Robert Waddington (mathematician)

Robert Waddington (died 1779) was a mathematician, astronomer and teacher of navigation. He is best known as one of the observers appointed by the Royal Society to observe the 1761 transit of Venus with Nevil Maskelyne on the island of Saint Helena. On that voyage they made successful use of the lunar-distance method of establishing longitude at sea. Waddington subsequently taught the method at his academy in London and published a navigation manual, A Practical Method for Finding the Longitude and Latitude of a Ship at Sea, by Observations of the Moon (1763).

Little is known about Waddington's early life, although he was probably the "Mr. Rob. Waddington of Hull" who appeared in The Gentleman's Diary or The Mathematical Repository in 1758 and Benjamin Martin's General Magazine of Arts and Sciences in 1759. The papers of the gentleman astronomer Nathaniel Pigott show that Waddington was living in his household, in Whitton, Middlesex, immediately before his appointment as an observer by the Royal Society. It is from these manuscripts that we have a detailed knowledge of Waddington's experience of the Saint Helena expedition and his subsequent attempts to forge a career as a teacher, mathematical practitioner and longitude projector.

In 1760 Waddington was appointed by the Royal Society to accompany Nevil Maskelyne on a voyage to Saint Helena as one of two expeditions being organised by the Society, and paid for by George II, to observe the 1761 Transit of Venus. The expedition's equipment was ordered by Maskelyne and the Society arranged transport from the East India Company. The Directors of the East India Company in London wrote to The Governor of St Helena on 31 December 1760 to inform them that "Revd. Mr. Nevil Maskelyne and Mr. Robert Waddington take passage on the Prince Henry to St. Helena. As this is done to make some improvements in Astronomy which will be of general utility the two last named gentlemen are upon their arrival and during their stay to be accommodated by you in a suitable manner with diet and apartments at the Company's expense and you are to give them all the assistance as to materials, workmen, and whatsoever else the service they are employed upon may require." The reply confirmed their readiness to help and stated "We have already erected an observatory for them in the country".

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