Baily, FRANCIS

Baily, FRANCIS, astronomer, was born at Newbury, Berks, 28th April 1774. An apprenticeship in a London mercantile house was followed by a few years of roving, but at the age of 25 he settled down as a stockbroker in London. In financial business he showed great capacity, and he gradually acquired a large fortune. Meantime he published a series of excellent books on questions involved in banking and assurance. At 51 he retired from business to devote himself entirely to astronomy. Scientific honours were soon showered upon him both from home and abroad. Among the chief of the services rendered to his chosen subject through his unwearying industry, were his share in the foundation of the Astronomical Society, and in the improvement of the Nautical Almanac, his laborious repetition of Cavendish's experiment to measure the density of the earth (see EARTH), and the production of the Astronomical Society's Star-catalogue. The latter, says his biographer, Sir J. Herschel, 'put the astronomical world in possession of a power which may be said, without exaggeration, to have changed the face of sidereal astronomy.' Baily's writings, ninety-one in number, included a Life of Flamsteed (1835), but mostly appeared in the Astronomical Society's Memoirs. He died in London, 30th August 1844.