Was born at Maidstone in 1767, and educated at the Grammar School there, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Becoming distinguished for his astronomical knowledge, he was appointed to succeed Dr. Maskelyne as Astronomer Royal, in 1811, which office he retained till the year before his death in 1836. He was buried at Lee, in the tomb of the celebrated Halley, one of his predecessors. He devoted his chief attention to determining the places of fixed stars, of which he published a catalogue of 1,113 in 1836.

[See "Gentleman's Magazine," 1836.]