| | 1 | Name: | James Ferguson | | | Year Elected: | 1770 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 4/25/1710 | | | Death Date: | 11/16/1776 | | | | | | |
297.000 James Ferguson (25 April 1710–16 November 1776) was a lecturer, scientist, artist, inventor, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1770 election. Born in the county of Banffshire, Scotland, he was the second child of Elspeth Lobban and John Ferguson. An autodidact, James taught himself to read and gained an early understanding of mechanics by observing the workings of his father’s farm tools. As a young man, James drifted in his employment from shepherding to farming to clock-making and maintenance before deciding to pursue a career as an artist. After discovering that an apprenticeship in oil painting would be tedious and costly, he decided to focus on limning—painting miniature portraits. However, he remained curious about the natural world and its mechanics, dabbling in globe-making, medicine, and teaching mathematics. After marrying Isabella Wilson in 1739, James’s intellectual interests turned to astronomy. His inventions in this field included the “astronomical rotula,” a cardboard device used for tracking the positions of the sun and moon, and the “trajectorium lunare,” with which he could demonstrate the moon’s trajectory relative to the sun. He performed demonstrations with this second invention during a series of lectures he conducted from his place of residence. These lectures became popular, as did James’s published work, because of his talent for explaining scientific concepts in simple enough terms to be understood by the general public. In 1761, based on the merits of his writings and public teachings, the king awarded him a pension of fifty pounds per year and, in 1763, he became a fellow of the Royal Society. James had a troubled family life: he legally separated from his wife in 1773 and his oldest daughter, Agnes, disappeared and was never found. After his illness and death in 1776, it was revealed that James had amassed a small fortune through savvy and secret investments. (DNB) | |
| 2 | Name: | John Fothergill | | | Year Elected: | 1770 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 3/8/1712 | | | Death Date: | 12/26/1780 | | | | | | |
John Fothergill (8 March 1712–26 December 1780) was a physician, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1770. He was born in Yorkshire, England to a Quaker family and entered a distinguished grammar school in Sedbergh. In 1728 he apprenticed under a Quaker minister who encouraged Fothergill to study medicine at Edinburgh University. He graduated with his M.D. in 1736, and continued his medical training at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. He found difficulty establishing himself amongst the elite Londoner physicians, so he decided instead to focus his practice on the urban poor. Finally in 1744, he became the first English Edinburgh graduate to be licensed by the Royal College of Physicians. Four years later he published an account of a London epidemic in which he advised against blood-letting and purging in favor of a proper diet and a plant-based febrifuge for treatment. The instantaneous success of this book made him one of the most wealthy physicians in England. Fothergill then published early and innovative accounts of tic douloureux, migraine headaches, angina pectoris, epilepsy, tubercular meningitis, rabies, obesity, and menopause. Developing connections in the colonies, he became a political advisor to fellow Quakers in the Pennsylvania assembly. In 1757 the assembly sent Benjamin Franklin to London, where Fothergill would treat an ill Franklin shortly after his arrival. Fothergill’s relationship with America grew: he became a trustee of the Pennsylvania Land Company (1760), he published a pamphlet advocating for the repeal of the Stamp Act (1765), and he joined Franklin in an attempt to negotiate peace before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War (1775). Fothergill continued advocating for the downtrodden until his death, founding the Ackworth School in Yorkshire for the education of the poor, raising funds for the New York Hospital, supporting the abolition of the slave trade, and continuing to provide free medical treatment to the poor. He died of a urinary retention, likely having to do with prostate cancer. (DNB) | |
| 3 | Name: | John David Hahn | | | Year Elected: | 1770 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1729 | | | | |
| 4 | Name: | Edward Nairne | | | Year Elected: | 1770 | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1726 | | | Death Date: | 9/1/1806 | | | | | | |
Edward Nairne (1726–1 September 1806) was a natural philosopher, a scientific instrument maker, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1770. His career began in 1741 with an apprenticeship to a maker of optical instruments. This training was the beginning of a lifetime creating instruments like microscopes and telescopes, but his inventions were diverse and plentiful. He designed pencil erasers, mercury thermometers, magnets, compass needles, and barometers. Some of the most prominent natural philosophers and institutions of the time, including Benjamin Franklin, APS Member Joseph Priestly, Harvard University, and the Royal Greenwich Observatory, commissioned and used Nairne’s instruments. Like many of his contemporaries, Nairne was interested in researching and experimenting with electricity. He created a cylindrical machine that could efficiently generate and emit sparks. His demonstrations with this device, which showed the potential dangers of electric shocks, helped to popularize the use of lightning rods to protect houses and buildings. He also performed electrical experiments to help determine the ideal shape for these rods; the results seemed to show that Benjamin Franklin’s designs were ideal. Because of his expertise, the Royal Society sent Nairne on several occasions to examine buildings that had been destroyed by lightning strikes and to determine what fortifications could have protected them. In 1782, Nairne patented an electrical machine for medical use, which physicians used in the treatment of a wide range of ailments, both neurological and physical. Nairne became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1776 and a founder proprietor of the Royal Institution in 1800. He was possibly the most well-known instrument maker of his time, finding success both in England and abroad. He died in Chelsea in 1806. (DNB) | |
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