Edward Brerewood, the son of a Chester tradesman, born in 1565, was a
celebrated mathematician and antiquary. From the Free School at Chester
he went to Oxford, and became the first professor of astronomy in
Gresham College. Several of his works were published after his death by
his nephew, Robert Brerewood, of Chester.
Cheshire can boast of an early botanist and herbalist, John Gerarde,
who was born at Nantwich in 1545. He was head gardener to Lord Burghley
from 1577. He took his early lessons in the book of nature when
wandering on the banks of the Weaver in his native shire. He wrote, in
1596, his work, entitled _Catalogus arborum, fruticum ac plantarum_,
and he was the author of _The Herball or General Historie of Plantes_,
“gathered by John Gerarde, of London, Master in Chirurgerie.”
A more eminent scientist was Samuel Molyneux, son of a learned father,
and was born at Chester in 1689. He was a wonderful, precocious
genius, and could do marvellous things when he was only five years
old. His biographer tells us that “when he advanced to manhood he was
acknowledged to be one of the most polite and accomplished gentlemen in
England or Ireland, and was appointed secretary to the Prince of Wales,
afterwards George II., and had a house in Kew, near Richmond, where he
improved himself in his favourite study astronomy.” He greatly improved
the making of telescopes. He married Elizabeth, sister to the Earl of
Essex.
The third Lord Brereton, unlike his father, who loved warlike pursuits
and fought for the King in the Civil War, was a lover of science and
peaceful pursuits. He was educated at Breda in Holland, under the care
of Dr. John Pell, and became a good mathematician and algebraist. He
was one of the founders of the Royal Society, associated with all the
learned men of his time, and always endeavoured to advance the cause
of science. He was somewhat of a poet, musician, and composer. The
proceedings of the Royal Society often record his name, which learned
Society in its infant days seems to have concerned itself with somewhat
childish questions, and exercised the minds of its members on the
divining-rod and the superstition with regard to the portents presaging
the death of any member of the Brereton family.
Lawrence Earnshaw was a wonderful mechanical genius, a native of
Mottram-in-Longdendale in the first half of the eighteenth century.
Nothing came amiss to his skilful fingers. He could shear sheep and
make the wool into cloth entirely with implements of his own making.
Engraver, painter, gilder, glass-stainer, blacksmith, gunsmith,
bell-founder; maker of sundials, harpsichords, violins, organs--he
could do everything. But his great achievement was in the art of
clockmaking, producing a curious astronomical and geographical machine
which represented the motions of the earth, moon, stars, &c. He
anticipated the invention of the spinning-jenny, but destroyed his
machine lest it should decrease labour and take bread from the mouths
of the poor. Another noted clockmaker was John Whitehurst, Fellow of
the Royal Society, born at Congleton in 1713. He was author of some
philosophical papers, amongst others of an _Inquiry into the Original
State and Formation of the Earth_.
Another learned Cestrian was Dr. William Falconer, born at Chester
in 1741. He was learned in science and horticulture, and published
several works, including _An Historical View of the taste for Gardening
and Laying-out Grounds among the Nations of Antiquity_; _An Essay on
the Means of Preserving the Health of those employed in Agricultural
Labours_; and _A Sketch of the History of Sugar in Early Times_.