Temple Chevallier

Temple Chevallier (born October 19, 1794 in Badingham , Suffolk , † November 4, 1873 in Harrow Weald ) was a British clergyman, mathematician, astronomer and philologist.

Chevallier was the son of a clergyman and first studied mathematics and science at Cambridge University from 1813 , graduating as Second Wrangler in the Tripos exams and second place in the Smith Prize in 1817. He became a Fellow of Pembroke College and later a tutor and Fellow at what later became St. Catherine's College. He was ordained a minister in 1818 and received the benefice of St. Andrew the Great at Cambridge, which he had from 1821 to 1834. In 1820 he received his Magister Artium degree and in 1825 his Bachelor in Divinity. In 1826/1827 he was a Hulsean Lecturer in Theology at Cambridge and the lectures he gave were published as Of the Proofs of Divine Power and Wisdom derived from the Studv of Astronomy in 1835.

In 1835 he became professor of mathematics at the newly founded University of Durham , and from 1841 also for astronomy. He also held theology lectures, was a pastor in Esh near Durham (where he also founded the village school and restored the church) and was a reader in Hebrew. In 1839 he founded an observatory there . In 1865 he became a canon at Durham. After a stroke, he resigned from his posts in 1871.

As an astronomer, he made regular observations of sunspots, Neptune, and Jupiter's moons. He also led meteorological observation series.

He also tried to develop science teaching in Durham (initially for engineering students), but was not very successful. Science classes eventually emerged at the neighboring University of Newcastle.

Chevallier was also an eminent classical philologist who edited and translated Church Fathers ( Clement of Alexandria , Polycarp , Ignatius of Antioch , Tertullian , Justin Martyr ).

From 1825 until her death in 1858 he was married to Catherine Wheelwright, an American, with whom he had three children, two of whom would reach adulthood.

The Chevallier lunar crater is named after him.

literature

• Robert Hunt: Chevallier, Temple. In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 10, Elder Smith & Co., London 1887, pp. 215 f. ( online ).
• RJK: The Rev. Temple Chevallier. In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , Volume 34, 1874, pp. 137-139 (obituary, online )

Web links

• Publications by T. Chevallier in the Astrophysics Data System