College Fellows

Frances Willmoth

Archivist at Jesus College, Cambridge

Research interests: History of astronomy (17th-century mostly); mathematical and astronomical instruments and makers; 17th-century practical mathematics; Mrs Bargrave and the Ghost of Mrs Veal.

Selected publications

Books

• The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, eds Eric G. Forbes, Lesley Murdin and Frances Willmoth, 3 vols (Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol and Philadelphia, 1995-2001)
• Sir Jonas Moore: practical mathematics and Restoration science (Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, 1993)
• Ed. Flamsteed's Stars: new perspectives on the life and work of the first Astronomer Royal (Boydell and Brewer, Woodbridge, 1997: proceedings of conference at the NMM, Greenwich, Oct. 1995)
• Co-editor with Dr Liba Taub of The Whipple Museum of the History of Science: Instruments and Interpretations, to Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of R.S. Whipple's Gift to the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Articles

• 'John Flamsteed's Letter Concerning the Natural Causes of Earthquakes', Annals of Science 44 (1987), pp. 23-70
• 'The Genius of all Arts and the Use of Instruments: Jonas Moore (1617-79) as a Mathematician, Surveyor and Astronomer', Annals of Science 48 (1991), pp. 355-65
• 'Mathematical Sciences and Military Technology: the Ordnance Office in the Reign of Charles II', in J.V. Field and F.A.J.L. James, eds, Renaissance and Revolution (Cambridge, 1993)
• 'Dugdale's History of Imbanking and Drayning: a "royalist" writer in the 1650s', Historical Research 71 (1998), pp. 281-302
• With Rob Iliffe, 'Astronomy and the domestic sphere: Margaret Flamsteed and Caroline Herschel as assistant-astronomers', in Lynette Hunter and Sarah Hutton, eds, Women, Science and Medicine, 1500-1700 (Stroud, 1997), pp. 235-265