Richard Towneley

Richard Towneley (10 October 1629 – 22 January 1707) was an English mathematician, natural philosopher and astronomer from Towneley near Burnley, Lancashire. He was the nephew of Christopher Towneley, who corresponded with (and possibly introduced to each other) a group of seventeenth-century astronomers in the north of England which included Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree and William Gascoigne, the pioneer astronomers who laid the groundwork for research astronomy in the UK. An investigation carried out with the physician Henry Power, followed by correspondence with Robert Boyle, showed the relationship between the pressure and volume of gas in a closed system and led to the formulation of Boyle's Law, or as Boyle named it, Mr. Towneley's hypothesis. He introduced John Flamsteed to the micrometer and invented the deadbeat escapement used in two clocks in the Greenwich Observatory.

Towneley was born at Nocton, southeast of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, on 10 October 1629. His father was Charles Towneley (1600–1644) and his mother before marriage was Mary Trappes (1599–1690). He had three brothers and three sisters. Towneley came from a Catholic family which stoutly refused to conform to the Protestant Church, and was thus excluded both from public office and from English universities. He is thought to have been educated at one of the English colleges in the Low Countries as his younger brothers are both known to have studied at the English College, Douai in France. His interests included mathematics, natural philosophy and astronomy. His father, Charles, was killed at the battle of Marston Moor in 1644.The civil war had been disastrous for the Towneley family and their Lancashire estates were confiscated by Parliamentary sequestrators. Richard married Mary Paston of Barningham, Norfolk and fathered four sons and four daughters. Although the date of their marriage is not recorded their first son Clement, was born in 1654. By 1653 the Lancashire lands were regained, but the Nocton estate in Lincolnshire had to be sold in 1661 to pay outstanding debts.

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