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25 Jan 2011

In 2003, the NMM purchased a small archive of thirteen manuscripts and a pamphlet which belonged to William Wildman, Viscount Barrington. He collected  these  between 1762 and 1765, while  he was Treasurer of the Navy, which also made him a Commissioner of Longitude - part of the Board responsible for assessing John Harrison's famous marine timekeepers. Many readers will know the story of the 1765 Act which has been told by Dava Sobel in her bestseller, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time. She presents the Board of Longitude as purposefully making it difficult for Harrison to win the prize, through personal animosity.
 
An AHRC-funded research project currently underway between the National Maritime Museum and the University of Cambridge is seeking to re-address the whole story of the Board of Longitude. A small archive like the Barrington Papers is invaluable for showing the complex processes and personal stories behind the official Board minutes. Katy Barrett, one of the PhD students on the project has published an article discussing the Barrington Papers in detail in Notes and Records of the Royal Society, entitled 'Explaining' themselves: the Barrington Papers, the Board of Longitude, and the fate of John Harrison'. This will be available free online until the next issue of NRRS is posted and will appear in paper form in July. It shows the careful discussions on which the 1765 Act was founded, and that Sobel's accusations are part of a much wider picture.

Katy (Doctoral Researcher, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge)