LEADBETTER, CHARLES (fl. 1728), astronomer, was for many years a gauger in the royal excise, and afterwards taught mathematics, navigation, and astronomy at the 'Hand and Pen' in Cock Lane, London. Although stated to have died in November 1744 (London Mag. xiii. 569), there is evidence from the successive editions of his works that he was alive as late as 1769. He wrote: 1. 'A Treatise of Eclipses.' London, 1727. 2. 'Astronomy, or the True System of the Planets demonstrated.' 1727. 3. 'A Compleat System of Astronomy.' 1728; 2nd edit. 1742; the second volume containing new tables of the planetary motions. He gave in this work perhaps the earliest demonstration of a well-known property of stereographic projection. 4. 'Astronomy of the Satellites of the Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, grounded upon Newton's Theory of the Earth's Satellite; also New Tables of the Motions of the Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn.' 1729. 5. 'Uranoscopia, or the Contemplation of the Heavens,' 1735. 6. 'Mechanick Dialling.' 1737, adapted to new style in editions of 1756 and 1769. 7. 'The Royal Ganger.' 1739; 4th edit. 1756. 8. 'The Young Mathematician's Companion.' 1739; 2nd edit. 1748. Leadbetter was one of the first commentators on Newton, and his writings were useful in their time.
[Delambre's Hist, de l'Astronomie en XVIIIe Siècle, p. 87; Madler's Geschichte der Himmelskonde, ii. 531; Lalande's Astronomie, ii. 222; Lalande's Bibl. Astr.; Weidler's Bibl. Astr.; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]