10 EARLY HISTORY OF THE NAUTICAL ALMANAC. 



two separate persons, and examined by a third. As the com- 

 puters were under the direct supervision of Dr. Maskelyne, the 

 first volumes were probably calculated within the walls of the 

 Eoyal Observatory, but I can find no record of these early com- 

 putations. One of the computers, as stated in Davies Gilbert's 

 " Parochial History of Cornwall," and other histories, was the 

 distinguished Cornishman, Malachy Hitchins, afterwards vicar 

 of St. Hilary in 1775, and of Gwinear in 1785.* How long he 

 resided at Greenwich I cannot ascertain, but I believe it was 

 only for a short period in 1766 and 1767, tiU he became fully 

 acquainted with the Astronomer Eoyal's plans for carrying on 

 the computations.! For more than forty years, however, he 

 continued to be the able coadjutor of Dr. Maskelyne as the 

 comparer of the ''Nautical Almanac," and the confidential cor- 

 respondent on many matters connected with its administration, 

 though his name and services do not appear to have been 

 acknowledged in the prefaces of the various Almanacs. 



There can be no doubt that Dr. Maskelyne had a very 

 favourable opinion of Malachy Hitchins as a painstaking calcu- 

 lator, for though he was only about 25 or 26 years of age when 

 he became one of the early computers of the Almanac, he was 

 in a few years entrusted with the far more responsible duty of 

 comparer of the calculations performed by other computers at 

 their private residences in various parts of the country. As the 

 comparer, therefore, all the calculations were sent to Mr. 

 Hitchins for revision. If the corresponding portions of the 

 work calculated by different computers were found to be in 

 agreement, they were passed as correct ; but if not, then it was 

 the duty of Mr. Hitchins to discover in which computer's work 



* Both these benefices were retained by Mr. Hitchins till his death, on March 

 28th, 1809. 



+ In the early months of 1769 Mr. Hitchins was evidently not. residing at 

 Greenwich, as Dr. Maskelyne has stated that he came to the Observatory in that 

 year specially to assist in the observations about the time of the transit of Venus, 

 His family is believed to have generally resided in Devonshire, both before and 

 after his introduction to Dr. Maskelyne, sometime at or near Exeter, till his in- 

 stitution to the Vicarage of St. Hilary, on November Cth, 1775, on the death of 

 the Rev. John Penneck. In January, 1764, Mr. Hitchins married a Miss 

 Hawkin, at Buckland-Brewer, near Bideford (not Hawkins or Hocking as given 

 respectively in the "Bibliotheca Cornubiensis" and Lake's "Parochial History,") 

 by whom he had four sons and one daughter. 



