Francis Wollaston (astronomer)

Francis Wollaston (23 November 1731, London – 31 October 1815) was a British astronomer and Church of England priest. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1769.

Life

Wollaston was the son of

Wollaston wrote a rare privately printed autobiography The Secret History of a Private Man. In it, he explains that his pursuit of astronomy was intended to separate him at a "distance from the misrepresentations of narrow minded biggots." He had a private observatory with a triplet telescope by Peter Dollond. He was buried at Chislehurst.^[2]

He achieved some distinction as an astronomer, becoming a member of the Royal Society in 1769 and later serving on its council. He also produced a catalogue of stars and nebulae in 1789, which was used by many including his friend William Herschel.^[3]

Beliefs

Wollaston was suspected of unorthodox beliefs, perhaps

• Mary Hyde Wollaston (1760–1843), married, in 1803, William Panchen, vicar of St Mary and St Benedict, Huntingdon
• Althea Hyde Wollaston (1760–1785), married Thomas Heberden (1754–1843), a priest and canon of Exeter Cathedral
• Francis John Hyde Wollaston (1762–1823), philosopher
• Charlotte Hyde Wollaston (1763–1835)
• Katherine Hyde Wollaston (1764–1844), conchologist
• George Hyde Wollaston (1765–1841)
• William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828), physiologist, chemist, and physicist
• Henrietta Hyde Wollaston (1767–1840)
• Anna Hyde Wollaston (1769–1828), unmarried
• Frederick Hyde Wollaston (1770–1839?; went to America in 1796)
• Louisa Hyde Wollaston (1771–1772)
• Charles Hyde Wollaston (1772–1850)
• Henry Hyde Wollaston (1774), died in infancy
• Amelia Hyde Wollaston (1775–1860)
• Henry Septimus Hyde Wollaston (1776–1867), married Maria Anna Blanckenhagen, the daughter of a well-known merchant family originating from the Baltic.
• Sophia Hyde Wollaston (1777–1810), unmarried
• Louisa Decima Hyde Wollaston (1778–1854), married James Leonard Jackson, a priest from Dorsetshire
• unknown child
• unknown child

References