Stephen Demainbray

Stephen Charles Triboudet Demainbray (1710 – 20 February 1782) was an English natural scientist and astronomer, who was Superintendent (or King's Astronomer) at the King's Observatory in Richmond, Surrey (now in London) from 1768 to 1782.

Early life and education

Demainbray was born in the parish of St Martins, London in 1710. His parents, (Charles) Stephen Demainbray (d.c. 1710) and Mary, daughter of Rev Alexander Descairac, were married on 21 September 1699 at St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, London. His father, who had come to England from France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, died soon afterwards and he was brought up by his uncle, Captain Peter Demainbray (d. 1733) who placed him at Westminster School. There he studied under Dr Desaguliers, who taught him mathematics and natural philosophy. After that he went to Leiden University in the Netherlands. His assistant there was James Stephen Rigaud, who married Demainbray's daughter Mary in Richmond in 1771.

Personal life In London on 22 February 1726, in a clandestine marriage, Demainbray married his first wife, Mary Worsham (d. 1755 Montpellier, France) and they had five children. Only their daughter Mary survived to adulthood; she married James Stephen Rigaud.

In 1755 he married, at St Anne's Church, Soho, his second wife, Sarah Horne (a sister of John Horne Tooke), and fathered a further four children including Stephen George Francis Triboudet Demainbray.

Legacy Demainbray's instruments were combined with the King's collection and given to King's College London and then, in 1927, to the Science Museum.