36 



" at Hull."* From the dates affixed to his ob- 

 servations, it appears probable that Mr. Wad- 

 dington had then resided here at least ten years. 

 This communication alone might scarcely entitle 

 him to notice as an author ; but his subsequent 

 appearance in that character, and the honor con- 

 ferred upon him by the Royal Society in select- 

 ing him to accompany the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne, 

 F. R. S., to the Island of St. Helena, for the 

 purpose of observing the transit of Venus over 

 the sun, which took place on the 6th of June, 

 176l,f will fully justify the introduction of his 

 name on the present occasion. The two philo- 

 sophers sailed in the month of January, 1761, 

 in the Sea-Horse frigate, Captain Smith, a grant 

 of money having been made by his then late 

 Majesty, King George the Second, for the pur- 

 pose of defraying the expense of the expedition. 

 The result of their proceedings at St. Helena was 

 communicated by Dr. Maskelyne to the Royal 

 Society, in a paper containing Mr. Waddington's 

 observations as well as his own, of so much of 

 the transit as the state of the weather, which 

 was unfortunately very unfavourable, would 

 allow them to see.J Mr. Waddington, on his 

 return to England in the Oxford East-Indiaman, 



* Gent. Mag. vol. 30, p. 581. 

 f Ibid. vol. 30, p. 538. 

 | Phil. Tr. vol.52, p. 196. 



