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Authorised form of nameMendoza y Rios; Joseph (? 1762 - 1816); astronomer and mathematician
Dates? 1762 - 1816
NationalitySpanish
Place of birthParish of St Vincent, Seville, Spain
Date of birth15 September 1762, 1763 or 1764
Place of deathBrighton, Sussex, England
Date of death2 or 4 March 1816
DatesAndPlacesBurial: Church of St Nicholas, Brighton, England.
OccupationAstronomer; Mathematician
Research fieldAstronomy
Navigation
Mathematics
Nautical astronomy
ActivityEducation: Royal College of Nobles, Madrid, Spain.
Career:
Entered the Royal Navy as Frigate Ensign (1776), promoted until rank of Commodore (1794); served on the warship 'Oriente'; sailed on the 'Santa Ines' when it was captured by English privateers (1779); imprisoned for a year in Cork, Ireland; returned to Cadiz (1780); commanded merchant ship 'Rosario' (1782); aide-de-Camp to the Douke of Crillon; assistant harbour master, Cadiz; sent on a mission abroad to collect maps and other works to form a library for the Navy (1789); on his return was cashiered without pay, rank or uniform (1800); settled in England; invented astronomical and nautical instruments; persecution by the Spanish government, and domestic troubles, led him to hang himself.
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election11/04/1793
ProposerHenry Cavendish; Nevil Maskelyne; Alexander Dalrymple; Alexander Aubert; William Wales; William Marsden; James Watt; Henry Charles Englefield; Jesse Ramsden; Charles Rainsford; James Rennell
RSActivityCommissioned the portrait of Joseph Banks (FRS 1766) by Thomas Phillips in 1807, in which a copy of Mendoza Rios's paper is depicted.
RelationshipsParents: Don Joseph de Mendoza, a noble of Seville and Doña Maria Romana de Morillo.
Spouse: Anna Maria Parker (8 November 1798).
Children: Francisca and Anna Fermina (1800–1857).
PublishedWorksRCN 21999
RCN 55209
RCN 55211
OtherInfoKnown for his tables which facilitated the calculations of nautical astronomy.
Published on the science and technique of navigation.
Improved the reflecting circle, a nautical instrument.
Mendoza Cove, Antarctica is named in his honour.
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Hampshire Chronicle, Monday 11 August 1817; Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal, Tuesday 12 August 1817; Morning Chronicle, Monday 11 March 1816, London, England, Issue 14619
Notes:
BR gives birth date as 1763; DNB gives 15 September 1762 or 15 September 1764. Index to BR gives 1816 as an alternative death date. DNB gives 4 March as death date.
Virtual International Authority Filehttp://viaf.org/viaf/49428361
CodeNA7288
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1793/01Mendoza y Rios, Joseph: certificate of election to the Royal Society
MM/8/46Letter from Mortlock, Surrey Place, to Joseph de Mendoza RIos11 March 1803
MM/8/75Letter from Jose de Mendoza Rios, Foley Street, to Sir Joseph Banks3 March 1814
MM/8/31Letter from Joseph de Mandoza Rios, Paddington, to Sir Joseph Banks2 June 1801
MM/8/80Letter from Jose de Mendoza Rios, Buckingham Place, to John Pond 18 December 1815
MM/8/76'Comparitive Analysis of Jose de Mendoza Rios's method for reducing the lunar distances...'c.1814
CB/1/5/17Letter from J Mendoza y Rios, Brighton to Charles Blagden, Paris5 January 1815
IM/003066Mendoza y Rios, Joseph
L&P/11/163Paper, 'On an improved reflecting circle' by Joseph de Mendoza y Rios1801
L&P/11/15Paper, 'Reserches sur les principaux problems de l'astronomie nautique [Research on the main problems of nautical astronomy]' by Joseph Mendoza y Rios27 November 1796
L&P/12/126Paper, 'A new practise of the multiplying circle' by Joseph de Mendoza Rios7 February 1806
MM/8/74Letter from Jose de Mendoza Rios, Foley Street, to Sir Joseph Banks26 February 1814
MM/8/72Letter from Jose de Mendoza Rios, Brighton, to Sir Joseph Banks24 November 1813
MM/8/71Letter from Jose de Mendoza Rios, Foley Street, to Sir Joseph Banks16 October 1813
MM/8/39Report of a committee of the Board of Longitude, into assisting Mendoza Rios publish tables facilitating the practice of astronomy at seac.1803
MM/8/40Copies and extracts of letters from Joseph de Mendoza Rios to Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, on the topic of the publication of Mendoza Rios's tables to aid navigation at sea1802-1803
MM/8/73Note by Joseph Banks about Mendoza Rios and his method of calculationsc.1813
MC/1/57Letter from T. Phillips, 8 George Street, to William Thomas Brande, Secretary of the Royal Society 3 June 1818
PT/6/16Paper, English translation of 'Observations on the measurement of three degrees of the meridian conducted in England by Major William Mudge' by Don Joseph Rodriguez[1812]
MC/1Volume 1 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society1800-1831
PT/6/17Paper, 'Memoire sur la mesure de trois degres du meridien terrestre; execute en Angleterre par le Major William Mudge' by Don Joseph RodriguezMarch 1812
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