Just by the west door in the nave of the Abbey is a memorial
to astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks (1617?-1641). The inscription was
set into a plain piece of white marble on the monument to John
Conduitt, nephew of Sir Isaac Newton. The inscription includes
words of Horrocks himself at the beginning in Latin, which can be
roughly translated "Called away to greater things which it is not
seemly should be neglected on account of these embellishments",
referring to his duties as a clergyman which were his priority.
The rest of the words were composed by Arthur Stanley, Dean of
Westminster and the memorial was unveiled in 1874:
"AD MAJORA AVOCATUS QUÆ OB HÆC PARERGA NEGLIGI NON
DECUIT". IN MEMORY OF JEREMIAH HORROCKS, CURATE OF HOOLE, IN
LANCASHIRE, WHO DIED ON THE 3rd OF JANUARY 1641, IN OR NEAR HIS
22nd YEAR; HAVING IN SO SHORT A LIFE DETECTED THE LONG INEQUALITY
IN THE MEAN MOTION OF JUPITER AND SATURN; DISCOVERED THE ORBIT OF
THE MOON TO BE AN ELLIPSE; DETERMINED THE MOTION OF THE LUNAR
APSE; SUGGESTED THE PHYSICAL CAUSE OF ITS REVOLUTION; AND
PREDICTED FROM HIS OWN OBSERVATIONS THE TRANSIT OF VENUS, WHICH
WAS SEEN BY HIMSELF AND HIS FRIEND, WILLIAM CRABTREE, ON SUNDAY
THE 24th OF NOVEMBER [O.S.] 1639; THIS TABLET, FACING THE
MONUMENT OF NEWTON, WAS RAISED AFTER THE LAPSE OF MORE THAN TWO
CENTURIES, DECEMBER 9th 1874.
Jeremiah was born at Toxteth Park near Liverpool, son of a
farmer, William, and had a brother called Jonas. He left
Cambridge University without a degree but was ordained curate at
Hoole near Preston. He instructed himself in science and was the
first to observe the transit of Venus across the sun by throwing
an image of the sun from his telescope onto a screen in a
darkened room. Between taking the Sunday services at his church
he was able to view it clearly. He was also the first to begin to
take a series of tidal observations. Ill health caused him to
resign his curacy and he died suddenly on 3 January 1641 and was
buried in Toxteth church. He was unmarried. Sir John Herschel
called him "the pride and boast of British astronomy".
A photograph of the memorial can be purchased from Westminster
Abbey Library.
Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey
2003