The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members, known as fellows, most of whom are professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.
Spitalfields is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and situated in the East End. Spitalfields is formed around Commercial Street and Brick Lane. It has several markets, including Spitalfields Market, the historic Old Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market and Petticoat Lane Market. The area has a long attracted migrants from overseas, including many Jews, whose presence gained the area the 19th century nickname of Little Jerusalem.
Benjamin Gompertz was an English self-educated mathematician and actuary, who became a Fellow of the Royal Society. Gompertz is now best known for his Gompertz law of mortality, a demographic model published in 1825. He was the brother of the early animal rights activist and inventor Lewis Gompertz and the poet Isaac Gompertz.
Sir George Howard Darwin was an English barrister and astronomer, the second son and fifth child of Charles Darwin and Emma Darwin.
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the Edinburgh Mathematical Society and the Operational Research Society.
Old Spitalfields Market is a covered market in Spitalfields, London. There has been a market on the site for over 350 years. In 1991 it gave its name to New Spitalfields Market in Leyton, where fruit and vegetables are now traded. In 2005, a regeneration programme resulted in the new public spaces: Bishops Square and Crispin Place, which are now part of the modern Spitalfields Market. A range of public markets runs daily, with independent local stores and restaurants - as well as new office developments.
John William Scott "Ian" Cassels, FRS was a British mathematician.
Louisa Perina Courtauld was a French-born English silversmith.
The Senior Whitehead Prize of the London Mathematical Society (LMS) is now awarded in odd numbered years in memory of John Henry Constantine Whitehead, president of the LMS between 1953 and 1955. The Prize is awarded to mathematicians normally resident in the United Kingdom on 1 January of the relevant year. Selection criteria include work in, influence on or service to mathematics, or recognition of lecturing gifts in the field of mathematics. Previous recipients of top LMS prizes or medals are ineligible for nomination.
Griffith Davies was a noted actuary.
Zachary Pearce, sometimes known as Zachariah, was an English Bishop of Bangor and Bishop of Rochester. He was a controversialist and a notable early critical writer defending John Milton, attacking Richard Bentley's 1732 edition of Paradise Lost the following year.
Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster was an English astronomer, physician, naturalist and philosopher. An early animal rights activist, he promoted vegetarianism and founded the Animals' Friend Society with Lewis Gompertz. He published pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects, including morality, Pythagorean philosophy, bird migration, Sati, and "phrenology", a term that he coined in 1815.
Joseph Dandridge, was an English silk-pattern designer of Huguenot descent, a natural history illustrator, an amateur naturalist specialising in entomology, and a leading figure in the Society of Aurelians of which he was a founder member.
Henry William Pickersgill RA was an English painter specialising in portraits. He was a Royal Academician for almost fifty years, and painted many of the most notable figures of his time.
Congleton, Macclesfield, Bollington and Stockport, England, were traditionally silk-weaving towns. Silk was woven in Cheshire from the late 1600s. The handloom weavers worked in the attic workshops in their own homes. Macclesfield was famous for silk buttons manufacture. The supply of silk from Italy was precarious and some hand throwing was done, giving way after 1732 to water-driven mills, which were established in Stockport and Macclesfield.
William Hawes was an English physician and philanthropist, and one of the founders of the Royal Humane Society. He worked to spread the practice of resuscitation, and to relieve poverty in East London.
Thomas Field Gibson FGS was a Unitarian silk manufacturer and philanthropist. He supported several novel initiatives to enhance British manufacturing quality and international trade while improving life for working people during the Industrial Revolution – particularly in Spitalfields where his business was centred. He also made important contributions to geology.
John Crosley (1762–1817) was an English astronomer and mathematician who was an assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, a computer of the Nautical Almanac, an observer on maritime voyages of scientific exploration and a member and President of the Spitalfields Mathematical Society.
Edward Riddle was an English mathematician and astronomer, known for A Treatise on Navigation and Nautical Astronomy.
