Robert Waddington

Robert Waddington (died 1779) was a mathematician, astronomer and teacher of navigation. He is best known as one of the observers appointed by the Royal Society to observe the 1761 transit of Venus with Nevil Maskelyne on the island of Saint Helena. On that voyage they made successful use of the lunar-distance method of establishing longitude at sea. Waddington subsequently taught the method at his academy in London and published a navigation manual, A Practical Method for Finding the Longitude and Latitude of a Ship at Sea, by Observations of the Moon.

Life before 1761 Little is known about Waddington's early life, although he was probably the "Mr. Rob. Waddington of Hull" who appeared in The Gentleman's Diary or The Mathematical Repository in 1758 and Benjamin Martin's General Magazine of Arts and Sciences in 1759. The papers of the gentleman astronomer Nathaniel Pigott show that Waddington was living in his household, in Whitton, Middlesex, immediately before his appointment as an observer by the Royal Society. It is from these manuscripts that we have a detailed knowledge of Waddington's experience of the Saint Helena expedition and his subsequent attempts to forge a career as a teacher, mathematical practitioner and longitude projector.

Voyage to Saint Helena In 1760 Waddington was appointed by the Royal Society to accompany Nevil Maskelyne on a voyage to Saint Helena as one of two expeditions being organised by the Society, and paid for by George II, to observe the 1761 Transit of Venus.

In the event, Waddington and Maskelyne's view of the transit of Venus on 6 July 1761 was thwarted by clouds. However, the voyages to and from the island proved to be very significant to the subsequent careers of both men as they used it to make longitude determinations by the lunar-distance method testing the accuracy of lunar tables calculated by Tobias Mayer. Maskelyne's log of the voyage records their efforts to do this, with the assistance of officers from the ship, and refers to the use of "Mr Waddington's Quadrant", a Hadley's quadrant adapted by him to better facilitate lunar-distance observations Waddington kept his own account of the voyages, and seems to have produced more accurate observations than Maskelyne. He told Piggott that their observations "finds a Practical & Certain Method" of determining longitude "& may be depended upon to one Degree of Longitude".

Waddington styled himself "Teacher of Mathematics at the Mathematical Academy in Three Tun-court, Mile's-lane, London", where he taught officers of the East India Company and also sold Hadley's quadrants. In 1763 he attempted, unsuccessfully, to gain employment from the Royal Society. By 1764 he had moved to Rolls Building, Chancery Lane.

In 1777 he published his longest and most comprehensive work, An Epitome of Theoretical and Practical Navigation. As The Edinburgh Magazine reported in 1778, he claimed that the book could "teach the young navigator every particular essential to his art, without his being under the necessity of having recourse to any other author."

Waddington's will, dated 12 May 1775 and proved posthumously in 1779, states his address as Downing Street, Westminster. His wife, Margaret, was the beneficiary.