John, one of the most laborious and distinguished of British practical astronomers, and the first who obtained the appointment to the Royal Observatory, was born at Denby, near Derby, Aug. 9, 1646. He received the elements of his education at the free school of that town, where his father carried on the business of a maltster. When fourteen years of age, imprudent bathing brought on a severe rheumatism, from the effects of which his limbs never entirely recovered. This induced him, when nineteen, to visit Ireland, for the purpose of consulting a notorious quack, who professed to cure all diseases by his touch; but, as might have been anticipated, he soon returned no better than he went.
Even at a very early age Flamsteed showed a decided inclination for mathematical and astronomical researches. The books which seem to have awakened his mind to such Flamsteed studies were Sacrobosco's treatise *De Sphera*, which he partially translated into English, and Street's *Astronomia Carolina*; but a present afterwards made to him of Kepler's *Tabula Rudolphinae*, and Riccioli's *Almagestum Novum*, with a few other tracts on astronomy, confirmed his taste for that science; and he soon began to exhibit much ingenuity in the construction of astronomical instruments.
The state of his health, and perhaps also his father's circumstances, probably prevented his proceeding to the university with some of his schoolfellows. He remained at Derby for several years, eagerly engaged in practical astronomy; and there, about 1667, gave a practical demonstration of the true principles of the equation of time; and he appears decidedly to have been the first astronomer who brought into common use the method of simultaneously observing the right ascension of the sun and stars, a mode by which the true place of any star is determinable by means of meridional altitudes and transits.
His first astronomical communication to the Royal Society was made in 1669, under an assumed anagram, which was soon detected by Oldenburg, the secretary. In the same year, in his own name, he communicated to the president, Lord Brouncker, his calculation of the solar eclipse, that had been omitted in the Ephemerides, with some other astronomical observations. This paper was submitted to a committee of the Royal Society, and obtained for its author the applause of the astronomical world.
In the following year he was invited by his father to London, and introduced to the great philosophers of the capital. He had now opportunities of seeing the best astronomical instruments then known, far surpassing those he had been accustomed to make with his own hands; and he was well received by his warm friend and admirer Sir Jonas Moore, who furnished him with several delicate instruments, among which was Townley's micrometer. In returning to Derby he visited Cambridge, and entered himself of Jesus College, where he became acquainted with Barrow and Newton, with whom he long kept up a close correspondence.
In 1672 he sedulously applied to the study of dioptrics, with the view of improving his astronomical apparatus, and continued most assiduously his celestial observations, which from time to time afforded communications to the Royal Society.
In 1673 he composed his treatise on *The True and Apparent Places of the Planets when at their Greatest and Least Distance from our Earth*: a work of which Newton availed himself in the first edition of *The Principia*. In the same year Flamsteed obtained the degree of master of arts at Cambridge.
In 1674 Flamsteed published his Ephemeris, and drew up a table of the tides, which Sir Jonas Moore presented to Charles II. and his brother the Duke of York. Flamsteed had also constructed two barometers, then uncommon instruments; which, through the same friendly hand, were presented to the royal brothers and graciously received.
Flamsteed had decided on entering the church; and, although Moore had urged his settling in another vocation in London, he persevered in his determination, and was admitted into holy orders in 1675; but he never obtained any higher preferment than the small living of Burslow in Surrey, to which he was presented by Lord Keeper North in 1684, the year in which he lost his father.
Sir Jonas had determined on establishing Flamsteed in his own private observatory at Chelsea, when the enormous errors of the astronomical tables then in use were brought under the notice of King Charles II., who determined to found an observatory. Through the good offices of Moore, Flamsteed was appointed the first "astronomical observer;" and he immediately began his celestial observations at the queen's house at Greenwich until the observatory should be finished, which it was in 1676. It was named *Flamsteed House*; and from this era Mr Baily dates the commencement of modern astronomy.
The salary was only £100 a-year, and that not always punctually paid. Here the indefatigable Flamsteed collected the enormous mass of materials from which he furnished the first trustworthy catalogue of the fixed stars; and it was on his observations chiefly that Newton laid the foundation of his *Lunar Theory*. Yet Flamsteed was ill supported by the government. His instruments, chiefly procured at his own expense, from his scanty salary and the emoluments of his living, were very imperfect; and his requests for assistance were unheeded. The government promised much, but did nothing; though a very small portion of what was squandered during this reign on mistresses and panders to the low pleasures of the court would have completely furnished the best observatory in Europe, and enabled this acute and indefatigable man to have still farther extended the sphere of astronomical science and the honour of his country.
His *Doctrine of the Sphere* appeared in the mathematical treatise of his friend Moore, in 1681.
Much light has been thrown on the private history of Flamsteed, and the unjust treatment he alleged he had received at the hands of some of the brightest names in the galaxy of British science, by F. Baily's discovery in 1832 of a vast mass of Flamsteed's papers and correspondence, which was published in 1835 at the expense of the admiralty. The correspondence gives Flamsteed's own version of the disputes between him and some of the most eminent philosophers of the day; and it would be unjust from such *ex parte* statements to derogate from the fair fame of a Newton or a Halley on the accusations of a man acknowledged to have been of a very irritable temper, and indignant at what he conceived to be gross injustice to himself. The defence of Sir Isaac Newton from his accusations has been partly undertaken by Dr Whewell; and the public have at length received the most complete and satisfactory vindication of this illustrious philosopher in the *Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton*, by Sir David Brewster.
Flamsteed had very freely communicated his astronomical discoveries to Cassini, who had ever treated him with equal candour; and it is not denied that he had furnished Newton with every lunar observation he had made before the publication of the first edition of the *Principia*, which appeared in 1685. Flamsteed's unwillingness or refusal to contribute his observations to Sir Isaac, after their quarrel, arose from his considering himself unjustly treated by Newton and his colleagues of a committee appointed by government to examine and report on the papers of the royal astronomer. This committee consisted of Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Christopher Wren, Dr Gregory, Dr Arbuthnot, and Mr Roberts. They had, it seems, broken a seal, at the command of the sovereign, which Flamsteed had put on his imperfect catalogue of stars, on delivering it to the committee. Of this he bitterly complains. Though the report of the committee was in favour of printing Flamsteed's papers, what seems chiefly to have irritated him was, that the superintendence of printing them was not given to persons of his appointment, but confided by the committee to Dr Halley.
Flamsteed demanded back his papers, which was refused, as they were considered public property; and he commenced a law-suit for their recovery, the result of which Mr Baily could not learn; but the correspondence of Flamsteed states, that after he had spent £200 in this suit, they were delivered up to him by Newton.
The zealous Flamsteed had expended on instruments and in completing his catalogue of stars, not only his salary, but £2000 more, and he determined to print it. The husband of Queen Anne, on learning this, offered to print it at his own expense, and paid for the first edition; but Prince George dying in 1708, Flamsteed lost the aid of this liberal patron. During great part of the reign of Queen Anne, the astronomer royal was not on good terms with the government, which he ascribed to the influence of Newton and Halley. On the death of the Queen in 1714, and of Newton's court patron, the Earl of Halifax, in the following year, Flamsteed asked and obtained from the treasury possession of the remaining 300 copies of Halley's publication of the first and second volumes of the *Historia Coelestis*; a large portion of which he immediately committed to the flames, preserving only about 97 sheets of each volume, which was printed as he wished, and which he afterwards introduced into the first volume of this great work.
From 1715 to 1719 Flamsteed was earnestly employed in publishing this noble work, which he did not live to see completely printed. After his death the publication was continued by his widow, aided by Mr Crosthwaite, the observatory assistant, and Mr Abraham Sharp, a steady friend of the author. It was completed in three folio volumes in 1723. His valuable *Atlas Coelestis* did not appear till 1753.
Of these works it is sufficient to say, that considering the period, and the then comparatively imperfect state of astronomical instruments, they are highly honourable to the author and his country, and mark an important era in the history of practical astronomy.
The first volume of the *Historia Coelestis* contains his observations at Derby and Greenwich on the fixed stars, planets, Jupiter's satellites, comets, and spots on the sun's disk; the second contains the transits of stars and planets over the meridian, together with their places determined by such observations; the third volume contains an account of the methods and instruments used by Tycho Brahe and himself; catalogues of the fixed stars by Ptolemy, Ulugh Beigh, Tycho, the Landgrave of Hesse, and Hevelius, together with his own British catalogue of the true places of 2884 stars.
Flamsteed, though of a feeble constitution, and worn down by incessant labour, lived to his seventy-third year, when he was rather suddenly carried off by strangury on 31st December 1719.