William Crabtree

Crabtree was born in 1610 in the hamlet of Broughton Spout, which was on the east bank of the River Irwell, near the area now known as "The Priory" in Broughton, SalfordBroughton and Cheetham Hill in Victorian times by Monty Dobkin {{ISBN|1-85216-131-0}} pages 48&52 and was educated at the Manchester Grammar School.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S1743921305001225 | title = Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree, and the Lancashire observations of the transit of Venus of 1639 | year = 2005 | last1 = Chapman | first1 = Allan | journal = Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union | volume = 2004| pages = 3–26 | bibcode = 2005tvnv.conf....3C | doi-access = free }} He married into a wealthy family and worked as a merchant in Manchester. In his spare time, his great interest was astronomy. He carefully measured the movements of the planets and undertook precise astronomical calculations. With improved accuracy, he rewrote the existing Rudolphine Tables of Planetary Positions.

File:UK NPT fa082003 126.jpg Crabtree's house is on the left of the painting.]]

File:Crabtree TOV.JPG

Crabtree corresponded with Jeremiah Horrocks, another enthusiastic amateur astronomer, from 1636. A group of astronomers from the north of England, which included William Gascoigne, formed around them and were Britain's first followers of the astronomy of Johannes Kepler. "Nos Keplari" as the group called themselves, were distinguished as being the first people to gain a realistic notion of the size of the Solar System.[http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/nk/birth.htm Retrieved 13 November 2007] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070502192730/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/nk/birth.htm |date=2 May 2007 }} Crabtree and Horrocks were the only astronomers to observe, plot, and record the transit of Venus across the Sun, as predicted by Horrocks, on 24 November 1639 Julian calendar (4 December Gregorian calendar). The two correspondents both recorded the event in their own homes and it is not known whether they ever met in person, but Crabtree's calculations were crucial in allowing Horrocks to estimate the size of Venus and the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Unfortunately, Horrocks died early in 1641 – the day before he was due to meet Crabtree. Crabtree made his will on 19 July 1644, and was buried within the precincts of the Manchester Collegiate Church on 1 August 1644, close to where he had received his education.

The recording of the transit is now seen by many as the birth of modern astronomy in Britain,{{cite journal | doi = 10.1046/j.1468-4004.2003.45526.x | title = Horrocks, Crabtree and the 1639 transit of Venus | year = 2004 | last1 = Chapman | first1 = Allan | journal = Astronomy and Geophysics | volume = 45 | issue = 5 | pages = 5.26–5.31 | bibcode = 2004A&G....45e..26C | doi-access = free }}][http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observations/ToV/Horrocks.htm ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070831163710/http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ipswich/Observations/ToV/Horrocks.htm |date=31 August 2007 }} and indeed, John Flamsteed later said that the work of Horrocks and his north country colleagues laid much of the foundation upon which his work as Astronomer Royal would stand.{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OH_c_21OG6MC&q=william+crabtree+and+towneley&pg=RA1-PA75 | title = England's Leonardo: Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution | isbn = 978-0-7503-0987-5 | last1 = Chapman | first1 = Allan | last2 = Britain) | first2 = Institute of Physics (Great | year = 2005 | publisher = CRC Press }}

Crabtree is celebrated in one of the Manchester Murals in the Great Hall of Manchester Town Hall, where a romanticised depiction of his recording of the transit can be seen (pictured) entitled Crabtree watching the transit of Venus AD 1639 painted by the artist Ford Madox Brown in 1881.

File:Ivy Cottage, Broughton, Salford.jpg

On 9 June 2004, the day after a transit occurred as predicted by Horrocks, a commemorative street nameplate in memory of William Crabtree was unveiled at the junction of Lower Broughton Road and Priory Grove which marks the northern boundary of Crabtree Croft.[http://www.salford.gov.uk/living/yourcom/salfordlife/aboutsalford/salfordlocalhistory/venustransit.htm Salford.gov.uk local history] A commemorative plaque was unveiled a few yards away in December 2005, at Ivy Cottage 388-90 Lower Broughton Road, which is thought most likely to have been the home of Crabtree and his family at the time when he was collaborating with Horrocks.[http://www.salford.gov.uk/appendix_c_the_cliff_web.pdf ]{{dead link|date=November 2012}}

The second transit of the pair occurred on 5 and 6 June 2012 and a celebration was held at Ivy cottage, when NASA broadcast a recreation of the observation, inspired by the Ford Madox Brown mural, to millions of viewers and projected a live stream of the transit from Hawaii on the side of the house.{{cite news|url=http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1580747_salford-marks-transit-of-venus-from-home-of-man-who-first-saw-it-in-1639---video|title=Salford marks Transit of Venus from home of man who first saw it in 1639 – video|last=Osuh|first=Chris|date=6 June 2012|work=Manchester Evening News|publisher=MEN Media|access-date=13 June 2012}}

Minor planet 4137 Crabtree is named after him.{{cite book|title=(4137) Crabtree [2.36, 0.02, 3.8] In: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |publisher=Springer |date=2006 |isbn=978-3-540-34361-5 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-34361-5|last1 = Schmadel|first1 = Lutz D.|url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1453284 }}

{{reflist|1}}

• Chapman, Allan, '"William Crabtree 1610–1644: Manchester's First Mathematician"', Allan Chapman. Manchester Statistical Society, 1996. {{ISBN|0-85336-132-0}}..
• {{cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S1743921305001249 | title = William Crabtree's Venus transit observation | year = 2005 | last1 = Kollerstrom | first1 = Nicholas | journal = Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union | volume = 2004| pages = 34–40 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2005tvnv.conf...34K }}
• {{cite journal|last=Chapman|first=Allan|date=2004|doi=10.1046/j.1468-4004.2003.45526.x|title=Horrocks, Crabtree and the 1639 transit of Venus|journal=Astronomy & Geophysics|volume=45|issue=5|pages=5.26–5.31|bibcode=2004A&G....45e..26C|doi-access=free}}

• [http://www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions/chasing-venus/intro.htm Chasing Venus, Observing the Transits of Venus] Smithsonian Institution Libraries
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070416141955/http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/scientists1.html Manchester Science and Discovery]}} including William Crabtree biography
• [http://www.salford.gov.uk/living/yourcom/salfordlife/aboutsalford/salfordlocalhistory/venustransit.htm William Crabtree, Venus genius]
• [http://www.dioi.org/kn/IAUVenus-Transit.pdf William Crabtree's Venus Transit Observation]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070502192730/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/nk/birth.htm Horrocks and the Dawn of British Astronomy]
• [http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FIAU%2FIAU2004_IAUC196%2FS1743921305001225a.pdf&code=6f566725a6ba1ec69ea5704c1f57a0b3 Transits of Venus, History results and Legacy]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabtree, William}}

Category:1610 births

Category:1644 deaths

Category:17th-century English merchants

Category:17th-century English astronomers

Category:17th-century English mathematicians

Category:People from Broughton, Greater Manchester

Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School