Colin Campbell

FRS
Died26 January 1752
Kingston, Jamaica
NationalityScottish
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
SpouseMargaret Foster
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy

Colin Campbell FRS (died 26 January 1752) was a Scottish astronomer.

He grew up in Jamaica and died there in Kingston in 1752. He matriculated at Glasgow University, in 1720. He was invested as a fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1733. He studied Newton's theory of the diminution of gravity away from the equator. He made astronomical observations, in correspondence with Edmund Halley.[1] He held the office of Member of the Council (Jamaica) in 1742. After 1742, he sold his astronomical instruments to Alexander Macfarlane.[2] In 1748, he lived at St. George Hanover Square, London.

In Jamaica, Campbell was a slaveholder and planter. In his will, Campbell bequeathed to his wife, Margaret Campbell, "the use and enjoyment of any of my Negroes at her own choice".[3] In his will, he also bequeathed to his son, Colin, his "Negroes" at his two sugar plantations, Orange Bay and Fish River.[4]

Family

He was the son of Colonel John Campbell and Katherine Claiborne. He married Margaret Foster who died in London in 1786;[5] they had children

  • John Campbell b. 8 January 1735.[6]

John Campbell left Jamaica in 1756 "owing to a bad state of health"[7] but returned in 1767[8] to dispose of the estates in order to clear his debts.

  • Elizabeth Campbell born 15 December 1736.[9]
  • Margaret Jane Campbell born a 6 January 1739.[10] She died in Surrey in September 1771.[11]
  • Colin Campbell1 b. a 1747.[12] He was a Lt. Colonel in the 1st Guards and died at Portman Square, London, in 1793 having contracted "the Dunkirk fever" while campaigning against the French in Flanders.[13]

Works

  • "An Account of Some Observations Made in London, by Mr. George Graham, F.R.S. and at Black-River in Jamaica, by Colin Campbell, Esq; F.R.S. concerning the Going of a Clock; In Order to Determine the Difference between the Lengths of Isochronal Pendulums in Those Places". Communicated by J. Bradley, M. A. Astr. Prof. Savill. Oxon. F.R.S. Phil. Trans. 1733 38:302-314; doi:10.1098/rstl.1733.0048

References

  1. ↑ Science in the British colonies of America, Raymond Phineas Stearns, University of Illinois Press, 1970, ISBN 978-0-252-00120-8
  2. ↑ "The Jamaican Observatories of Colin Campbell, F.R.S. and Alexander Macfarlane, F.R.S.", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, D. J. Bryden, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 261-272
  3. ↑ "Campbell Wills". www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  4. ↑ "Campbell Wills". www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  5. ↑ National Archives, London, PROB 11/1142, will of Margaret Campbell, probated May 1786
  6. ↑ Westminster City Archives, Saint Anne Soho, Baptisms, Vol. 2, February 1734/5
  7. ↑ Argyll & Bute Archives, MacTavish of Dunardry papers, Colin Campbell letter to cousin James Campbell of Kaims, at Isle of Bute, Scotland, 22 August 1757
  8. ↑ Campbell, Marion, ‘Letters by The Packet’, Argyll & Bute library, 2004. John Campbell of Orange Bay to his father-in-law in Scotland, dated 4 June 1767 (Jamaica letters in the Kilberry papers)
  9. ↑ Westminster City Archives, Saint Anne Soho, Baptisms, Vol. 2, January 1736/7
  10. ↑ Westminster City Archives, St James Piccadilly, Baptisms, Vol. 3, January 1739
  11. ↑ National Archives, London, will of Margaret Jane Campbell, PROB 11/970, proved 12 September 1771.
  12. ↑ Not named in 1746 will of Henry Barham, his mother's stepfather, but named in the 1748 will of his father
  13. ↑ General Evening Post, London, 2 November 1793, news item
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