Nathaniel Bowditch (1773 - 1838)

Born 26 Mar 1773 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Boardman) Bowditch — married 25 Mar 1798 (to 18 Oct 1798) in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Husband of Mary (Ingersoll) Bowditch — married 28 Oct 1800 in Danvers, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 17 Mar 1838 at age 64 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

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Biography

Nathaniel Bowditch is Notable.

Nathaniel Bowditch of Salem, once referred to by Thomas Jefferson as "a meteor of the hemisphere", was both a brilliant self-educated mathematician and a skilled translator of such works as the Mécanique Céleste of Pierre de Laplace^[1] The middle child of seven, a son of Habakkuk and Mary (Ingersoll) Bowditch, Nathaniel was named after Nathaniel Ingersoll, his maternal grandfather. Through his maternal grandmother, Bethiah Gardner, he was a fourth cousin of another Nathaniel from Salem -- author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Their common ancestor was George Gardner (1619-1679).

Deprived of a formal education by his family's financial circumstances, Nathaniel nonetheless worked his way up from the Bowditch cooperage through a clerkship in a ship's chandlery -- he studied, independently, both the books in the chandler's library, and the extensive scientific works fortuitously acquired by the Salem Philosophical Society that had been rescued, first, from a foundered ship... and then from an apothecary who had planned to use the books' pages as wrapping.

Bowditch eventually became the supercargo, and later a ship's master, on mercantile voyages, during which he occupied himself with advancing his knowledge of, and skill at, navigation... along the way discovering significant errors and omissions in the work of Isaac Newton. These discoveries ultimately led to the publishing of The New American Practical Navigator in 1802, a work famous among sailors and still in use today in updated form.

Nathaniel's marriage to his first wife, Elizabeth Boardman, was tragically short, lasting only from March to October of 1798; additionally, Elizabeth died while Nathaniel was at sea. Almost exactly two years later, the mathematician-mariner wed his first cousin Polly Ingersoll -- a fifth-generation descendant of Great Migration emigrant John, who arrived at Salem with his father Richard in 1629 aboard the second trans-Atlantic ship christened the Mayflower.

Retiring early from the sea, Nathaniel took the helm of the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company in Salem; whereas his abilities as a scholar and scientist led to offers of professorships from Harvard, from West Point, and from the University of Virginia (by Jefferson) -- all of which offers he declined -- his abilities in business led to a request from Harvard to oversee, and ultimately to overhaul, its administrative and business practices, which assignment he accepted. Though his efforts to set Harvard's ship to rights did not make him popular at the school, they were by all accounts effective. His interest in astronomy was lifelong, and he recorded his observations of meteors and comets, calculating their trajectories. In 1818 he was elected to the Royal Society of London; eleven years later, he became the first American elected as a foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical Society.^[2]

In August of 1802, Nathaniel Bowditch, surely the nation's leading autodidact of his day, was awarded an honorary Master's Degree by Harvard University.^[3] Adopting Boston as his final home, he lived into his mid-60s, dying there in March of 1838;^[4] in his will, however, he made bequests to institutions in his native town... while including an apologia, explaining that his financial situation did not allow him to leave similar legacies to parallel institutions in Boston.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ "Nathaniel Bowditch: Brief life of a mathematician and businessman: 1773-1839", by Tamara Plakins Thornton, Harvard Magazine, July-August 2016; https://harvardmagazine.com/2016/07/nathaniel-bowditch
2. ↑ Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, by Virginia Trimble, et al., Springer Science & Business Media, 2007; https://books.google.com/books?id=t-BF1CHkc50C&pg=PA159&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
3. ↑ "Mass Moments", a project of Mass Humanities, Northampton, MA; http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=247
4. ↑ Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA; with image of memorial: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 November 2019), memorial page for Nathaniel Bowditch (26 Mar 1773–16 Mar 1838), Find A Grave: Memorial #1766, citing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Find A Grave; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1766
5. ↑ (NEHGS) Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017-2019. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB2735/i/55244/31807-co2/0 (by subscription)

• Christening 28 Mar. 1773 at Salem: "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQDQ-68Z : 10 February 2018), Nathanael Bowditch, ; citing , ; FHL microfilm 874,031, 874,032, 874,033.

• Marriage to Mary "Polly" Ingersoll (intentions?) 27 Sep. 1800: "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC8K-B3G : 9 February 2018), Nathaniel Bowditch and Polly Ingersoll, 27 Sep 1800; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 0874032 IT 1-2.

• Marriage to Mary Ingersoll ("Ingersol")at Danvers, 28 Oct. 1800: "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC47-88S : 9 February 2018), Nathaniel Bowditch and Mary Ingersol, 28 Oct 1800; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 0874119 IT 2.

• Career and professional milestones: "Nathaniel Bowditch", entry by Jeff Suzuki: Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers; Thomas Hockey, Katherine Bracher, Marvin Bolt, Virginia Trimble, Richard Jarrell, JoAnn Palmeri, Jordan D. Marché, Thomas Williams, F. Jamil Ragep; Springer, Sep 18, 2007; Digital Image, Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=t-BF1CHkc50C&pg=PA159#v=onepage&q&f=false

See also:

• "Wigglesworth Family Papers", Guide to Collection, Massachusetts Historical Society; http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0311 Wigglesworth Family Papers

• (Newberry Medal-winning, fictionalized biography for young readers): Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham, illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1955 (free ebook not available as of November, 2019; limited preview at https://www.flickr.com/photos/40423298@N08/sets/72157632059664358/)