The Royal Observatory was England's first building dedicated solely to astronomical research, founded by Charles II in 1675. But for Margaret Flamsteed, it was also her home.
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| L'Astronome, Metropolitan Museum, Public Domain |
Margaret's husband John was England's first Astronomer Royal, tasked with observing the night skies, pursuing the problem of measuring longitude at sea and collecting reams of data. John Flamsteed was passionate about the study of astronomy, spending long hours in observations and paying to have his own tools designed and built. Between 1677 and 1689 he recorded 20,000 observations which furthered our understanding of the heavens. In 1694 Flamsteed worked with Sir Isaac Newton, after Newton had asked for his help in testing his theories of gravity. Despite Newton's insistence that Flamsteed should publish his works, the astronomer considered that they were not yet complete and not ready for publication. Tensions sprang up between Flamsteed and Newton, as well as with Edmund Halley, and some of the Royal Astronomer's works were nonetheless published without his full consent, in 1707.
At the the Observatory in Greenwich was a woman as assertive and bold as Flamsteed himself: his wife, Margaret. With his role, John was also given lodgings at the observatory so that he and his wife could live there. It's very likely that Margaret was involved in some of John's work, and we know that she took a faithful and passionate interest in it. On John's death in December 1719 she was asked to leave the observatory, so that the new Astronomer Royal could take up residence. But Margaret didn't go quietly. She embarked on a campaign to seize any works of her husband's that were not approved by him and protected his memory. As John had paid for and designed the tools he used in his work out of his own income (he was granted a salary of £100 a year as Astronomer Royal), she gathered them all up, along with his data, and took it all with her.
Very little about Margaret's life has survived in the sources, but we do have some letters written after John's death, where she discusses his work with others. In one letter, written on 15 August 1720 to Flamsteed's assistant Abraham Sharp, she writes of 'the greatest grief possible' that she has experienced since John's death, 'which made me incapable of almost everything'. With Sharp, she set out to publish an official copy of her husband's work and she wrote to Sharp to thank him for his efforts. 'If your friendship to poor Mr Flamsteed during his life and regard to his memory, now dead', she wrote, 'had not prevailed with you to undertake so troublesome a work, I know not what I should have done'. She had taken care to approach only those she trusted to finish the work true to John's intentions, writing that Sharp 'exceed[ed] all others as much in fidelity as you do in accuracy'. Margaret also co-ordinated the content of the book, assuring him that she would 'put those six constellations you sent into the hands of a person to draw as soon as possible'. The book, named The Historia Coelestis Britannica was eventually published in 1725, comprising of beautifully-drawn constellations with all the stars marked within them. Strangely, the nineteenth century writer William Cudworth pointed out that two main collaborators on the work, Abraham Sharp and Joseph Crosthwait, were not credited for their input, which is odd considering Margaret's keen sense to see her husband credited with the correct research. It's possible that if true, this may have been a personal agreement between Margaret and the men. In the 1729 edition of Atlas Coelestis Margaret's name is given on the frontispiece above that of the editor James Hodgson. The work was dedicated to George II.
Margaret was also on the lookout for works that falsely claimed to be authored by her husband. Learning that a copy of a work of 1712 called Historia Coelestis remained in one of the libraries at the University of Oxford, she wrote to the Chancellor on 22 March 1726. 'I have been since told', she wrote, 'that there remains in your public library, one volume printed in the year 1712, which passes as the genuine work of Mr Flamsteed. I most humbly intreat that you will please to order that single volume to be removed out of your public library, the greatest part of which is nothing more than an erroneous abridgement of Mr Flamsteed's works, he not being concerned in the printing any more of that book than 97 sheets', the rest being done without his knowledge or consent'. She signed off with a telling line, writing that she was 'under an obligation not only to do justice to the memory of Mr Flamsteed, but also to prevent the world's being imposed upon by a false impression'.
Margaret died in 1730, having written her will two years before. She added a clause requesting that a monument be built to her husband where he had been buried in Burstow Church in Surrey. 'I further order and direct that my executor (if it please God I do not live to do it myself) do cause to be placed in the aforesaid Chancel of Burstow in Surrey, a Marble Stone or Monument with an inscription in Latin, in memory of the late Reverend Mr John Flamsteed, and I allow £25 for the existence of it. I would have my own internment mentioned in that inscription'. Even as she considered her own death, she was occupied with preserving the memory of her husband John.
John Flamsteed, throughout his career, observed and documented thousands of measurements, researched stars and helped Isaac Newton develop his ground-breaking theories on gravity. He also worked on our modern understanding of the behaviour of the moon and sun, and was known well to royals and scientists of the age. But while he measured, gazed and scribbled, Margaret was there at his side. Her knowledge of his work shows that she was involved in and knew of his research, his relationships with others and his worries about his work being published without consent. She protected his legacy and worked to seize his own personal instruments and remove copies of work falsely claimed to be his. She personally vetted those who worked on Flamsteed's works after his death and dealt with engravers, editors, astronomers and publishers to see it come to fruition. It is because of Margaret that authorised versions of his work appeared in print after his death, allowing others to learn from it, and test his observations and theories. Discussions of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich or astronomy generally in seventeenth-century England don't often refer to Margaret Flamsteed, but I think she should be given more credit for the impact she had on science, and her age.
You might also like: John Flamsteed, The First Astronomer Royal, Oxford's Oldest Coffee Houses and How Charles II Dealt with the Plague in 1665.
Thank you to the Royal Observatory for alerting me to Margaret Flamsteed's significance to history and science. Visit the Royal Observatory website for more details and how to visit.
Sources:
Cudworth, William. Life and Correspondence of Abraham Sharp, the Yorkshire Mathematician an Astronomer. Searle and Rivington, Marston. 1889.
Flamsteed, John. Atlas Coelestis. London, 1729.
NASA Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service, The Observatory. 1892, via archive.org
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