J. Horrocks, S. Molyneux 89 



time a curate at Hoole was afraid that clerical duties would 

 prevent his observing the transit. He, therefore, asked 

 his friend Crabtree to watch independently for the appearance 

 of Venus on the solar disc. Fortunately, Horrocks was 

 set free before the planet had crossed the sun, and he 

 could follow its passage until the time of sunset. This was 

 the first time that human eye had witnessed this rare 

 occurrence. Among the frescoes by Madox Brown in 

 the Town Hall of Manchester one represents this transit 

 of Venus. Unfortunately, the pictures being intended to 

 commemorate events in the history of Manchester, the 

 scene is laid in that city, and Crabtree is made to be the 

 central figure, conveying a wrong impression of a great 

 historical event. 



The papers left by Horrocks were preserved by Crabtree 

 and ultimately published. They show that he had the 

 making of a great man of science in him. Before he was 

 twenty, he showed how Kepler's laws had to be modified 

 in order to fit the motion of the moon, and he suspected 

 that these modifications were due to some disturbing cause 

 emanating from the sun, as Newton afterwards proved was 

 actually the case. He also discovered certain irregularities 

 in the motions of Jupiter and Saturn, now known to be due 

 to their mutual attractions. 



The name of Molyneux first appears in this country at 

 the time of the Norman Conquest through William de 

 Moline, from whom the Earls of Sefton are descended. 

 Another family of the same name is derived from Sir Thomas 

 Molyneux, who came over from France, settled in Ireland, 

 and became Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer. One of 

 his great grandsons was Sir Thomas Molyneux, physician 

 and zoologist, another William Molyneux, a philosopher, 

 politician, and astronomer. Several of his papers were 

 published in the Transactions of the Royal Society. They 

 deal with the erecting eyepiece of terrestrial telescopes, 

 the tides and the causes of winds; he also pointed out 

 errors which occurred in surveying through neglecting to 

 take account of the secular variation of the magnetic 

 declination. 



Samuel Molyneux (1689-1728), the son of William, 



