Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1760-1815 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
3 standard boxes and 1 half standard box; 0.067 cubic metres
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Goodricke was born at Groningen, in the Netherlands, on the 17th September 1764. His father (Henry Goodricke) was a British diplomat, his mother (nee Levina Benjamina Sessler) was the daughter of a Dutch merchant.
John was deaf from infancy: at the age of 8 he was sent to Thomas Braidwood’s Academy at Dumbiedykes, Edinburgh, a school specialising in teaching deaf or deaf-mute children. In 1778 Goodricke became a pupil at Warrington Academy, where school records noted that he had become ‘an excellent mathematician’.
He rejoined his family who had moved to York: John’s great-uncle the Rev. Henry Goodricke held office at York and was tenant of part of the Treasurer’s House. By late 1781 John was involved with Edward Pigott in making astronomical observations. The two astronomers were soon concentrating their research on the variable stars, particularly Algol [Beta Persei].
Goodricke’s first published paper was ‘A Series of Observations on, and a Discovery of, the Period of the Variation of the Light of the bright Star in the Head of Medusa, called Algol’; this was read at the Royal Society on May 15th 1783. He published a supplement to these observations ‘On the Period of the Changes of Light in the Star Algol’ in April 1784, ‘Observations of a new Variable Star’ [Beta Lyrae] in January 1785, and observations on the variability in Delta Cephei in June 1785. For his work on Algol he was awarded the Royal Society’s annual Godfrey Copley Medal in 1783; he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1786, but died on April 20th 1786, aged 21. According to Turner he ‘fell a victim to his favourite study […] in consequence of a cold from exposure to night air in astronomical observations.’
The two families stayed in contact after Goodricke’s death: Goodricke’s astronomical papers were sent to Edward Pigott in 1791, Charles Grey Fairfax (Edward Pigott’s younger brother who had assumed the name Fairfax on inheriting Gilling Castle) married Goodricke’s sister in 1794, and Levina Goodricke (John’s mother) was executrix of Nathaniel Pigott’s will.
The cause and date of John’s deafness is uncertain. Most sources suggest that he became deaf after a fever in childhood. John Ford, in notes published in the Yorkshire Philosophical Society’s Report for 1868, says ‘At five years old he had scarlet fever ending in total deafness’; unfortunately, he did not give his source of information.
There is disagreement over the room where John Goodricke made his observations. Melmore’s article concludes that the room was on the top floor of the south-east wing of the Treasurer’s House. Forrester disagrees; in his MS. (chapter 8, pp. 17-19) he gives reasons for believing Goodricke’s room to have been in the central range of the building, demolished by Frank Green to create the Great Hall of the Treasurer’s House as it is today.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Nathaniel Pigott (1725-1804) and Edward Pigott (1753-1825) were astronomers notable for their work with John Goodricke and the observation of variable stars.
Nathanial Pigott
Nathaniel Pigott was a gentleman of leisure, a noted amateur astronomer and surveyor. The grandson of Viscount Fairfax of Gilling Castle in Yorkshire, Nathaniel Pigott led a peripatetic life, living for many years at Caen in Normandy and later at Louvain in Belgium (then the Austrian Netherlands). In 1749 he married Anna Mathurine de Beriot of Javingue.
In 1772-1773, at the request of the authorities in Brussels, he took a series of astronomical observations to establish the exact latitude and longitude of the principal towns of the province.
In the mid 1770s the family returned to Britain and by 1780 were living at York. In the garden of their house in Bootham (now no. 33, see York City Archives accession E98 f.58 v., Register of deeds) Nathaniel had an observatory built, where he took many transit observations. His primary interest seems to have been observations to establish the latitude of York. Following the death of his wife in 1792, he gave up the lease of the house in Bootham. He died in York on May 31st 1804.
Edward Pigott
Edward Pigott the eldest surviving son of Nathaniel Pigott (1725-1804), was involved in his father’s observations from an early age; he was one of the observers of the transit of Venus of 1769.
He sent his first paper to the Royal Society, ‘Account of a nebula in Coma Berenices’ in September 1779. His observation of a comet in November 1781 is mentioned at the beginning of John Goodricke’s ‘Journal of astronomical observations’. Goodricke [John Goodricke, 1764-1786], initially a pupil, soon became a respected colleague. From 1782 the two astronomers were engaged in diligent study of the variable stars and cross-checked their observations.
Pigott discovered the comet which bears his name in November 1783. In December 1784 he published ‘Observations of a new variable star’ [Eta Antinoi/ Eta Aquilae]. Accompanying his father to Louvain in 1786 he assisted in observations of the transit of Mercury. He sent to the Royal Society an account of an auroral display viewed at Kensington in February 1789. In 1796 he communicated a paper ‘On the periodical changes of brightness of two fixed stars’ [R Coronæ Borealis and R Scuti] ; a paper on the period of R Scuti followed in 1805.
He was at Fontainebleau in 1803 when war broke out between Britain and France and was not allowed to return to the United Kingdom until 1806. His observations of the comets of 1807 and 1811 were communicated to the French Academie des Sciences. His latter years were spent at Bath, and he died there on June 27th 1825.
Repository
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Scientific papers and correspondence created by John Goodricke, Nathaniel Pigott, and Edward Pigott in the course of their activities as astronomers. The majority of the papers relate to the observances of atronomical phenomena, particularly variable stars. Also includes papers relating to barometrical and meterologial observances [weather] and to the calculation of latitude and longitude. Some of the papers include drawings and diagrams.
Many of the observations, particularly those by John Goodricke and Edward Pigott were made at York.
References can be found accross the collection to observations and papers elsewhere in this collection.
Summaries, extracts, and transcriptions have been provided by a volunteer.
Accruals
System of arrangement
The collection has been broadly arranged according to the original arrangement made of the collection when it was deposited with the archive, however items originally catalogued as Acc 227.24, and previously arranged as GPP/4, have been included in GPP/1-GPP/3 as appropriate to reflect the provenance of the records, and the lack of difference between records in those first three series and items previously in GPP/4.
Items are now arraned into the following series:
GPP/1: Papers of John Goodricke
GPP/2: Papers of Nathaniel Pigott
GPP/3: Papers of Edward Pigott
GPP/4: Publications
Items and files within each series are arranged chronologically. All original and former references have been included at item/file level in the catalogue.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Material is available subject to the usual terms and conditions of access to Archives and Local History collections.
Conditions governing reproduction
Images are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Language of material
- English
- French
Script of material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
The papers in this archive were microfilmed by the York University’s Photographic Unit in 1986. Microfilm copies (3 reels) can be accessed at Explore York and at the J.B. Morrell Library of the University of York.
Related units of description
Two diaries of Edward Pigott, 1770-1783, (call reference Osborn fc80) are held at the Osborn Collection in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The diaries include information on 'journeys from Caen, where Pigott was brought up, to England in 1771, from London to Bath in 1776, from Glamorganshire to Yorkshire in 1779; also many visits to plays and operas in London; many references to scientific topics, experiments'. Both diaries have been digitised and are available to view online through the website of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
The Royal Astronomical Society’s Library has related MSS. collections which includes:
(i) a collection of correspondence received by Nathaniel Pigott between 1761 and 1794 [RAS MSS Pigott]
(ii) 4 items of correspondence between John Goodricke and William Herschel between August 1784 and January 1785 ; one of the letters from Goodricke to Herschel includes a note from Edward Pigott [RAS MSS Herschel W.1/13.G.12-14 and RAS MSS Herschel W.1/1 pp. 116-119].
(iii) many items of correspondence between Edward Pigott and William Herschel between June 1781 and August 1817 [RAS MSS Herschel W.1/13.P.27-42 and RAS MSS Herschel W.1/1 pp.68-70, 77-79, and 221-222]
(iv) A letter from Nathaniel Pigott to William Herschel of June 1782 and a letter from Herschel to Pigott of 1782 [RAS MSS Herschel W.1/13.P.43 and RAS MSS Herschel W.1/1 pp.72-74].
The American Philosophical Society (based in Philadelphia) holds a letter book written by Edward Pigott (1802-1806)(reference Mss.B.P62). This contains copies of correspondence written in English and French by Pigott while held as a prisoner of war at Fontainebleau by Napoleon. The letters reflect on his time in prison, as well information about subjects such as astronomy and botany. Further information can be found on the website of the Americal Philosophical Society.
The Dawson Turner correspondence in the Modern MSS Collection in the library at Trinity College, Cambridge, includes two letters from Edward Pigott (1802 and 1803), references O./13.2/No. 51 and O./13.2/No. 139.
The National Maritime Museum, Caird Library and Archive, hold a volume of letters written by Nevil Maskelyne to Edward Pigott and John Goodricke between 1781 and 1799, reference LBK/85; REG15/000535. This volume has been digitised and is available to view online through the website of the National Maritime Museum. This item is available to view online through the volume description at LBK/85.
Publication note
Brech, A. and McConnell, A. “The Pigott family: eighteenth century connections with church, science and law”, Recusant history, vol. 28 no. 3 (2001), pp.449-460.
Dunlop, S. “John Goodricke: 1764-1786”, Soundbarrier: Journal of Royal National Institute for the Deaf, (1986-1897), pp.13-14.
Edwards, D. “John Goodricke – the life and work of a York astronomer”, York Georgian Society Annual Report, (1968), pp.49-53.
Forrester, R. "Owners and Occupiers of Treasurer's House, York, 1815-1900", York Historian, (1992), pp.52-63
Gilman, C. “John Goodricke and his variable stars”, Sky and telescope, vol. 56 (1978), pp. 400-403.
Hoskin, M. “Goodricke, Pigott and the quest for variable stars”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, (1979), pp.23-41.
McConnell, A. and Brech, A. “Nathaniel and Edward Pigott, itinerant astronomers”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 53 no. 3, (1999), pp.305-318
Melmore, S. “The site of John Goodricke’s observatory”, Observatory, vol. 69, No. 850 (June 1949), pp.95-99.
The collection was used by Richard Forrester for his unpublished “People of wealth and quality: the Treasurer’s House, York, its owners and occupiers, 1700-1815”. A copy of his draft manuscript and copious notes are held at the York City Archives as Accession 492; they include much background information on the Goodricke family.