original was bequeathed by Mrs. Flamsteed to the Royal Society. A replica is preserved in the Bodleian Library. The features are strongly marked, and bear little trace of age or infirmity; the expression is intelligent and sensitive. Flamsteed was described by an old writer as a ‘humorist and of warm passions.’ That he occasionally relished a joke is shown in an anecdote related by him to his friend, Dr. Whiston, concerning the unexpected success with which he once assumed the character of a prophet (Cole, Athenæ Cantabr.; Add. MS. 5869, f. 77; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 285). Peter the Great visited the Royal Observatory, and saw Flamsteed observe several times in February 1698.
Flamsteed's communications to the Royal Society extended from 1670 to 1686 (Phil. Trans. iv–xvi.), and his observations during 1713, ‘abridged and spoiled,’ as he affirmed, were sent to the same collection by Newton (ib. xxix. 285). ‘A Correct Table of the Sun's Declination,’ compiled by him, was inserted in Jones's ‘ Compendium of the Art of Navigation’ (p. 103, 1702), and ‘A Letter concerning Earthquakes,’ in which he had attempted in 1693 to generalise the attendant circumstances of those phenomena, was published at London in 1750.
[The chief source of information regarding Flamsteed is Francis Baily's Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal (London, 1835, 4to). The materials for this valuable work were derived largely from a mass of Flamsteed's manuscript books and papers, purchased by the Board of Longitude for 100l. in 1771, which lay in disorder at the Royal Observatory until Baily explored them. The incentive to the search was, however, derived from a collection of Flamsteed's original letters to Sharp, discovered after long years of neglect in a garret in Sharp's house at Little Horton in Yorkshire, and submitted to Baily in 1832. They were exhibited before the British Association in 1833 (Report, p. 462), and are now in the possession of the Rev. R. Harley, F.R.S., who has kindly permitted the present writer to inspect them. The collection includes 124 letters from Flamsteed, 60 from Crosthwait, and 1 from Mrs. Flamsteed, dated 15 Aug. 1720, all addressed to Sharp, whose replies are written in shorthand on the back of each. The first part of Baily's Account contains Flamsteed's History of his own Life and Labours, compiled from original manuscripts in his own handwriting. The narrative is in seven divisions. The first, designated ‘The Self-Inspections of J. F., being an account of himself in the Actions and Studies of his twenty-one first years,’ was partially made known in the life of the author published in the General Dictionary (v. 1737), the materials for which were supplied by James Hodgson. The second division, entitled ‘Historica Narratio Vitæ Meæ, ab anno 1646 ad 1675,’ was composed in November 1707. Of the succeeding four, derived from scattered notices, No. 5 had been published in Hone's Every-day Book (i. 1091); while the seventh division, written February 1717, is the suppressed portion of the Original Preface to the Historia Cœlestis, and brings down the account of his life to 1716. An Appendix contains a variety of illustrative documents, besides Flamsteed's voluminous correspondence with Sharp, Newton, Wren, Halley, Wallis, Arbuthnot, Sir Jonas Moore, and others. The second part comprises the British Catalogue, corrected and enlarged to include 3,310 stars by Baily. An elaborate Introduction is prefixed, and a Supplement, added in 1837, gives Baily's reply to criticisms on the foregoing publication. See also Biog. Brit. arts. ‘Flamsteed,’ iii. 1943 (1750), ‘Halley,’ iv. 2509 (1757), ‘Wallis,’ vi. 4133 (1763); Rigaud's Correspondence of Scientific Men; Whewell's Flamsteed and Newton; Brewster's Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, vol. ii.; Weld's Hist. R. Society, i. 377; Roger North's Life of Lord Keeper North, p. 286; Edinburgh Review, lxii. 359 (Galloway); Gent. Mag. 1866, i. 239 (Carpenter); Annuaire de l'Observatoire de Bruxelles, 1864, p. 288 (Mailly); Grant's Hist. of Astronomy, p. 467; Whewell's Hist. of the Inductive Sciences, ii. 162; Cunningham's Lives of Eminent Englishmen, iv. 366; Noble's Continuation of Granger, ii. 132; Montucla's Hist. des Mathématiques, iv. 41; Bailly's Hist. de l'Astr. Moderne, ii. 423, 589, 650; Delambre's Hist. de l'Astr. au xviiie Siècle, p. 93; Mädler's Gesch. der Himmelskunde, i. 397, 453; André et Rayet's Astr. Pratique, i. 3; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Acta Eruditorum, 1721, p. 463; Journal R. Society, xvii. 129; Rigaud MSS. in Bodleian, Letter L; MSS. Collegii Corporis Christi, Oxon. Codex ccclxi. (correspondence of Flamsteed with Newton and Wallis in forty original letters, mostly printed in General Dict.); C. H. F. Peters on Flamsteed's Lost Stars, Memoirs American Academy, 1887, pt. iii. Flamsteed's horoscope of the Royal Observatory, 10 Aug. 1675, inscribed ‘Risum teneatis, amici?’ is reproduced in Hone's Every-day Book, i. 1090.]
FLANAGAN, RODERICK (1828–1861), journalist, son of an Irish farmer, was born near Elphin, co. Roscommon, in April 1828. His parents, with a numerous family, emigrated to New South Wales in 1840, and settled in Sydney, where Flanagan received his education. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a printer, and on the completion of his indentures became attached to the ‘People's Advocate.’ After contributing to the ‘Advocate,’ the ‘Empire,’ the ‘Freeman's Journal,’ and other newspapers for several years, he founded, in conjunction with his brother, E. F. Flanagan, a weekly journal called ‘The Chronicle.’ It had only a brief existence, and upon its cessation
