JOHN MICHELL, the friend of Henry 

 Cavendish and Joseph Priestley, has left 

 no record of his life beyond his published 

 writings. A few of his letters have sur- 

 vived. Several of them addressed to Sir 

 William Herschel have been found among 

 that philosopher's manuscripts, and are 

 quoted in the collected edition of his 

 Papers. A long and hitherto unpublished 

 letter from Michell to Cavendish has 

 been preserved among the papers of that 

 great man, and is inserted in the present 

 Memoir 1 . 



It is not quite certain where and when 

 Michell was born. Probably his native 

 place was Nottingham, and the year of 

 his birth 1 724. Of his parentage nothing 

 appears to be known. The earliest 

 accounts of him which have been re- 

 covered are preserved in the registers of 



Queens' College, Cambridge, where a full 







1 This letter was known to Dr George Wilson, 

 Cavendish's biographer, and is referred to by him 

 in the Life (portea^ p. 47). 



3 



