Richard Dunthorne

Richard Dunthorne (1711 – 3 March 1775) was an English astronomer and surveyor, who worked in Cambridge as astronomical and scientific assistant to Roger Long (master of Pembroke Hall and Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry), and also concurrently for many years as surveyor to the Bedford Level Corporation.

There are short biographical notes of Dunthorne, one in the Philosophical Transactions (Abridgement Series, published 1809) (unsigned), another in the , and a third by W T Lynn. Dunthorne was born in humble circumstances in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, where he attended the free grammar-school. There he attracted the notice of Roger Long (later Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge), whose protégé Dunthorne became. Dunthorne moved to Cambridge where Long first appointed him as a "footboy", and where he received some further education (though this does not seem to have been regular university education). Dunthorne then "managed" a preparatory school in Coggeshall, Essex, and later returned to Cambridge where Long obtained for him an appointment as a "butler" at Pembroke Hall, an office that Dunthorne retained for the rest of his life. Here Dunthorne's main activity seems to have been in assisting Long in astronomical and scientific work.

Dunthorne also held an appointment for some years, concurrently with his work with Long, as superintendent of works of the Bedford Level Corporation, responsible for water management in the Fens; he began this work several years" before 1761, continuing into the 1770s. In this role, Dunthorne was concerned in a survey of the fens in Cambridgeshire, and he also supervised construction of locks near Chesterton on the River Cam.

Dunthorne's association with Long remained lifelong, and in the end Dunthorne acted as executor of Long's will.

Dunthorne published a book of astronomical tables in 1739 entitled Practical Astronomy of the Moon: or, new Tables... Exactly constructed from Sir Isaac Newton's Theory, as published by Dr Gregory in his Astronomy, London & Oxford, 1739. These tables were modelled on Isaac Newton's lunar theory of 1702, to facilitate testing Newton's theory.

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