28 Dr. Bottomley on the late 



Memoir of the late Joseph Baxendell, F.R.S., F.R.A.S, 

 By James Bottomley, D.Sc. 



Joseph Baxendell was born April 19th, 1815, at Bank 

 Top, Manchester. He was the son of Thomas Baxendell, 

 an intelligent man, who by his own exertions raised himself 

 from humble life. The family consisted of six sons and two 

 daughters. Of his mother, whose maiden name was Mary 

 Shepley, it is related that she had a strong love of observing 

 the heavenly bodies, knowing well the planets, and many of 

 the principal constellations ; to this source probably may be 

 traced Mr. Baxendell's life-long devotion to astronomy, early 

 impressions giving to the mind, while yet supple and tender, 

 a bent which remains to old age. His early years were spent 

 at his parents' farm at Smedley, but agriculture was not 

 his destiny, and, later on, a churn from the old farm served 

 him as the most suitable round table on which to grind and 

 polish specula for telescopes for himself and some early 

 scientific friends. He was educated by Mr. Whalley, of Cheet- 

 ham Hill, a man of some scientific attainments. He proved 

 himself a rapid learner, and soon acquired all that his teacher 

 could impart ; to a large extent we may consider him as self- 

 taught. If there had been then the opportunities now offered 

 by the city for instruction in experimental science, possibly 

 there might have been developed a capacity for experimental 

 enquiry which would have been serviceable in some branches 

 of his work. He does not seem to have devoted much time 

 to experiment, and he was destined to develope into the 

 accurate observer of phenomena, and the deduccr of laws 

 from laborious calculations. From his bent for mathematics, 

 one may reasonably infer that a brilliant mathematician 

 would at this time have found in him an apt pupil, and yet 

 again, a possible advantage might not have been without 

 some detriments, and excursions into the domains of pure 



