| Authorised form of name | Roy; William (1726 - 1790) |
| Dates | 1726 - 1790 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Milton Head in Carluke parish, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Date of birth | 04 May 1726 |
| Place of death | His house in Argyll Street, London |
| Date of death | 01 July 1790 |
| Activity | Career:
Entered Army; Colonel (by 1767); Major General. After the Jacobite rebellion in 1746, the Duke of Cumberland is said to have observed that it would have been a lot easier with a decent map of the Highlands. Roy embarked on this ambitious task using a length of chain and a compass. It took him nine years but earned him promotion to Surveyor General for the coasts. He suggested a full national survey but the Government refused on graounds of cost. In 1748 he was commissioned by the Royal Society to work out the precise distance between the royal observatories of Greenwich and Paris for the benefit of world science. Important rules of navigation depended on it. And Roy did it using one of the first theodolites - a telescopic device which measures vertical and horizontal angles to account for the earth's curve - and the principles of trigonometry. Even King George III turned up to watch him. His calculations were accurate, the experiment a success and Roy, by then a General, renewed his calls for a national survey. He died one year before it was commissioned by the Board of Ordnance, and the Ordnance Survey was born. |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 26/03/1767 |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Copley Medal 1785 |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
References:
Sir Gavin de Beer and Max H Hey, 'The First Ascent of Mont Blanc' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 236-255
R E W Maddison and Raymond E. Maddison, 'Spring Grove, the Country House of Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., PRS' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 91-99
M Crosland, 'Relationships between the Royal Society and the Academie des Sciences in the late eighteenth century' in NR 2005 vol 59 pp 25-34
J Bennett, 'Plates from Royal Society Publications: Illustrating William Roy's Baseline on Hounslow Heath', in NR 2006 vol 60 pp 225-230 |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/76619080 |
| Code | NA6264 |
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1767/02 | Roy, William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| DM/4/5 | General William Roy, "Rough estimate of the Expence that may probably be incurred in measuring a Base on Hounslow Heath, and carrying on from thence a series of triangles to Dover, there to be connected with the Triangles already formed in France..." | 1783 |
| CB/2/75 | Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to William Roy | 24 October 1787 |
| CB/2/141 | Copy of a letter from Charles Blagden to William Roy | 6 April 1788 |
| DM/4/6 | General William Roy, "On the advantages that are likely to arise from the operations on Hounslow Heath" | 1783 |
| DM/4/34 | Short note about the measurement of the base on Hounslow Heath, by General William Roy | c.1792 |
| DM/4/45 | General William Roy, "Remarks on a paper put into his Majesties hands by the Duke of Marlborough" | c.1780s-1790s |
| DM/4/23 | General William Roy, "Major General Roy's Account of the Expenditure of £2,000 received by him from Sir Joseph Banks, Bart, for carrying on the Trigonometrical Operation" | c.1789 |
| DM/4/39 | Letter from Mr Cotton, Treasury, to Sir Joseph Banks | 21 February 1793 |
| DM/4/12 | Letter from General William Roy, Argyll Street, to Sir Joseph Banks | 28 June 1784 |
| DM/4/40 | Letter from Cotton, Treasury Chambers, to Sir Joseph Banks | 23 February 1793 |
| DM/4/25 | Letter from Nevil Maskelyne, Geenwich, to General William Roy | 1 November 1789 |
| CB/1/6/64 | Letter from Colonel William Roy to Charles Blagden | [late 18th century] |
| DM/4/26 | Minute of a meeting of the Council of the Royal Society | 29 July 1791 |
| L&P/6/252/1 | Paper, 'Experiments and observations for ascertaining heights by the barometer' by William Roy | 1777 |
| L&P/6/252/6 | Letter, 'Experiments and observations for ascertaining heights by the barometer' from William Roy to Nicholas Printer | 13 January 1776 |
| L&P/6/252/2 | Plate, 'Scale for the equation of the air and scale exprressing the expansion of different kinds of air with regard to mercury affacted by 212 degrees of farenheit' by William Roy | 1775 |
| L&P/8/153/1 | Paper, 'Measurement of a base on Hounslow Heath' by William Roy | 1785 |
| L&P/9/34/1 | Paper, 'An account of the mode proposed to be followed in determining the relative situations of the Royal Observatories at Greenwich and Paris' by William Roy | 1787 |
| L&P/9/168/1 | Paper, 'An account of the trigonometrical operation, whereby the distances between the meridians of the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and Paris has been determined' by William Roy | 1790 |
| L&P/9/61 | Paper, 'Supplement to paper on the difference of meridian of Greenwich and Paris' by William Roy | 1787 |
| DM/4/4 | Letter from General William Roy, Argyll Street | 28 November 1783 |
| MM/3/30 | Letter from Jesse Ramsden, Piccadilly, to the Council of the Royal Society | 13 May 1790 |
| DM/4/24 | General William Roy, Receipts for various sums of money on account from Sir Joseph Banks during the progress of the Trigonometrical Survey | 1784-1787 |
| MM/11/99 | 'List of Stations and Objects observed by General Roy with the Great Instrument in 1787-8' | 24 January 1848 |
| DM/4/10 | Letter from Thomas Hornsby, Oxford, to Sir Joseph Banks | 25 June 1784 |
| IM/005348 | Roy, William | 1993 |
| DM/4/14 | Copy of a letter from General William Roy, Argyll Street, to Nevil Maskylne | 11 December 1786 |
| MC/4/207 | Letter from Samuel Hunter Christie, [Secretary of the Royal Society], The Common, Woolwich, to Captain [William] Yolland | 21 January 1848 |
| MC/4/204 | Letter from Captain [William] Yolland, Ordinance Map Office, Southampton, to Samuel Hunter Christie, Secretary of the Royal Society | 14 January 1848 |
| MC/4/208 | Letter from [Captain William] Yolland, Ordnance Map Office, Southampton, to [Samuel Hunter] Christie, [Secretary of the Royal Society] | 24 January 1848 |
| MC/4/209 | Letter from Charles Richard Weld, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society, to [Samuel Hunter] Christie, Secretary of the Royal Society | 28 January 1848 |
| MC/4 | Volume 4 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society | 1844-1850 |
| AP/5/25 | Unpublished letters and paper, regarding the ramming of fuses for bombs by John Macdonald | 1786-1787 |
| AP/5/25/1 | Unpublished letter, regarding Macdonald's paper on bombs from Will [William] Roy to [Joseph] Planta | 20 December 1786 |
| L&P/7/42 | Letter, 'Measuring heights with the barometer' from George Shuckburgh to William Roy | 20 April 1778 |
| L&P/6/252 | Paper, 'Experiments and observations for ascertaining heights by the barometer' by William Roy | 1777 |
| L&P/9/34/2 | Table, 'Of the degrees of the Earth constructed on the hypothesis of M. Bouger, where the increments to the degrees of the Meridian above that at the equator follow the ratio of the fourth power or squared squares of the lines of latitude' by William Roy | 1787 |
| L&P/9/34/3 | Table, 'Comparison of the observed length of the celestial arc of the Meridian, comprehended between the parallels of Greenwich and Perpignan with the measured and computed lengths of the corresponding terrestrial arc between these parallels' by William Roy | 1787 |
| L&P/8/153 | Paper, 'Measurement of a base on Hounslow Heath' by William Roy | 1785 |
| L&P/9/34 | Paper, 'An account of the mode proposed to be followed in determining the relative situations of the Royal Observatories at Greenwich and Paris' by William Roy | 1787 |
| L&P/9/168 | Paper, 'An account of the trigonometrical operation, whereby the distances between the meridians of the Royal Observatories of Greenwich and Paris has been determined' by William Roy | 1790 |