Somerville

Somerville, MRS MARY, a lady famed for her mastery of mathematics and physical science, was the daughter of Admiral Sir William Fairfax, and was born on 26th December 1780 at Jedburgh in the manse of her uncle and future father-in-law, Thomas Somerville, D.D. (1741–1830), the author of My own Life and Times. She was brought up at Burntisland and Edinburgh, amid somewhat narrow family circumstances. It was in an algebraic sum in a magazine of fashions that she first made acquaintance with the subject that most engrossed her attention in after-life. In 1804 she married a cousin, Captain Greig, of the Russian navy, Russian consul in London. He died in 1806, and it was not till her return north as a widow that she was free to buy the books she wanted, and to study the subject that most interested her. In 1812 she married another cousin, Dr William Somerville, inspector of the army medical board, who entered warmly into all her ideas. They removed to London in 1816, where Mrs Somerville went much into society, and became known as possessed of scientific interests and gifts. In 1823 she was invited by Lord Brougham to try to popularise for the English public Laplace's great work, the Mécanique Céleste; and the Celestial Mechanism of the Heavens (1830) was received with the greatest admiration. Mrs Somerville was awarded a royal pension of £300 in 1835. Other works by her were The Connection of the Physical Sciences (1835), Physical Geography (1848), and Molecular and Microscopic Science (1866). Mrs Somerville, who for many years resided in Italy, died at Naples, 29th November 1872. An autobiography, edited and supplemented by her daughter, was published in 1873. After her is named Somerville Hall, a college for women at Oxford (1879).