Henry Moyes (1750 – 1807) was a blind Scottish lecturer on

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient wo ...

.A. D. Morrison-Low, ‘ Moyes, Henry (1749/50–1807)’,

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 ...

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, Sept 2004

Life

As an itinerant public speaker he helped raise 18th century popular interest in the new field of chemistry. He mixed with the greatest engineers and scientists of the day and attended the

Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...

. In London he shared a room in George Street, Hanover Square with Adam Walker where lectures were given to small groups of gentry.p125 ''Musson, Robinson'' Moyes was described as ''an excellent lecturer in philosophy'' by

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

. His portrait was painted by John Russell. He was born in 1750 and came from a humble Kirkcaldy background and was blinded aged three by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. In 1766 he was befriended by Adam Smith, when the latter was in Kirkcaldy writing his

Wealth of Nations ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', generally referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is the ''magnum opus'' of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1 ...

. The boy showed precocious aptitude and, as well as teaching Moyes himself, Smith secured the patronage of

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...

and

Thomas Reid Thomas Reid (; 7 May ( O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher. He was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1783 he wa ...

in the young man's education.''Dr James Currie to

Thomas Creevey Thomas Creevey (March 17685 February 1838) was an English politician. He is best known for his insight into social conditions as revealed by his writings, which were published in 1903. Life Creevey was the son of William Creevey, a Liverpool me ...

'', 24 February 1793, Lpool RO, Currie MS 920 CUR Being blind, he required assistance for demonstrations''Joseph Priestley to Joseph Banks'', 6 Feb 1783, NHM, Dawson Turner MS 3, fol. 17 and his assistant, nephew William Nicol,p122 Albert Edward Musson, Eric Robinson ''Science and technology in the Industrial Revolution,'' Manchester University Press, 1969, would himself become notable for his contributions to science. During 1784–86, he toured the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

giving successful lectures in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

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Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

and Charleston, South Carolina. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1785. Thereafter, he settled in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and undertook a tour of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. His brother was '"Old Moses" the dreary, drowsy, drone' ( Episcopalian Minister of the

Cowgate The Cowgate ( Scots: The Cougait) is a street in Edinburgh, Scotland, located about southeast of Edinburgh Castle, within the city's World Heritage Site. The street is part of the lower level of Edinburgh's Old Town, which lies below the ele ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Freemasonry

Moyes was an Affiliate Member of Lodge Holyrood House (St Luke's), No.44, (Edinburgh,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

). It is not, yet, known in which Lodge he was Initiated. That he was totally blind was not (and is not) an impediment to his becoming a Freemason.

References

External links

The Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland.
*http://edinburghbookshelf.org.uk/volume8/page260/single {{DEFAULTSORT:Moyes, Henry 1750s births 1807 deaths Blind people from Scotland Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Kirkcaldy People of the Scottish Enlightenment Philosophy teachers Scottish Freemasons