1820-30] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 
23 
of this establishment. I make out that he was not a graduate of 
Oxford or Cambridge ” (Mem. of A. De M., 372). In 1810 he 
“ became the proprietor of a celebrated establishment at Temple 
Grove, East Sheen, where many of the nobility and gentry received 
their preparatory education. Here he built an Observatory and 
furnished it with instruments.” In 1817 he was made rector of 
South Kilworth, Leicestershire, but he continued to reside at East 
Sheen until 1821, and was thus able to play his leading part in 
the foundation of our Society. He removed in 1821 to South 
Kilworth for the rest of his life, and erected there a considerable 
Observatory, employing a permanent assistant. In 1824 and 1829 
he published the two volumes of his Treatise on Practical Astronomy, 
a monumental work of which he ultimately presented the unbound 
sheets to the Society. 
Since so little is known about our Founder, whatever more can 
be gathered is of value. From two directions sidelights have 
recently been thrown on his doings. The first is from the Reports 
of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, already mentioned (see 
p. 18) among those founded about the same time as our own 
Society, and specially distinguished by the part it played in the 
foundation of the British Association at York in 1831. Dr. 
Pearson was one of those who attended this first meeting (of the 
B. A.), and he took occasion to present to the Yorkshire Philoso 
phical Society his Treatise on Practical Astronomy. The Society 
thereupon elected him as Honorary Member. He replied by 
offering to present some valuable astronomical instruments (later 
he specified a clock, a telescope, and a transit instrument) if the 
Society vmuld build an Observatory to house them. We may give 
verbatim an extract from the Reports for 1832, 1833, and 1857 :— 
Dr. Pearson has given fifty copies of his Tables for the Reduction 
of Astronomical Observations. This munificent patron of Astronomy 
will contemplate with satisfaction the Observatory which is now 
rising to receive his instruments and employ his useful tables. 
The Committee appointed for this object have been scrupulously 
attentive to the main point of a solid foundation and an immovable 
basis for the instruments ; they have made provision for a large 
transit and a circular instrument, and by placing the revolving 
telescope on a separate foundation, believe that they shall at once 
secure accurate observations for time and position, and allow, on 
suitable occasions, more popular views of the heavenly phenomena. 
r833. The Observatory has been put into active operation and 
the labours of the Committee for Science have been assiduous and 
productive. 
1857. Important improvements have been made in the Observa 
tory. The object glass of the telescope (4 in. in aperture) presented 
by the Rev. Dr. Pearson, for which the Observatory was built,