Richard Helsham (1683 – 1 August 1738) was an Irish

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and natural philosopher at Trinity College Dublin. He was the inaugural Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy from 1724 and Regius Professor of Physic from 1733.

Life

Helsham was born at Leggetsrath,

Kilkenny City Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilkenn ...

, son of Joshua Helsham. He was educated at Kilkenny College, and entered Trinity College Dublin on 18 July 1697. He was a Scholar in 1700, graduated BA in 1702, was elected a Fellow in 1704, and got MA in 1705. He then studied medicine, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1710. Back at TCD, he became MD in 1713, and was co-opted a senior fellow in 1714, eventually resigning from that position in 1730. Helsham was

Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics The Donegall Lecturership at Trinity College Dublin, is one of two endowed mathematics positions at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the other being the Erasmus Smith's Chair of Mathematics. The Donegall (sometimes spelt Donegal) Lectureship was e ...

(1723–1730), He was a trustee of Dr Steevens' Hospital. Helsham was a friend of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

, and of Dublin men of letters generally, including

Michael Clancy Michael John Clancy (31 March 1949 – 23 February 2010)Profile
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and Patrick Delany. He died on 25 August 1738, and was interred in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Dublin.

Works

Helsham's ''Lectures on Natural Philosophy'', edited by his lifelong friend Bryan Robinson, Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Dublin, were published in 1739, and a second edition appeared in 1743. He found an

inverse-square law In science, an inverse-square law is any scientific law stating that a specified physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. The fundamental cause for this can be understo ...

in magnetism, but the early editions do not treat electricity. With Patrick Delany, Helsham wrote an anonymous political pamphlet, ''A long history of a short session of parliament in a certain kingdom'' (Dublin, 1714). It was aimed at the Irish Parliament, was considered scandalous, and was ordered to be burnt by the

common hangman An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or orderin ...

. The

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

offered a reward to discover its author.James Kelly, ''Regulating print: The state and the control of print in eighteenth-century Ireland'', Eighteenth-Century Ireland / Iris an dá chultúr Vol. 23 (2008), pp. 142–174 at p. 161. Published by: Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27806928

Family

Helsham married Jane Putland, widow of Thomas Putland, in 1730. Her unmarried name was Rolton.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Helsham, Richard 1683 births 1738 deaths Donegall Lecturers of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin 18th-century Irish medical doctors Fellows of Trinity College Dublin Irish natural philosophers Medical doctors from County Kilkenny Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland People from Kilkenny (city)