Edward’s branch of the Pigott family can be traced back to
Adam Pigott who died in 1737, it was Adam Pigott and James Allen who in 1678
negotiated a lease from the Duke of Bedford for the construction of Covent
Garden Market. Edward’ s grandfather Ralph married Alethea daughter of William
eighth viscount Fairfax of Emley and owner of Gilling Castle in Yorkshire. You
need to remember Gilling Castle it will come into our story later.
Ralph’s son Nathaniel was the father of Edward and was also
an astronomer, but their characters were very different. Their story could
resemble an astronomical soap opera.
Edward could be described as someone who was not phased by anything or
anyone and was always a calm character. He never appeared to get flustered and
was always very generous when working with colleagues. He also was someone who
knew everyone who was anyone in the field of astronomy.
Nathaniel will be the bad guy in the story as will become
apparent later. It was probably due to this that Edward was much closer to his
mother Anna Mathurine De Beriot of Javingue, which was then in the Austrian
Netherlands. Today this area is northwester and central Belgium and most of
Luxembourg.
Edward was born possibly in Whitton in Middlesex in 1753 and
went to Thomas Plunket’s school in Hammersmith and apparently learned nothing.
The Pigott’s were the poor relations of the landed Fairfax’s of Gilling in
Yorkshire the Pigott’s would lead somewhat of a vagrant life. They stayed in
rented property in parts of Britain and on the continent either with family or
friends. Edward lived with his parents in France from 1763-1771.
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| Edward Pigott |
Edward’s father Nathaniel was also an accomplished surveyor
as well as an astronomer although it is
unclear how he became interested in the subject. It was this interest in
astronomy that must have impressed the young Edward. Nathaniel had purchased
some of the best telescopes available at that time. Nathaniel with the help of
Edward observed the partial eclipse of the Sun on August 16th, 1765, in France.
While in France they also observed the transit of Venus on
June 3rd, 1769. Transits of Venus are very rare and only 7 have been observed
since the invention of the telescope in 1608. A transit occurs when a planet
closer to the Sun the Earth can be seen passing over the disk of the Sun. The
only planets that can do this are Mercury and Venus. The last transits of Venus
were in 2004 and 2012 I was lucky enough to see the 2004 transit the next will
not be until 2117 and 2125.
In 1771 both Nathaniel and Edward were in Britain visiting
both London and Gilling Castle which greatly impressed Nathaniel. Edward caused
some interest because of his dress code, having spent a large part of his life
in France he dressed in the French fashion with a large, brimmed hat, fluff
collars and cuffs and long flowing coats. This very colourful style of dress
was not usually seen in conservative Britain.
In 1772 the Pigott’s met representatives of the Austrian
Netherlands government through various contacts they had with the Brussels
Imperial Academy. They were asked to work out geographically the locations of
the principal cities within the Austrian Netherlands. This was accomplished by
determining the positions of buildings and towns in relation to the known
positions of certain celestial objects.
In 1773 Lord Fairfax of Gilling died and his property passed
to his elderly and unmarried daughter, Lady Anne Fairfax. It was her chaplain
John Bolton who managed the estate but in 1775 when Nathaniel Pigott settled at
Gilling that the problems really started. Nathaniel Pigott wanted to manage the
estates of his cousin, with a view to owning the estate. He managed to persuade
her to go to London while she was unwell and let him run the estate. He made
her sign some articles of agreement which would give Pigott £250 per year to
manage the estate. Nathaniel was not a particularly nice person, and he would
make life difficult for anyone who got in the way of his plans. In this case
owning the Gilling Castle Estate. He did his very best to discredit John Bolton
who was a great supporter of Lady Anne Fairfax at every opportunity.
It was at this time that the Pigott’s stayed briefly with
another relative Lady Widdrington at Wickhill House near Stow on the Wold,
Gloucestershire. They then moved to another of the Pigott estates and to
Frampton Hall near Llantwit Major in Glamorganshire where an observatory was
built. The observatory was lavishly equipped with no less than 4 telescopes
plus other astronomical equipment for recording the positions of the stars and
clocks for working out the time for their locality.
It was now that Edward’s career in astronomy would really
begin having assisted his father in making observations of the night sky while
in France, he had acquired a good knowledge of the sky and how to make and
record observations.
However bizarrely they set to work not on an astronomical
problem but on a problem on the width of the River Severn. The maps that were
produced at the time indicated the width of the river between Llantwit and
Watchet on the Somerset shore was between 20 to 21 miles. The Pigott using
their knowledge of the positions of the stars and mathematics worked out that
the River Severn at this point was only 13 miles wide. This went a long way to
explain why some many ships were running around in the area.
Edward now turned his attention to astronomy and to the
stars, while at Frampton House he
discovered a nebula in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
Coma Berenices or Berenices Hair is a faint constellation
with no bright stars. The constellation
can be found when the sky is clear but if there is any haze around, the area
will appear blank.
Edward Pigott made this discovery on the 23rd of March 1779
twelve days before the German astronomer Johann Bode saw the nebula. This
nebula that Pigott had discovered was in fact a spiral shaped galaxy lying at
around 17 million light years from Earth.
The galaxy the Pigott had discovered is known today as the
Black Eye Galaxy, it is so named because there is a lot of dust between us and
the central part of the galaxy which is very bright but the dust blocking the
light makes it look as if the galaxy has a black eye.
In 1781 the Pigott’s moved to York there was great
expectations of Nathaniel taking over the running of what was left of the
Gilling estate. They moved to a house in Bootham near Bootham Bar. They built
an observatory consisting of two octagonal rooms on top of each other. The
observatory was 14 feet in diameter and was completed in May 1781 it was one of
the most well-equipped observatories in the country.
Edward wrote to William Herschel who was a good friend
regarding his move to York, however in March 1781 Herschel had stunned the
astronomical world when he discovered the planet, we now call Uranus from his
home in Bath using a telescope that he made himself. It was completely
unexpected, there were five known planets, the Sun and Moon which made the
mystical number of seven. The discovery made Herschel the most famous
astronomer of this time.
Edward’s connections in the world of science were about to
be used to the fullest as it was by good fortune that in 1781 John Goodricke
would join him in York and their astronomical adventures were about to begin.
They had both already been observing a star in Perseus call Algol or the
Winking Demon.
Most of the star names are Arabic and Algol means the
winking demon. The star varies in brightness so is classified as a variable
star. This variability was discovered by the Italian astronomer Montanari in
1669. The name Algol or winking demon suggests that maybe the Arab astronomers
of a 1,000 years ago thought it varied in brightness although we have no proof
of this.
Edward Pigott and John Goodricke would become the fathers
off Variable Star Astronomy. This was because they were the pioneers in this
field of astronomical research into variable stars. They worked together in
York between 1781 -1786 until the early death of Goodricke at the age of 22.
Goodricke was deaf but there was absolutely nothing wrong with his thinking
processes.
John Goodricke observed from the Treasurer’ House in York
and Edward Pigott from his observatory in Bootham in York around about a
quarter of a mile away.
They noticed that the changes in light variation were very
regular. They noted that it changed brightness in just under every three days
before returning to normal brightness. The cycle then repeated itself
regularly. The whole cycle could be followed by the naked eye. In other words,
no telescope was needed to follow the light changes in the star.
It appears as if both Goodricke and Pigott suggested that
there were two objects orbiting each other and eclipsing each other and causing
the light changes in the Algol. They were correct. It would be about 100 years
later that astronomers could prove their theory to be correct.
Astronomers today use this same principle when they notice
tiny changes in light from stars suggesting that there might be an object or
planet passing in front of the star and therefore orbiting that star. Of over
4,000 exoplanets or planets that are known to orbit other stars around 1,000
have been used using this method.
Goodricke and Pigott were over 200 years ahead of their time
with their thinking.
Although Goodricke gets most of the praise it was a joint
effort, Pigott because of all his astronomical contacts made sure that the work
that Goodricke was published. Goodricke
was only 19 years old and unknown while Pigott through his contacts knew
everyone worth knowing in the field of astronomy. Pigott seemed to be quite
content for Goodricke to get the praises.
He encouraged Goodricke to send his paper to London where in
1783 the paper on the star Algol was read to the Royal Society. It bought him
instant recognition throughout the astronomical world and would lead to him
being presented with the Copley Medal the most prestigious award that could be
given to a scientist.
They continued to observe the stars and in November 1783
Edward Pigott would become the first person to discover a comet from York and
the first Englishman to have a comet he discovered named after him.
September 10th, 1784 would become a night to
remember in York when both Edward Pigott and John Goodricke each discovered a
new variable star. Edward Pigott discovered the star eta Aquila varied while
John Goodricke discovered the variability of beta Lyra. Until this point in
time only 5 variable stars were known to astronomers, here on one night a
further two were added to that list.
This would be Pigott’s last astronomical discovery in York,
in 1785 he left for a two-year visit to France and while he was away, John
Goodricke died. On his return he stayed in York until 1793 when his mother
died, and he then moved to the city of Bath. He them returned to studying the
night sky. In 1795 he would discover two more variable stars, R Corona Borealis
and R Scutum.
I just need to finish off the story of Gilling Castle
because Lady Anne Fairfax died in 1793 with Nathaniel Pigott becoming owner of
Gilling Castle an act or Parliament was needed to allow the Pigott family to
take the Fairfax name and inherit the castle. This was done in 1802 and
Nathaniel decided that his second son Charles Gregory should inherit Gilling
Castle rather than his eldest son Edward. Nathaniel would die in 1804.
In 1802 during the treaty of Amiens between Britian and
France Pigott returned to France to meet friends. This was possibly not the
best thing to do because in 1804 war broke out again and he was placed under
house arrest in Fontainebleau. He was released in 1806 after British and French
scientists had petitioned the French government for his release. He was given
safe passage back to Calais under instructions by Napoleon.
On his return to England, he carried on with his astronomy
and a new passion the study Phycology or Seaweed a subject in which he became
something of an expert.
He made some observations of the great comet of 1811 but as
he said to his great friend Sir William Herschel in 1821, he was getting older
and finding it more difficult to move around.
Edward Pigott died in the 27th June 1825 in the
city of Bath, in accordance with his wishes his body was transported to
Bridlington where he was to buried next to his mother in Bridlington Priory.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
