6 Foreign Secretary
8 January 1784: Paul Henry Maty, An Authentic Narrative of the Dissensions and Debates in the Royal Society (London, 1784), 66; London, Royal Society, MM/1/46a; Supplement to the Appeal to the Fellows of the Royal Society [London, 1784], 14; Andrew Kippis, Observations on the Late Contests in the Royal Society (London, 1784), 82. On the ‘Dissensions’ see also Benjamin Wardhaugh, ‘Charles Hutton and the “Dissensions” of 1783–84: scientific networking and its failures’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society 71 (2017), 41–59.
an upset about the secretaryship: An Appeal, 4–5; Supplement, 12; Kippis, Observations, 27–8; [John Strange], Canons of Criticism, extracted from the beauties of Maty’s Review (London, [1784]), 73; Royal Society CMO/7, pp. 12–15 (10 Dec 1778, 14 Jan 1779); Thomas Seccombe, rev. Rebecca Mills, ‘Maty, Paul Henry (1744–1787), librarian’ in ODNB; letter of Charles Hutton to Robert Harrison, 13 Jan 1779, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 71–4.
foreign secretary occupied a back-room position: An Appeal, 6–8; Kippis, Observations, 30; Supplement, 7; Strange, Canons, 69.
a member of the Society’s Council: Royal Society, CMO/7, 15–60 passim.
an honorary doctorate: A Catalogue of the Graduates in the Faculties of Arts, Divinity, and Law, of the University of Edinburgh since its foundation (Edinburgh, 1858), 257; letter of Charles Hutton to Harrison, 4 Aug 1779, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 74; Bruce, Memoir, 17.
denied that there had been any specific incident: An Appeal, 23.
‘with freedom and firmness’: An Appeal, 28; Royal Society, MM/1/46a.
He retained a northern accent: Obituary of Charles Hutton in the Literary Gazette (1 February 1823), 75.
One journalist made a joke: Notice of Hutton, Principles of Bridges in The Town and Country Magazine 11 (April 1779), 176; ‘Sir Joseph Banks’, New Times (14 July 1820), 4.
mathematics never lent itself: John Barrow, Sketches of the Royal Society, and Royal Society Club (London, 1849), 4–5; Warwick, Masters of Theory, 36; Royal Society, JBO, vol. 28, pp. 448, 489; vol. 29, pp. 225, 228, 489 (mathematical papers handled in various ways).
‘waspish and petulant expressions’: [Olinthus Gregory], ‘A Review of some Leading Points in the Official Character and Proceedings of the late President of the Royal Society’, Philosophical Magazine series 1, no. 56 (1820), 161–74, 241–57, at 166.
‘done little but apply Conic Sections’: National Library of Wales, MS 12415C (letter of Joseph Banks to John Lloyd, 23 Feb 1780), quoted in David Philip Miller, ‘“Into the Valley of Darkness”: reflections on the Royal Society in the eighteenth century’, History of Science 27 (1989), 155–66 at 166.
Banks wanted to consolidate: David Philip Miller, ‘Between Hostile Camps: Sir Humphry Davy’s presidency of the Royal Society of London, 1820–1827’, The British Journal for the History of Science 16 (1983), 1–47 at 4–5; David Philip Miller, ‘Sir Joseph Banks: an historiographical perspective’, History of Science 19 (1981), 284–92, at 288, 291; Miller, ‘Into the Valley of Darkness’, 162–3.
a dispute about the best shape: [Gregory], ‘A Review’, 170–2; William Temple Franklin, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin (London, 1818), vol. 1, pp. 322–4; A. Hunter Dupree, Sir Joseph Banks and the Origins of Science Policy (Minneapolis, 1984), 15; Anonymous, An History of the Instances of Exclusion from the [R]oyal Society (London, 1784), 24; ‘Peter Pindar’ [John Wolcot], Peter’s Prophecy (Dublin, 1789), 19; Simon Snip, The Philosophical Puppet Show [London, 1783?], 7–8.
American liberty: letter of Charles Hutton to Robert Harrison, 13 Jan 1779, printed in Melmore, ‘Some Letters’, 71–4.
Hutton should not be styled ‘professor’: Royal Society CMO/7, 81 (2 August 1781), 59 (16 Nov 1780), 89 (15 Nov 1781); Maty, Narrative, 108–9.
foreign correspondence was not being dealt with: Royal Society, CMO/7, 97–8 (24 Jan 1782), 101–2, 105–6 (21 March 1782), 109 (25 April 1782); An Appeal, 10–11; Kippis, Observations, 33.
excursions in international politesse: An Appeal, 12; Maty, Narrative, 115; Kippis, Observations, 63.
polite he could do: Charles Hutton to Kleinschmidt, 13 May 1784: London, Royal Society, RSL/2, no. 27, fol. 2v.
he complied stolidly: George Herbiniaux, Traité sur divers accouchemens laborieux (Brussels, 1782), vol. 2, 195–6 has a specimen of an acknowledgement as sent and signed by Hutton, dated 20 June 1782.
More complex letters: Kippis, Observations, 44–5, 51; Maty, Narrative, 102.
something of a stand-off: Kippis, Observations, 65, 67–8; An Appeal, 23.
Joseph Banks a problematic figure: Instances of Exclusion, 4–7 and passim; Kippis, Observations, 90–99; [Gregory], ‘A Review’, 174.
Banks blocked the election: Instances of Exclusion, 5–6; Maty, Narrative, 56–9; ‘Peter Pindar’, Peter’s Prophecy, A2r.
other kinds of conduct: Instances of Exclusion, 19–24.
the structure of the Royal Society: Neil Chambers, Scientific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, 1795–1820 (London, 2007), vol. 1, p. xxiv.
told Council there was a problem: An Appeal, 12–13; Kippis, Observations, 35; Supplement, 3, 6, 13; Royal Society MM/1/29, MM/1/42 and CMO/7 150 (minutes of 20 November 1783).
Understanding, Sir, that the circumstance: Appeal, 14.
The house slate was voted in: Kippis, Observations, 8–9, 36–7, 110, 112; Royal Society JBO 31, 260–2; An Appeal, 14–15; Supplement, 3; An History, 17–18; Maty, Narrative, 6.
Edward Poore … moved thanks: Maty, Narrative, 7–9, 152–3; An Appeal, 15–18, 24; Supplement, 5; Kippis, Observations, 9, 38–40; Royal Society MM/1/40, MM/1/48e, MM/1/42, JBO 31, 265. On the offended foreigner, Bonnet: Maty, Narrative, 89, 101–2; Strange, Canons 29–39; Sir Gavin de Beer and R.M. Turton, ‘John Turton, FRS, 1735–1806’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 12 (1956–7), 77–97, at 86–8.
a written defence of his conduct: An Appeal, 19–20, 23–4; Maty, Narrative, 10, 18, 24, 153; Kippis, Observations, 10–11, 42–3, 77; Supplement, 7; Royal Society MM/1/40, CMO/7 152, JBO 31, 267, 268–9.
Horsley took the floor again: Maty, Narrative, 12, 20–21; An History, 21; Kippis, Observations, 114–15; An Appeal, 24; Royal Society MM/1/47d; Henry Craik, English Prose (New York and London, 1893–6), s.v. Horsley; Anon, ‘Biographical Sketch of the life of Sir Joseph Banks …’, Agricultural Magazine 9 (1811), 333–41 at 339.
Banks’s friends assembled: Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 236–46 (letters 450–58 between Blagden and Banks, 22–30 Dec 1783), 249–50 (letters 461–2 of Kippis and Henry Stebbing to Banks, 31 Dec 1783); Warren Dawson (ed.), The Banks Letters: A calendar of the manuscript correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks preserved in the British Museum, British Museum (Natural History) and other collections in Great Britain (London, 1958), 533 (John Coakley Lettsom to Banks, 30 Dec 1783); Kippis, Observations, 80; An Appeal, 25; Royal Society MM/1/29, MM/1/46, MM/1/47; Firepower MS 913/3 item 2 (quote).
a series of letters: collected in Supplement to the Appeal.
The house was visibly packed: Maty, Narrative, 22, 24–7, 31–3, 37, 40–43, 45, 61–4, 67, 69, 72–3, 76–7; Supplement, 9–11, 14; Kippis, Observations, 13, 82–3; An History 26; Royal Society JBO 31, 269–71; [Gregory], ‘A Review’, 245; Chambers, Scientific Correspondence vol. 2, p. 243.
On 29 January a sly motion: Authentic, 80; Appeal Supplement, 14; Kippis, Observations, 85; Royal Society, MM/1/46a, MM/1/41, fol. 1v.
On 12 February Francis Maseres …: Authentic, 79, 85–134; Kippis, Observations, 18, 39, 49, 86, 145–6; Appeal, 26; Royal Society, MM/1/30 (quote f. 1r), MM/1/34, MM/1/41, fol. 2r.
on 26 February: Authentic, 134–49; Kippis, Observations, 20–21; Royal Society, MM/1/31 and 31a, MM/1/41, fol. 2r, MM/1/46a, b, d.
The manner which he assumed: Kippis, Observations, 145.
‘howsoever respectable mathematicks’: Royal Society, MM/1/46a.
Tis Horsley’s
voice loud strikes the ear: The Royal Artillery Museum (‘Firepower’), MD/913/3c.
a bizarre incident on 25 March: An History, 27; Royal Society MM/1/47c and JBO 371–2 (with a very different account of the incident). See also Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 263–4 (letter 473, Blagden to Banks, 1 Mar 1784) and 266–7 (letter 476, Banks to Blagden 6 Mar 1784); An History, 9; and Royal Society MM/1/32, referring to Maty’s behaviour at the meeting of 4 March.
Hutton then offered himself: Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 2, p. 272, letter 483; Supplement 12; Strange, Canons 65–70; Kippis, Observations, 21–2; Royal Society MM/1/33, MM/1/48, JBO 378–9, 409–10, CMO/7 161.
Hutton himself wrote: Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 3, pp. 296–7.
literally all over the world: Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 200–02 (letter 424, Blagden, 30 Oct 1783), 281–2 (letter 491, John Hope to Banks, Edinburgh, 13 May 1784), 283–4 (letter 493, Abbé Theodore Augustin Mann, Brussels, 4 June 1784), 309–10 (letter 514, Banks to Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville, 23 Sep 1784); Dawson, Banks Letters 154 (Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville to Banks, Newman Street, 20 Apr 1784), 158 (Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet to Banks, Paris, 11 Feb 1784), 184 (Thomas Bugge to Banks, Copenhagen, 12 Oct 1784), 523 (Louis Léon Félicité, Comte de Lauraguais, Duc de Brancas to Banks, Brussels, 4 Apr 1785), 724 (Patrick Russell to Banks, Vizagapatam, 26 Dec 1784, 9 July and 4 Aug 1785).
the Copley Medal for 1784: Gregory, ‘A Review’, 167–9.
7 Reconstruction
grazing, turf and wood: Saint and Guillery, Survey of London volume 48: Woolwich, chapter 10 ‘Woolwich Common and Royal Military Academy Areas’, online draft available at https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/research/survey-of-london/woolwich/documents/48.10_Woolwich_Common_and_Royal_Military_Academy_Areas.pdf, 1–2.
a ‘learned empire’: David Philip Miller, ‘The Royal Society of London 1800–1835: a study in the cultural politics of scientific organization’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1981), 9; David Philip Miller, ‘The Revival of the Physical Sciences in Britain, 1815–1840’, Osiris 2 (1986), 107–34 at 109.
George’s minister for science: John Gascoigne, ‘Banks, Sir Joseph, baronet (1743–1820), naturalist and patron of science’ in ODNB.
Neither he nor anyone else: lists of the Royal Society were printed annually with the Philosophical Transactions during this period. Contemporary sources such as [Gregory], ‘A Review’ hint at an organised withdrawal from meetings, but London, Royal Astronomical Society, William Herschel Correspondence 13.H.38 (letter from Hutton to William Herschel, 31 Jan 1785), printed in Wardhaugh, Correspondence, 44, seems to indicate otherwise.
a club of their own: Cambridge University Library, RGO 4/187/11:1–2 (letter of Hutton to Maskelyne, 27 June 1785); MS Add. 7886/117 (letter of Hutton to William Frend, 21 May 1791); RGO 4/187/18: (letter of Hutton to Maskelyne, 19 Dec 1793); RGO 4/187/22: 22:1–2 (letter of Mr Rowed of the Globe Tavern, Fleet Street to Maskelyne, Jun 1795); British Library, Add. MS 37915, ff. 218–19 (letter of Hutton to Windham, 15 Sep 1802); see also Derek Howse, Nevil Maskelyne: the seaman’s astronomer (Cambridge, 1989), 161.
another ‘rebellious dining club’: Harold B. Carter, Sir Joseph Banks, 1743–1820 (London, 1988), 133, 146, 574.
Banks’s opponents: Wardhaugh, ‘Charles Hutton and the “Dissensions”’.
Paul Henry Maty died: Seccombe, ‘Maty, Paul Henry’.
Horsley achieved preferment: Robert Hole, ‘Horsley, Samuel (1733–1806), bishop of St Asaph’ in ODNB.
flattering reprints: Francis Maseres, Scriptores Logarithmici (6 vols: London, 1791–1807), vol. 3, pp. 165–8 (a piece on the area of the circle, from Hutton’s Mensuration), 207–16 (one of Hutton’s Transactions papers, on series); also vol. 6, pp. 451–74 (‘A Computation of the Length of the Sine of a Circular Arc of One Minute of a Degree’, done by Hutton in 1777 but not previously published).
Banks visited Hutton at Woolwich: Letter of Joseph Banks to Charles Hutton,?1784: Wellcome Collection MS 5270 no. 5.
Banks was invited to attend: Letter of Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond and Lennox to Joseph Banks, 31 May 1786, in Warren R. Dawson, Supplementary Letters of Sir Joseph Banks (London, 1962), 59.
Banks and Hutton even managed: Letter of Charles Hutton to Joseph Banks, 12 Mar 1797, British Library, Add. MS 8098, fol. 385.
the Royal Society of Edinburgh: C.D. Waterston and A. Macmillan Shearer, Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002 (Edinburgh, 2006) (https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf), vol. 1, p. 469; ‘Naamlyst van de tegenwoordige heeren Leden, naar orde van het inkomen’, Verhandelingen, uitgegeeven door de Hollandsche Maatschappye der Weetenschappen, te Haarlem 29 (1793); American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Academy Members 1780–present (http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterH.pdf), 282; Arthur Donovan and Joseph Prentiss, ‘James Hutton’s Medical Dissertation’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 70 (1980), 3–57 at 7; T.H. Levere and G. L’E. Turner, Discussing Chemistry and Steam: the minutes of a coffeehouse philosophical society (Oxford, 2002), 57 and passim.
Reuben Burrow: T.T. Wilkinson, ‘Mathematics and Mathematicians, the journals of the late Reuben Burrow’, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, 4th ser., vol. 5 (1853), 185–93, 514–22 and vol. 6 (1853), 196–204; Archibald, ‘Minor English Mathematical Serials’, 389.
He accused Hutton of stealing: Reuben Burrow, A Companion to the Ladies Diary (London, 1781), 32; Reuben Burrow, The Lady’s and Gentleman’s Diary (1776) (quote in preface); Wilkinson, ‘Mathematics and Mathematicians’, 187 (quote); Howse, Maskelyne, 140 (quote from De Morgan).
William Blake, in an early satire: William Blake, ‘The Island in the Moon’, online at blakearchive.org, fos. 5, 2, 11, 12.
Hutton and his friends toyed: Letter of Charles Blagden to Joseph Banks, 31 Oct 1784, in Dawson, Banks Letters, 65; Letter of Charles Blagden to Joseph Banks, 6 Nov 1784, in Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 328–9.
soliciting and collecting material: Royal Artillery Museum MS 913/5f (unattributed press clipping of 1784 or 1785); Chambers, Scientific Correspondence, vol. 3, pp. 92–4, 105–6, 110–11 (letters 605, 612, 614, Blagden to Banks, 30 Sep, 23 Oct, 30 Oct 1785).
at his own expense: Supplement to the Ladies Diary (1788), 32.
Hutton did not keep up: Supplement to the Ladies Diary (1792), 27.
Even the elusive Margaret Ord: Supplement to the Ladies Diary (1791), 108–9 and (1794), 15.
Hutton was left with just a handful: Catalogue of the … Library of Charles Hutton.
suggestions for its management: Letter of Lewis Evans to Charles Hutton, 28 April 1788: draft in Oxford, Museum of the History of Science, MS Evans 31; Ladies’ Diary (1789), 31; Ladies’ Diary (1790), 46; Supplement to the Ladies Diary (1789), 25.
could easily have appeared: Review of Hutton, Tracts (1786) in The Critical Review 63 (January 1787), 1–6 at 2.
kind words in a couple: Review of Hutton, Tracts (1786) in The Critical Review 63 (January 1787), 1–6 at 1, 6 (quotes); also in the Monthly Review 76 (June 1787), 484–9.
papers to the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Charles Hutton, ‘Experiments on the Expansive Force of Freezing Water, made by Major Edward Williams of the Royal Artillery, at Quebec in Canada … Communicated in a letter from Charles Hutton … to Professor John Robison, General Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2 (1790), 23–8 (reprinted in The Literary Magazine and British Review 6 (January 1791), 20–2); Charles Hutton, ‘Abstract of Experiments Made to Determine the True Resistance of the Air to the Surfaces of Bodies, of various figures, and moved through it with different degrees of velocity’, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2 (1790), 29–36; letter of John Playfair to Charles Hutton, 21 Apr 1788 in Wellcome Col
lection MS 7430 no. 38.
exchanging manuscripts with friends: Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.1.59: 87r–105v (copy of ‘Mr Maseres’s Problem of a Vibrating Line’ together with Hutton’s own notes and related matter from Henry Cavendish); 155r–165r (copy of Henry Cavendish, ‘On Finding the Orbits of Comets in a Parabola from 3 Observations’, together with associated correspondence).
an observation at the Royal Observatory: Astronomical Observations, made at the Royal Observatory … from MDCCLXXV to MDCCLXXXVI (London, 1787), vol. 2, p. 120.
reading furiously: ‘Biographical Anecdotes’, 64.
cousin of the nonconformist leader: obituary of Charles Hutton in the Literary Gazette (1 February 1823), 75–6 at 75 (with an obvious mistake giving ‘Charles’ for ‘James’; the reference to Cosway’s portrait of James Hutton holding his ear trumpet makes it clear who is intended).
the popular novelist Catherine Hutton: Charles Hutton to Catherine Hutton, 26 Jan 1819 (Wellcome Collection, MS 5270 no. 35); Charles Hutton to Catherine Hutton, 18 Oct 1819 (Birmingham Archives, Heritage and Photography Service MS 3597/73); Catherine Hutton, Reminiscences of a Gentlewoman of the Last Century (Birmingham, 1891), 179–81; note on the two surviving Hutton daughters, Isabella and Catherine, in The Monthly Magazine 26 (August 1838), 199–210; Llewellynn Jewitt, ‘Pedigree of the family of Hutton, of Derby, Birmingham, etc., etc.’, The Reliquary (1871), foldout before 215.
Lord Stanhope left Hutton: Public Record Office, PROB 11/1590/64: Will of The Right Honorable Charles Earl Stanhope of Doctors Common, Middlesex (dated 22 November 1805 and proved 5 March 1817); obituary of Charles Hutton in the Literary Gazette (1 February 1823), 75–6 at 75.
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