Out of the Shadow of a Giant: How Newton Stood on the Shoulders of Hooke and Halley. John Gribbin
group decided (clearly by prior arrangement) to formalise these gatherings. A record in the Royal Society archive reads:
Memorandum November 28, 1660. These persons following according to the custom of most of them, met together at Gresham College to hear Mr Wren’s lecture, viz. the Lord Brouncker, Mr Boyle, Mr Bruce, Sir Richard Moray, Sir Paule Neile, Dr Wilkins, Dr Goddard, Dr Petty, Mr Ball, Mr Rooke, Mr Wren. And after the lecture was ended they did according to the usual manner, withdraw for mutual converse.
That ‘mutual converse’ led to the resolution that they would form an association ‘for the promoting of Experimentall Philosophy’ and:
That this company would continue their weekly meetings on Wednesday, at 3 of the clock in the term time, at Mr Rooke’s chamber at Gresham College; in the vacation at Mr Ball’s chamber in the Temple, and towards the defraying of expenses, every one should, at his first admission, pay downe ten shillings and besides engage to pay one shilling weekly … Dr Wilkins was appointed to the Chair, Mr Ball to be Treasurer, and Mr Croone, though absent, was named the Registrar.
This was the beginning of the Royal Society, whose members became known as ‘Fellows’. Because of Wilkins’ reputation as a Parliamentarian, it became politic for him to take a back seat (at least formally), and Sir Robert Moray was installed as President of the fledgling association on 6 March 1661. In no small measure thanks to his skill at political wheeling and dealing, the Society gained its first Royal Charter in 1662, with Brouncker now named as President, but this Charter proved unsatisfactory (for obscure reasons), and was replaced by a second Charter in 1663, formalising the name as ‘the Royal Society of London for Promoting Natural Knowledge’.fn1 The Society had a coat of arms, and a motto, Nullius in Verba, which can be translated as ‘take nobody’s word for it’. In other words, carry out experiments and test hypotheses for yourself, do not rely on hearsay. It would be Hooke who soon put that fine sentiment into practice. We shall always refer to the institution as the Royal Society (even for the period before the award of the first charter), the Royal, or the Society; one of the aims of seeking royal status was to get financial support from the King, which was never forthcoming, but the status did encourage rich dilettantes to offer their support, if only by becoming Fellows and (sometimes) paying their subscriptions.
As early as December 1660, the Society laid out the ground rules for doing experiments, and recognised the need for ‘curators’ who would carry out the experiments. At first, this role was carried out by the most expert Fellows (known as virtuosi), but this was not a success, and it became clear that they needed somebody who could do the job full time. In the early 1660s, Boyle was spending some of his time in Oxford and part at his sister’s house in London, where he had a laboratory. Hooke accompanied him and was well known to the Fellows (his little paper on capillary action is mentioned in their records). By 1661, Boyle and Hooke were developing an improved air pump, and Boyle gave their original pump to the Royal, where it languished with nobody able to operate it satisfactorily. This was another indication of the need for a skilled curator who could make things work. And who better than the man who had designed and built that pump?
So on 12 November 1662 Sir Robert Moray proposed, and the Fellows accepted, that Hooke should be appointed Curator of Experiments ‘to furnish them every day when they met, with three or four considerable Experiments’, as well as following up topics for investigation suggested by the Fellows. The only snag was, the Royal did not have any funds with which to pay him. The solution was that in effect Boyle ‘lent’ Hooke to the Royal Society until 1665, when a combination of circumstances (not all of them straightforwardly honest) stabilised the situation.
The Royal had notionally set Hooke’s salary as £80 a year, even though they were not paying it. Nor were they able to provide him with accommodation, so he had to make do with temporary lodgings. Partly as compensation, in recognition of his value he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 5 June 1663, with all the usual fees and subscriptions being waived. The prospect of establishing the relationship on a proper basis came in May 1664, when Isaac Barrow (the successor to the Laurence Rooke in whose rooms the Royal had its early meetings) resigned his post as Gresham Professor of Geometry to become the first Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge (where he came across a student called Isaac Newton, who later became the second Lucasian Professor). Before he left for Cambridge, Barrow had been giving some of the astronomy lectures in place of Dr Walter Pope, Wren’s successor, who was temporarily away from London. After Barrow left, Hooke took on those temporary duties, and received the appropriate stipend, while Pope was away. Who better to be Barrow’s replacement?
There were two candidates for the post: Hooke, who had strong support from the Royal, and a physician, Arthur Dacres. On 20 May 1664, a committee (‘The Court’) met to decide between them, and duly announced their verdict:
two learned persons viz. Dr Arthur Dacres and Mr Robert Hooke being suited for the same, their petitiones being Read their ample Certificates considered and the matter debated The Court proceeded to election and made thereof the said Dr Dacres to supply the said place of Geometry Reader in the College.
A few days later, perhaps while drowning his sorrows, Hooke bumped into a wealthy merchant, Sir John Cutler, in a public house. He knew Cutler through a mutual friend, and gloomily recounted the tale. Cutler’s response was to tell Hooke to cheer up, because he, Cutler, would provide the financial support Hooke needed by creating a post for him to lecture on the History of Trades, at the same remuneration as a Gresham Professor – £50 a year. Before the arrangement could be formalised, however, the Royal Society got wind of some irregularities surrounding the appointment of Dacres. It turned out that the actual committee had voted for Hooke by five to four, but that the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Anthony Bateman, who was present as an observer but not a member of the committee, then voted for Dacres, making a tie, and followed this up by claiming the right to a casting vote in favour of his man. Bateman’s term as Lord Mayor came to an end shortly after this fiasco, and he was succeeded by Sir John Lawrence, a more straightforwardly honest man who knew Hooke’s abilities. Following formal representations by the Royal, a committee of investigation chaired by Sir John met on 20 March 1665 and concluded:
that Robert Hooke was the person legally elected and accordingly ought to enjoy the same with the Lodgings profits and all accommodation to the place of Geometry Reader appertaining.
In the months before the appeal was heard, the Royal acted with underhand cunning to secure the benefits of Cutler’s offer for themselves. On 27 July 1664, the Council of the Royal formally voted to appoint Hooke as Curator of Experiments with a salary of £80 a year, but kept this secret while they negotiated ‘on Hooke’s behalf’ with Cutler. It was agreed that Hooke would give what became known as the Cutlerian Lectures, on practical applications of science ‘to the advancement of art and nature’ but on specific topics chosen by the Royal. And Cutler’s money would be funnelled to Hooke through the Royal. So when Hooke was formally appointed as Curator on 11 January 1665, the Royal only had to add £30 a year for his income to be made up to the promised £80. The situation was compounded when Cutler (possibly piqued by this, or maybe just unreliable) failed to pay his share most of the time, leading to tedious legal hassles only resolved in Hooke’s favour after Cutler’s death, in 1696 (for the first ten years, the Royal also had trouble finding the money to pay their contribution to his salary). But still, as he did get the Gresham chair Hooke was reasonably comfortable from the time he was installed as Gresham Professor in March 1665 (he had actually been lodging in rooms in the College since the previous September). As well as the income, he had a parlour, library and two smaller rooms in a first-floor apartment, a workshop on the ground floor, cellar rooms providing further space for his experimental work, and a garret for a servant. He was able to keep at least one servant, usually a girl, and usually on more than friendly terms, as we discuss later. He was a gregarious and friendly man (at least until old age and infirmity made him more grumpy), who welcomed visitors to his home, as well as mingling with his friends in the coffee houses. At the age of twenty-nine, he was settled for life, with no need of patronage.
Hooke was a diligent lecturer, unlike many of his fellow Gresham Professors. Some didn’t even live at the College, but let out their rooms and enjoyed a quiet life in the country, or even in another country. Hooke’s duties (in addition