William Derham FRS (26 November 16575 April 1735)Smolenaars, Marja.
Derham, William (1657–1735)
, ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

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, 2004. Accessed 26 May 2007. was an English clergyman, natural theologian,

natural philosopher Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior throu ...

and

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

. He produced the earliest reasonably accurate measurement of the

speed of sound The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. At , the speed of sound in air is about , or one kilometre in or one mile in . It depends strongly on temperature as w ...

Life

William Derham was the son of Thomas Derham. He was born at Stoulton, in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, England. He was educated at

Blockley Blockley is a village, civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about northwest of Moreton-in-Marsh. Until 1931 Blockley was an exclave of Worcestershire. The civil and ecclesiastical paris ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, and at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

, from 1675 to 1679. He was ordained on 29 May 1681. In 1682, he became

vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

Wargrave Wargrave () is a historic village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. The village is primarily on the River Thames but also along the confluence of the River Loddon and lies on the border with southern Oxfordshire. The village has many old ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, and from 1689 to 1735 he was

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

Upminster Upminster is a suburban town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is one of the district centres identified for development in the London Plan. Historically a rural vill ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. While at Upminster, in 1716 he became a Canon of Windsor and the vestry minutes show that thereafter he divided his time between those two places. The parish registers of Upminster record his burial at St. Laurence's in 1735. However, the precise site of his grave is unknown and, in accordance with his wishes, there is no memorial to him in the church.

Work

Title page of Physico-Theology by William Derham 1713 (this ed 1723)

In 1696, he published his ''Artificial Clockmaker'', which went through several editions. The best known of his subsequent works are ''Physico-Theology'', published in 1713; ''Astro-Theology'', 1714; and ''Christo-Theology'', 1730. All three of these books are

teleological Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

arguments for the being and attributes of

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

, and were used by

William Paley William Paley (July 174325 May 1805) was an English clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work ''Natu ...

nearly a century later. However, these books also include quantities of original scientific observations. For example, ''Physico-Theology'' contains his recognition of natural variation within species and that he knew that ''Didelphis virginialis'' (the

Virginia opossum The Virginia opossum (''Didelphis virginiana''), also known as the North American opossum, is the only opossum living north of Mexico, its range extending south into Central America. It is the northernmost marsupial in the world. In the United S ...

) was the only marsupial in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It also includes one of the earliest theoretical descriptions of a

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the modern ...

, accompanied by a discussion of the use of vacuum seals to reduce inaccuracies in the operation of timepieces. He is the first person known to have used the word ''chronometer''. Similarly, ''Astro-Theology'' includes several newly identified

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

e (this was the name used at the time for all extended astronomical objects: some of his nebulae are what we would now call star clusters). His telescope (also used when measuring the velocity of sound) was at the top of the tower of St Laurence's Church, where the necessary doors are still in place. On 3 February 1703, Derham was elected

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 science, natural knowledge, incl ...

. He was

Boyle lecturer The Boyle Lectures are named after Robert Boyle, a prominent natural philosopher of the 17th century and son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. Under the terms of his Will, Robert Boyle endowed a series of lectures or sermons (originally eight e ...

in 1711–1712. His last known work, entitled ''A Defence of the Church's Right in Leasehold Estates'', appeared as early as 1731. But besides the works published in his own name, Derham contributed a variety of papers to the ''Transactions of the Royal Society''. He revised the ''Miscellanea Curiosa''. He edited the correspondence and wrote a biography of

John Ray John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...

, whose 'physico-theology' ( natural theology) tradition he continued, making him an early

parson-naturalist A parson-naturalist was a cleric (a "parson", strictly defined as a country priest who held the living of a parish, but the term is generally extended to other clergy), who often saw the study of natural science as an extension of his religious wo ...

. He edited

Eleazar Albin Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690 – c. 1742)Michael A. Salmon, Peter Marren, Basil Harley. ''The Aurelian Legacy'' (University of California Press, 2000) pp. 109-110. was an English naturalist and watercolourist illustrator who wrote and illustrat ...

's ''Natural History'', and published some of the manuscripts of the scientist

Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS (; 18 July 16353 March 1703) was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that ...

. His meteorological observations at

(in the ''

Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'') are amongst the earliest series in England.

Speed of sound

In 1709 Derham published a more accurate measure of the speed of sound, at 1,072 Parisian feet per second. Derham used a telescope from the tower of the

church of St Laurence, Upminster The church of St Laurence, Upminster, is the Church of England parish church in Upminster, England. It is a Grade I listed building. It is the historic minster or church from which Upminster derives its name, meaning 'upper church', probably sig ...

, to observe the flash of a distant shotgun being fired, and then measured the time until he heard the gunshot with a half second pendulum. Measurements were made of gunshots from local landmarks including the

Church of St Mary Magdalene, North Ockendon The church of St Mary Magdalene is a Church of England religious building in North Ockendon, Greater London, England (and within the Upminster post town). It is a Grade I listed building and is dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene. Hist ...

. The distance was known by triangulation, and thus the speed that the sound had travelled could be calculated.

Works

* ''The Artificial Clockmaker'' (1696) **--
(1734 edition)

''Physico-theology, or a Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God''
(1723 edition)
''Christo-Theology: Or, a Demonstration of the Divine Authority of the Christian Religion''
(1730 edition) * ''A defence of the churches right in leasehold estate'', London: W. Innys 1731.
''Astro-theology: or, A demonstration of the being and attributes of God, from a Survey of the Heavens''
(1731 edition)

References

External links

* William Derham (1696
''The artificial clock-maker''
- digital facsimile from the

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