scientific attainments of Theophilus Parsons would have saved his name from oblivion, though they were only a part of his universal accomplishments, and were overshadowed by his great reputation as a lawyer and judge. He was born in By- field in 1750 ; graduated in 1769 ; practised law, at first in Falmouth, and in Byfield and Newburyport after 1775; removed to Boston in 1800, where he died in 1813. He was chief-justice from 1806 to the time of his death. Master Moody, principal of Dummer Academy, liked to boast of his brilliant pupils, - such as Willard, Webber,
the favored spot is as likely to be in a savage country or in mid-ocean as along the great high- way of civilization. Nowadays, when a total eclipse will not come to the astronomer the as- tronomer pursues it even to the ends of the earth. Only two total eclipses of the sun have been visible in the United States during the present century; namely, those of 1806 and 1869, - the first visible in Boston about high noon on a June day, to the astonishment of the whole animal creation ; the second seen in the Western States. When calculations indicated that a total eclipse of the sun might possibly occur on Oct. 27, 1780, in the eastern part of this State (now Maine), the University at Cam- bridge and the American Academy desired that it should be properly observed. What efforts were made to secure this end will appear from the following extract : -
Resolves of the General Assembly of the State of Mas- sachusetts Bay, Sept. 12, 1730, p. 65.
Whereas, representations have been made to this Court by the Hon. James Bowdoin, Esq. and others, lovers of learning and mankind, that on the 27th of October next there will happen in the neighbourhood of Penobscot a central and total eclipse of the sun, a phenomenon never apparent in these States since their settlement, and as ob- servations thereon may be of much consequence in science, particularly in geography and navigation ; and that the Rev. Samuel Williams, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, in this State, will be ready to give his aid, with such assist- ance as may be proper, to make the necessary observa- tions at the most convenient place near Penobscot ; there- fore -
"Resolved, That the Board [of war] be, and they are here- by, ordered and directed to fit out the State galley with proper stores and accommodations for the conveyance of the Rev. Samuel Williams, Hollis Professor of mathematics and natu- ral philosophy, and such attendance as he may think proper to take with him, to make the aforesaid observations on the central and total eclipse of the sun, which will happen on the said 27 day of October at or near Penobscot, and that the Council be, and they are hereby, requested to write proper letters to the British commander of the garrison at Penobscot, that the important designs of the said observa- tions may not be frustrated."
This prompt action by the Government, at a period when the people were burdened with the anxieties and expenses of a protracted war, manifests an appreciation of the utility and nobility of science which has not been sur- passed, if it has been equalled, in the times of its greatest prosperity.
On October 9 Professor Williams embarked on the " Lincoln " galley with Professor Sewall, James Winthrop, the librarian, one graduate, and six students, taking with him the necessary in- struments from the College. The party arrived on the seventeenth, and remained as long as they were permitted; namely, to the twenty-eighth. Though somewhat embarrassed by military or- ders, they placed their instruments on Long Island, in Penobscot Bay, and took their obser- vations. The eclipse just failed of absolute totality. The error was in the old maps. A fine thread of light, broken into drops, remained on one side of the sun. Venus, Jupiter, and the bright stars showed themselves. During one hour and nineteen minutes, while the eclipse was progressing, two thirds as much dew was deposited as on the whole of the preceding or following night. At Cambridge, Professor Williams observed the lunar eclipses of Nov. II, 1780, March 28, 1782, Sept. 10, 1783; and the solar eclipse of April 12, 1782 ; many eclipses of Jupiter's satellites in 1782; and the transit of Mercury on Nov. 12, 1782. He observed, at Newbury, the transit of Venus in 1769. Pro- fessor Williams 'also made special observations to ascertain the latitude of Harvard Hall, which he put down in 1785 as 42º 23' 28.46". He re- tired from his office in 1788, and passed the remain- der of his life in Rutland, Vt., where he died in 1817. At this place he observed the solar eclipse of June 10, 1806; but it was not total at that place.
1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, xviii. 277.
-
500
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Parsons, etc., - and, himself a bachelor, to call them his children. While in college young Parsons calculated the total eclipse of the sun in 1806. As the time of the event drew near, he was nervous from fear of losing it ; but he observed it from the top of his house, with a telescope furnished by Dr. Prince. In 17861 he contributed a paper on the method of calculating the azimuth of a telescope by observations on the pole-star at its upper and lower culminations. His favorite science to the end of his life was mathematics ; and geometry rather than the calculus. He made models to illustrate the conic sections. Dr. Bowditch,2 in describing the advantages of his own method of working a lunar observation, says : " These improvements were made in consequence of a suggestion of the late Chief-Justice Parsons (a gentleman eminently distinguished by his mathematical acquirements), who had somewhat simplified Wit- chell's process." In 1847 the astronomer Airy made a still further extension of the idea which Mr. Parsons had entertained in 1807. Two of Mr. Parsons's mathemati- cal papers were published by his son in 1859, - one on the roots of affected equa- tions, and the other on parallel lines, on which he was busy during the summer before he died. His house was supplied with a variety of physical apparatus, magnets, microscopes, and electrical machines, with which he and his friend Dr. Prince delighted in experimenting. He imported Rumford's cooking apparatus, and experimented upon it in his own kitchen. The chief-justice also took delight in making his own soda-water with Woulfe's apparatus for impregnating water with carbonic gas.8
James Winthrop graduated in the same class with Mr. Parsons. He was librarian of the College from 1772 to 1787, and fought at Bunker Hill. Afterward he was judge of probate, and died at Cambridge in 1821. He inherited some taste for science, observed from the president's house the transit of Mercury Nov. 12, 1782 ; pub- lished two mathematical papers, and also an account of an ancient eclipse of the moon seen at Jerusalem and mentioned by Josephus, which had been used by Whiston to settle the date of the birth of Christ.4
,
The invention of some kind of machinery for illustrating the celestial mechanism dates back to the time of Archimedes.5 Rittenhouse of Phila- delphia has had the credit of having constructed the first orrery with wheels in this country, in 1768.6
Boston had its orrery as well as Philadelphia, but it came a few years later. Its history is curious, and reflects some light on the science and habits of the last century. This orrery introduces us to Mr. Joseph Pope, who was born in Hollis Street, Feb. 1, 1750, being one of twelve children.
1 Mem. Amer. Acad., ii. 12.
2 Navigator, 10th edition, p. 243.
3 Life, by his son (1859).
4 Mem. Amer. Acad., i. 159; ii. 20.
5 Such contrivances were regarded in their day as miracles of mechanical skill and astronom- ical learning. Of one of these, which antedated the Christian era by eighty years, it was said that if it were seen by a barbarous people it would seem to be made, if not actuated, by perfect reason. Another, constructed in the sixth century, was described as a "machine pregnant with the uni- verse ; a portable heaven ; a compendium of all things." The Copernican system of astronomy
introduced changes of construction ; and what is now called an orrery (in compliment to the Earl of Orrery, a patron of the art) was invented in England by Graham in 1700. Ferguson de- vised and executed another in 1743. Long, the professor of astronomy in Cambridge, England, had completed in 1758 his enormous astronom- ical machine eighteen feet in diameter, within which thirty persons might sit comfortably. It has stood for one hundred years, and perhaps still stands, in Pembroke College, to amuse visi- tors, if not to popularize astronomy according to the design of its inventor.
6 Amer. Phil. Trans., i. I. See p. 493.
50
BOSTON AND SCIENCE.
At the age of sixteen or seventeen he went to Maryland and learned the trade of watch-making. Then he spent some time in Europe. Returning to Boston he applied himself to his trade, devoting his leisure, however, to the study of navigation and mathematics with his brother Robert. Meet- ing in some book with a description of an orrery, he conceived the idea of making one after his own plan. It was finished in 1786, and embodied ten years of his best labor and thought. It was deposited in an upper chamber of his house in Washington Street, where it had a narrow escape from being burned. Governor Bowdoin, who had been interested in it, when he heard of its danger, sent six men with a cart and blankets to rescue it. With difficulty it was brought down the stairs (Mr. Pope him- self tearing away the balusters), and taken temporarily to the Governor's house, and afterward to Mr. Pope's new residence on Essex Street. There it was visited by hundreds a day. His daughter has written out interesting reminiscences of her father, describing his various other inventions; his visit to London in 1788, where he remained fourteen months; the kindness he received from Sir Joseph Banks, and his correspondence with Jefferson and Lafayette.
Mr. Pope moved to Hallowell, Me., about 1818, and died there in 1826. His daughter-in-law, Mrs. Robert Pope, of Gardiner, has inherited a curious clock made by Mr. Pope in 1780, which still runs accurately. Numerous hands indicate the local. time in twenty-four different longitudes, the place of the sun in the zodiac, and the phases of the moon.
A description of Pope's orrery was published in the Memoirs1 of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he was chosen a mem- ber in 1788. A committee of the Academy, consisting of Richard Cranch, Samuel Williams, Joseph Willard, Caleb Gannett, and Loammi Baldwin, ex- amined the orrery and made a favorable report upon it on February 22 of that year.2 On the petition of the Lieut .- governor and seventy others an Act was passed by the General Court,3 and signed by John Hancock, granting a lottery for the purpose of raising a sum not exceeding £550, to be expended in the purchase of Pope's orrery for Harvard College. Three men of character and influence were appointed managers, and gave bonds for £2,000. The penalty for counterfeiting the tickets was £100 fine, or whipping, or standing in the pillory. Some of the reasons for the Act are set forth in these words selected from the preamble: "And whereas, this Court are willing at all times to encourage the efforts of ingenuity, and to aid a plan which has the advancement of science and the public good for its object." The managers issued a circular, Dec. 3, 1788, announcing the scheme of the lottery, and then said : 4-
"The managers flatter themselves that the above scheme is calculated to give a fair chance to all who may become adventurers, and holds up every pecuniary advantage
1 Vol. ii. p. 43.
2 Massachusetts Magazine, i. 36.
8 Nov. 21, 1788. Acts and Laws of General Court (1783-88), p. 719.
4 Massachusetts Centinel, Dec. 10, 1788.
502
THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
that can be reasonably expected. But this lottery, besides holding out to those who embark in it a capital opportunity of benefit, comprises two other important objects which must deeply interest the feelings of all who regard the honour of their country and the advancement of the arts and sciences. The latter must be eminently served by the University being possessed of an instrument which, in its kind perhaps, the world cannot parallel. The former must be promoted by rewarding in some degree the efforts of a worthy mechanick, whose application and genius would do credit to any age or nation. Such being the design of this lottery, there cannot be a doubt that a people who have long enjoyed the blessings of science and literature, and who have been distinguished by their early attention to seminaries of learning, will give, by their zeal in such a cause, so rapid a sale to the tickets that the managers may have it in their power, as it is truly their wish, to announce a very early day for the drawing."
According to the scheme,1 there were three thousand tickets at $2 each, to be purchased only from the managers or the librarian of the University. There were six hundred and seventy-three prizes of $3 each, fifteen of $20, three of $50, two of $100, one of $200, one of $300, and one of $1,000, - which would leave for expenses and profits $1,831.
It was advertised at first that the drawing would be executed in Faneuil Hall. It really took place in the hall of the House of Representatives, be- tween March 10 and 14. The Centinel of February 28 contained this no- tice : 2 " Mr. Pope's planetarium (or orrery) was yesterday removed from this town to be deposited in the Philosophy room of the University of Cambridge. A correspondent cannot forbear congratulating the public, that through the liberality of the citizens of this State the above mentioned elegant and useful production of ingenuity will be retained among us, and that the artist will be rewarded for his talents and time." President Willard's receipt for the orrery is dated March 20. The lottery account stood thus: the proceeds were £549 6s .; expenses, £27 8s. 3d .; paid to Mr. Pope for the orrery £450 3s .; the balance of £71 14s. 9d. was paid into the College treasury, in accordance with the Act of the General Court, and a receipt given by the treasurer (Storer), March 31, 1789. On the same day it was voted: -
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.