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From
THE GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE
AND HISTORICAL REVIEW
By
SYLVANUS URBAN,
M DCCC LXIII
July to December inclusive
Being Volume XV of a New Series
And the Two-Hundred and Fifteenth since the Commencement
(
WIILIAM GASCOIGNE, THE
ASTRONOMER
Sir,—I wish to call the attention of your subscribers to a Yorkshire astronomer who lived in obscurity and died at a very early age, but who nevertheless lived sufficiently long to produce an instrument the invention of which would have rendered his name illustrious, had not his untimely death, and the melancholy circumstances which produced it, given another an opportunity of claiming the honour and receiving the measure of applause the invention so nobly deserved—I mean William Gascoigne, the inventor of the micrometer.
The reason why I make this appeal, is the hope that some of the learned and curious who read your pages may not only be able but willing to assist me in my attempt to rescue the memory of this long-neglected genius from the undeserved oblivion into which it appears to have fallen.
William Gascoigne sprang from a noble race, one that
produced a man who fearlessly committed and English prince to prison for
offending the laws of his country, and that, too, at a period when might was
considered a right, which few were hardy enough to doubt, and non except
himself ever dared to put to the test. William was the son of Henry Gascoigne,
Esq., of Thorpe-on-the-Hill, a small village in the parish of Rothwell, near
His age, however, must be incorrectly given, for his
mother died in 1617, so that he could not have been killed at
According to one of his friends, Mr.Townley, of Lancashire, it appears that it was “on Marston with Rupert ‘gainst traitors contending,” when he lost his life; for in a letter to Thoresby dated from Townley, Jan.16, 1698-9, Mr.Chas.Townley says:—
”My brother Townley desires me to acquaint you that
he has several letters and papers, and some instruments, that were
Mr.Gascoigne’s, and hopes you will print nothing of that great astronomer till
he can have looked over and digested what he finds, that so deserving an
ornament of your country may not want what he can contribute towards the
setting of him forth in his good and true colours. Sir Edward Shireburn, once a
considerable man in the Tower, in his translation of Manilius de Spaero, makes
an honourable mention of him amongst astronomical writers, of whom he gives a
large catalogue. By the superscription of letters to him, it appears that he
lived at Middleton, near
Mr.Townley appears to have had the most intimate knowledge
of Gascoigne and therefore his assertion that
The letters mentioned by Mr.Townley were probably
part of the correspondence that had passed between Gascoigne and the
”And it is to the mutual correspondence of this triumvirate that we owe the letters my brother Townley has of theirs de re astronomica. They are many and intricate, and we think not to be made use of without particular hints or instructions from himself. You may assure the curious that he has, under Mr.Gascoigne’s own hand, wherewith to entitle him to the invention of the micrometer before all foreigners or English: it was invented before 1641, for then he mentioned it as in being. My brother has been told by my uncle that Mr.Gascoigne, at his father’s house when he was slain, had a whole barn full of machines or instruments; it is not known what he intended them for, but perhaps if some of them could be found, guesses might be made which way his endeavours or further studies looked.”
Mr.Townley tells us that at the time of his death Gascoigne had a treatise on optics ready for the press, “but though I have used my utmost endeavours to retrieve it, yet have I in that point been totally unsuccessful.”
In 1715 Dr.William Derham told Thoresby he had
prepared a paper for the Royal Society relating to Gascoigne, whom he calls “an
admirable son of Sir William Gascoigne, of Middleton, near
”We walked up-hill to Thorpe-super-Montem, as it is writ in the Rowell register, now the seat of Mr.Ingram …. Thence to New Hall, once the seat of the most celebrated mathematician, not only in these parts but I believe in the world, viz., Mr.William Gascoigne, eldest son of Henry Gascoigne, Esq.”
On what authority he is call a son of Sir William Gascoigne I am ignorant: the New Hall spoken of is an ancient house in the township of Middleton, and on Thoresby’s information we may presume once the seat of his father, and as Gascoigne’s letters to Crabtree and Horrox appear to have been written from Middleton, it was probably the place of his residence up to the time of his death.
But on what grounds Dr.Derham calls him a son of Sir William
Gascoigne I should like to learn. I am not aware that any branch of the
Gascoigne family (except the Thorpe branch) ever settled at Middleton, which is
a township adjoining Thorpe, and also in the parish of Rothwell; but there was
a branch of the Gawthorpe Gascoignes settled at Hunslet, another adjoining
township, in 5 Henry IV., the founder of which was Richard Gascoigne, brother
of the celebrated judge; but they appear to have become extinct long before
this time, and their estates passed into entirely different hands. Whittaker
says William Gascoigne, of Thorpe-on-the-Hill, who is so deservedly celebrated
for his astronomical discoveries and mathematical genius, was the last of the
Thorpe branch; and as Henry Gascoigne’s grandfather was called William, the
mistake probably arose from his profound ignorance of the family and the
district, for he naively asks whether Middleton is nearer to
If any of your correspondents or subscribers possess information concerning Gascoigne I shall be most sincerely obliged to them if they will favour me with it; and as I neither possess nor have access to a copy of Manilius, for the information therein given I appeal to those who have, nor do I think the appeal will be made in vain.
I am, &c. W.WHEATER
8 Albion-street, Leeds