William Selwyn, (19 February 1806 – 24 April 1875) was a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

clergyman, canon of Ely Cathedral,

Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity The Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity is the oldest professorship at the University of Cambridge. It was founded initially as a readership by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, in 1502. Since its re-endowment at the end o ...

, and amateur astronomer.

Life

Selwyn was the eldest surviving son of William Selwyn (1775–1855) and his wife Laetitia, daughter of Thomas Kynaston of

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Che ...

, Essex. He was one of four brothers, the most famous being

George Augustus Selwyn George Augustus Selwyn (5 April 1809 – 11 April 1878) was the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. He was Bishop of New Zealand (which included Melanesia) from 1841 to 1869. His diocese was then subdivided and Selwyn was Metropolitan (later ...

(1809–1878), the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, and after whom

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (18 ...

, was named. Selwyn was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

and St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1828, MA in 1831, BD in 1850 and DD in 1864. He was a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of St John's from 1829 to 1832. Selwyn was ordained as a deacon of the Church of England in 1829 and as a priest in 1831. He was appointed Rector of

Branston, Leicestershire Branston is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Croxton Kerrial in the Melton district, in the county of Leicestershire, England. It lies north of the A607 road, south-west of Grantham and 7 miles north-east of Melton Mow ...

in 1831, Vicar of Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, in 1846 and Canon Residentiary of Ely in 1833, serving in that capacity until 1875. He was also

at Cambridge from 1855 until his death in 1875. He became Honorary Joint Curator of the Library of Lambeth Palace in 1872. Whilst at Ely he established an observatory in the college, an area of the cathedral precincts containing the houses of senior cathedral clergy. In collaboration with John Persehouse Titterton, a local photographer, he prepared a series of photographs of the solar disc over an entire sunspot cycle from 1863 to 1874 using a six-inch achromatic lens. Selwyn was seriously ill from 1866 onwards and this, together with his ecclesiastical commitments, prevented the work from being published. Instead the prints were donated to the Royal Greenwich Observatory and Selwyn was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 1866 as someone "''Distinguished as a promoter of the Science of Astronomy and Especially as having applied photography in making numerous records of the state of the Sun's disk. Eminent as a Scholar and a theologian''." He was also an elected

Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

(FRAS). He died in 1875 aged 69 in consequence of a fall from his horse and has a monument in Ely cathedral. He had married Juliana Elizabeth, daughter of George Cooke of Carr House, Doncaster.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Selwyn, William 1806 births 1875 deaths 19th-century British astronomers Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Eton College Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge 19th-century English Anglican priests People from the Borough of East Staffordshire People from Ely, Cambridgeshire Lady Margaret's Professors of Divinity