Jeremiah Horrocks

[lindylou]

Astronomer, born in Aigburth, Liverpool. In 1639 he was the first in the world to observe the passing of Venus across the sun, thus enabling the earth's distance from the sun to be calculated. His undoubted genius was not fulfilled as he died, age 23, in 1641.
Horrocks Avenue in Garston is named after him.

[sweetpatooti]

Yay - I knew about him - Garston Church of England School is on Horrocks Avenue!!

[Kev]

Astronomer, born in Aigburth, Liverpool. In 1639 he was the first in the world to observe the passing of Venus across the sun, thus enabling the earth's distance from the sun to be calculated. His undoubted genius was not fulfilled as he died, age 23, in 1641.
Horrocks Avenue in Garston is named after him.

1639? Was Aigburth there then?

[sweetpatooti]

Kev - Aigburth has been there yonks - it was mentioned in the Domesday book I think - their were monks there who did a ferry type thing over the Mersey. There is a good local history page by a chap called Mike Royden with all the info about Aigburth and Garston - which has also been there yonks - a church has been on the site of St Michaels in Garston since the 13th century. If I can find the link I will post it up for you. Do you remember when they widened Aigburth Road at the top by St Mary's? They knocked down an old bowling green and stuff....probably too long ago for you to remember..

[Kev]

It seems so long ago.

[ChrisGeorge]

Kev - Aigburth has been there yonks - it was mentioned in the Domesday book I think - their were monks there who did a ferry type thing over the Mersey. There is a good local history page by a chap called Mike Royden with all the info about Aigburth and Garston - which has also been there yonks - a church has been on the site of St Michaels in Garston since the 13th century. If I can find the link I will post it up for you. Do you remember when they widened Aigburth Road at the top by St Mary's? They knocked down an old bowling green and stuff....probably too long ago for you to remember..

Hi Sweetpatooti

You are correct that Mike Royden has a history page on "Monastic Lands" which covers the history of Stanlawe Grange, Aigburth, and Garston. Stanlawe Grange was a monastic farm owned by the monks of Stanlaw Abbey across the Mersey near Ellesmere Port, where the oil refinery is now located. The remaining building from what was a much larger complex can still be seen on Aigburth Hall Avenue just above Aigburth Road. The farm later came into the possession of Whalley Abbey and after the dissolution of the monasteries was in the possession of the Harrington and Tarleton families who owned Aigburth Hall. I don't believe the monks ran a ferry across the Mersey. Possibly you are confused with the monks of Birkenhead Priory who ran the first ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool during the middle ages?

Chris

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi all

Here's a website I came across on Jeremiah Horrocks and the Transit of Venus:

http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/c...e/history.html

Chris

[taffy]

Nice to see the Jeremiah Horrocks web site recognises this part of Otterspool as being in Toxteth !! :

"His family home was at Toxteth Park, now a suburb of Liverpool but then a country hamlet of some two dozen houses with an area called “Otterspool” (heigh ho!). It was once believed that his father was a farmer William Horrocks and such a man did indeed live in Toxteth [6], but the evidence points more to his father as James Horrocks, a watchmaker. The main evidence for this is a remark made by Horrocks’s friend William Crabtree (1610-1644[7]) in a letter to William Gasgoigne (1612-1642) that Jeremiah’s father “died May 3, 1641, grief for his son hastening his own death.” Flamsteed (the first Astronomer Royal) transcribed this letter in the 1670’s, and the Bishop’s transcript records the burial of a James Horrocks of Toxteth on May 4th in St Nicholas Church, at the Liverpool pierhead. Unfortunately the baptismal records at this church for 1618 (the probable year of Horrocks’s birth + christening) are missing. There is also a possibility that the family had come originally from the Deane district of Bolton, where some have suggested Jeremiah was born. A Jonas Horrocks was baptised in Bolton in 1622 – and Jeremiah refers to a brother Jonas of whom there is no other record.[8] Assertions of his birth in Toxteth were made in the 1832 Emmanuel College register itself, in 1859 by fellow Emmanuel student John Worthington (who later preserved his papers), and in 1773 by Emmanuel Fellow George William Bennet in a register of students in 1773 referring to Horrocks as a “very curious astronomer”. Toxteth therefore seems the almost certain birthplace "

[PhilipG]

Nice to see the Jeremiah Horrocks web site recognises this part of Otterspool as being in Toxteth !! :

"His family home was at Toxteth Park, now a suburb of Liverpool but then a country hamlet of some two dozen houses with an area called “Otterspool” (heigh ho!). It was once believed that his father was a farmer William Horrocks and such a man did indeed live in Toxteth [6], but the evidence points more to his father as James Horrocks, a watchmaker. The main evidence for this is a remark made by Horrocks’s friend William Crabtree (1610-1644[7]) in a letter to William Gasgoigne (1612-1642) that Jeremiah’s father “died May 3, 1641, grief for his son hastening his own death.” Flamsteed (the first Astronomer Royal) transcribed this letter in the 1670’s, and the Bishop’s transcript records the burial of a James Horrocks of Toxteth on May 4th in St Nicholas Church, at the Liverpool pierhead. Unfortunately the baptismal records at this church for 1618 (the probable year of Horrocks’s birth + christening) are missing. There is also a possibility that the family had come originally from the Deane district of Bolton, where some have suggested Jeremiah was born. A Jonas Horrocks was baptised in Bolton in 1622 – and Jeremiah refers to a brother Jonas of whom there is no other record.[8] Assertions of his birth in Toxteth were made in the 1832 Emmanuel College register itself, in 1859 by fellow Emmanuel student John Worthington (who later preserved his papers), and in 1773 by Emmanuel Fellow George William Bennet in a register of students in 1773 referring to Horrocks as a “very curious astronomer”. Toxteth therefore seems the almost certain birthplace "

There's no escaping the fact that he was supposed to have been born in Toxteth, as the Lower Lodge of Toxteth Park, in Otterspool, is said to have been his birthplace.
There is a school of thought that says that his actual birthplace is difficult to pin down with certainty.
The Lower Lodge was demolished in 1863 for the building of Otterspool Station.

[ChrisGeorge]

There's no escaping the fact that he was supposed to have been born in Toxteth, as the Lower Lodge of Toxteth Park, in Otterspool, is said to have been his birthplace.
There is a school of thought that says that his actual birthplace is difficult to pin down with certainty.
The Lower Lodge was demolished in 1863 for the building of Otterspool Station.

Hi Philip and Taffy

I am not sure of the Lower Lodge being his birthplace though I might be wrong. I was thinking more of those seventeenth century Puritan cottages in Jericho Lane that were demolished in my lifetime (in the Sixties) around the same time as the Old Hutte at Halewood, the latter to make way for the Ford factory.

Chris

[PhilipG]

Hi Philip and Taffy

I am not sure of the Lower Lodge being his birthplace though I might be wrong. I was thinking more of those seventeenth century Puritan cottages in Jericho Lane that were demolished in my lifetime (in the Sixties) around the same time as the Old Hutte at Halewood, the latter to make way for the Ford factory.

Chris

You could be right, Chris.
I have a photo which was taken in the 1920s in the Otterspool area.
The original glass slide was captioned "Jeremiah Horrocks' Birthplace".
Obviously, it can't be the Lower Lodge, and I was always mystified by it until I recently saw a photo (of Jericho Lane, I think) with a similar building, but from a different angle.

[ChrisGeorge]

You could be right, Chris.
I have a photo which was taken in the 1920s in the Otterspool area.
The original glass slide was captioned "Jeremiah Horrocks' Birthplace".
Obviously, it can't be the Lower Lodge, and I was always mystified by it until I recently saw a photo (of Jericho Lane, I think) with a similar building, but from a different angle.

Hi Philip

I see there is a book out on Jeremiah Horrocks. I wonder where author Peter Aughton places Horrocks' birthplace?

Chris

[Mark R]

I did a course in Astronomy over ten years ago and the members of the Observatory/Astronomy section claimed Horrocks was born in Toxteth. What Toxteth amounted to back then though is difficult to understand. Isaac Newton's studies were mostly used from Horrock's studies. I think if I had to pick a 'greatest Scouser' it would have to be Horrocks.

[PhilipG]

I did a course in Astronomy over ten years ago and the members of the Observatory/Astronomy section claimed Horrocks was born in Toxteth. What Toxteth amounted to back then though is difficult to understand. Isaac Newton's studies were mostly used from Horrock's studies. I think if I had to pick a 'greatest Scouser' it would have to be Horrocks.

The area Toxteth amounted to is not in any doubt and has been covered a lot in this forum.
Also see toxteth.net.
It stretched from Otterspool to Upper Parliament Street