JONATHAN INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 435 



JONATHAN INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 



Jonathan Ingersoll Bowditch, the second son of Nathaniel 

 and Mary (Ingersoll) Bowditch, was born in Salem, < )ctober 15, 1806. 

 He inherited more amply than any other member of the singularly 

 gifted family his father's love and aptness for mathematical science, 

 and had opportunity served he would have attained distinguished emi- 

 nence, as he won no little reputation, in that department. But after 

 his school days were over he entered upon a mercantile career, which 

 for many years left him scanty leisure for scientific pursuits, except 

 when at sea, and then, of course, with limited access to books and 

 none to teachers. He commenced business in Boston as a clerk in the 

 office of Messrs. Ropes and Ward, East India merchants, and in their 

 service made several voyages as supercargo. At that time a passage 

 to or from the East Indies round the Cape of Good Hope occupied 

 seldom less than four, and often five months. Dui-ing these voyages 

 Mr. Bowditch made diligent use of his father's '' Practical Navigator," 

 taking observations, and keeping the ship's reckoning. At the same 

 time, by well chosen books and well directed courses of reading he 

 supplied in no small measure what in his earlier culture fell short of a 

 liberal education. In 1836 he became President of the American 

 Insurance Company in Boston, and held that office till 1864, retaining 

 his place on the Board of Directors till 188-i. As a business man he 

 was distinguished not only by integrity of the most rigid type, but 

 equally by promptness, energy, efficiency, and a practical wisdom 

 closely akin to intuition. For these qualities his services were 

 sought as a director in institutions of all kinds, financial, industrial, 

 and charitable, and, numerous as were the trusts thus devolved upon 

 him, he never sufiered one of them to be a sinecure, though very 

 many of them involved the gratuitous bestowal of large amounts of 

 time and labor. Indeed, he sustained for many years two characters 

 not often united in a superlative degree ; in business circles being re- 

 garded as of exceptionally sound and safe judgment and superior exec- 

 utive capacity, while the outside world looked upon him as a public 

 benefactor. 



Mr. Bowditch shared, and no one who knew him can doubt that he 

 shared with his whole heart and soul, the honor that rests upon all 

 his father's children in determining unselfishly the question whether 

 he should devote a full third part of what would be their patrimony 

 to the publication of his great astronomical work, or should accept 

 the subsidies that might be offered by the American Academy and the 



