Caythorpe St Vincent - Memorial to Edmund Weaver

Edmund Weaver (c. 1683 – 27 December 1748) was an English

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

land surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

, and friend to

William Stukeley William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English antiquarian, physician and Anglican clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of archaeology, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric ...

. Weaver's ''The British Telescope''

ephemerides In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly vel ...

(astronomical tables) is considered an important 18th-century publication on the movement of planets.

Personal life

Edmund Weaver was born circa 1683 and lived at

Frieston Frieston is a village in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated just west of the A607 road, and north from the market town of Grantham. Frieston is conjoined to the southern part of the village of Caythorpe. Fr ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. He died on 27 December 1748, and was buried at

St Vincent's Church, Caythorpe St Vincent's Church is a Grade I listed Church of England parish church in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, England. It is at the southern edge of the Lincoln Cliff in South Kesteven, and north from Grantham. St Vincent's is only one of four ...

, the village to the north of his home at Frieston. The south

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

at St Vincent's contains a memorial to him.

Astronomy

Self-taught, Weaver wrote ''The British Telescope'', which led

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

to describe him as "a very uncommon genius, who had made himself master in astronomy and was scarcely to be accounted the second in the kingdom". It was through association with Weaver that Stukeley developed an interest in astronomy. Weaver's writing on astronomy and

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

was also appreciated by

Martin Folkes Martin Folkes PRS FRS (29 October 1690 – 28 June 1754), was an English antiquary, numismatist, mathematician, and astronomer. Life Folkes was born in Westminster on 29 October 1690, the eldest son of Martin Folkes, councillor at Law.Albe ...

, the president of the Society of Antiquaries.“Edmund Weaver”
SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS),

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Retrieved 7 August 2013Monod, Paul Kleber
''Solomon's Secret Arts: The Occult in the Age of Enlightenment''
Yale University Press (2013). Retrieved 7 August 2013 Weaver supported the

heliocentric Heliocentrism (also known as the Heliocentric model) is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at ...

view of the universe. He opposed criticism of the accuracy of

formulated by

Edmond Halley Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...

, the

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The post ...

, particularly that from Tycho Wing. Through his 1741 edition of ''The British Telescope'', he described the path of the forthcoming 1769

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a trans ...

as curved, and planetary movement as elliptical, attracting the attention of the ''Royal Astronomer'' journal.

Land survey

In 1734, Weaver printed ''Proposals for making and publishing for Subscription an actual Survey of the County of Lincoln''. The project was started but unfinished, with only a map and measurements of certain roads and bearings between places remaining. A correspondent to ''

The Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

'', after examining the project in Weaver's effects, described him as "a noted Astrologer, Almanack-maker, Quack Doctor, Land Surveyor". The proposed survey of Lincolnshire would include all

wapentake A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

s, churches, chapels, religious houses, chaces and parks, notable houses, castles, and nobility. It would cover all parishes, settlements, waterways, bridges, and roads, would be carried out with contemporary technological equipment, and would be fully indexed.''The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle''
ed. Sylvanus Urban (1808), vol.103, pp.116–117. Reprint: Nabu Press (2011).

Personal life

Astronomy

Land survey

References

Further reading