Post by Tamrin on Apr 14, 2010 9:44:04 GMT 10
Desaguliers, John Theophilus
(b. La Rochelle, France, 12 March 1683; d. London, England, 10 March 1744)
[Excerpt - encyclopedia.com - Linked Above]
(b. La Rochelle, France, 12 March 1683; d. London, England, 10 March 1744)
[Excerpt - encyclopedia.com - Linked Above]
Desaguliers was taken to Guernsey when he was less than three years old by his Huguenot parents, who in 1694 settled in Islington, where the father taught school and educated his son. After his father’s death Desaguliers entered Christ Church, Oxford (28 October 1705), whence he proceeded B.A. in 1709. About this time James Keill abandoned the lectureship in experimental philosophy at Hart Hall that he had held for some ten years; he was succeeded by Desaguliers, who took his M.A. from this college on 3 May 1712. In that year he moved to Channel Row, Westminster, no doubt in the hope of gaining a more remunerative audience. His first book, a translation of A Treatise on Fortification from the French of Ozanam, had already appeared (Oxford, 1711).
Continuing in London the style of scientific lecturing he had inherited from Keill, and having taken orders, he was given the living of Whitchurch and Little Stanmore, near Edgeware, to which royal favor later added other benefices. Before long Desaguliers was initiated into No. 4 Lodge of the Freemasons, meeting at the Rummer and Grapes Inn, Channel Row; and by 1719 he had become the third grand master of the recently constituted Grand Lodge of the order. It is said that Desaguliers induced Frederick, prince of Wales, to become a Freemason and also that through him “Freemasonry emerged from its original lowly station and became a fashionable cult” (Stokes). It was at the behest of one such fashionable past grand master, the duke of Wharton (Pope’s “scorn and wonder of our days”), that in 1723 Desaguliers (then deputy master) dedicated to the grand master (the duke of Montagu) James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons (in a preface). Others of the Royal Society, to which Desaguliers belonged, joined this distinguished fraternity.
Continuing in London the style of scientific lecturing he had inherited from Keill, and having taken orders, he was given the living of Whitchurch and Little Stanmore, near Edgeware, to which royal favor later added other benefices. Before long Desaguliers was initiated into No. 4 Lodge of the Freemasons, meeting at the Rummer and Grapes Inn, Channel Row; and by 1719 he had become the third grand master of the recently constituted Grand Lodge of the order. It is said that Desaguliers induced Frederick, prince of Wales, to become a Freemason and also that through him “Freemasonry emerged from its original lowly station and became a fashionable cult” (Stokes). It was at the behest of one such fashionable past grand master, the duke of Wharton (Pope’s “scorn and wonder of our days”), that in 1723 Desaguliers (then deputy master) dedicated to the grand master (the duke of Montagu) James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons (in a preface). Others of the Royal Society, to which Desaguliers belonged, joined this distinguished fraternity.
