Thomas Maclear

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Use South African English|date=June 2012}} {{Infobox person | image = Thomas Maclear00.jpg | alt = | caption = 1833 portrait of Maclear | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|1794|03|17|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Newtownstewart]], [[County Tyrone]], Ireland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1879|07|14|1794|03|17|df=y}} | death_place = [[Cape Town]], [[Cape Colony]] | other_names = | occupation = Astronomer, surgeon | known_for = | awards = {{unbulleted list|[[Lalande Prize]] (1867)|[[Royal Medal]] (1869)}} }}

[[File:Mary Maclear00.jpg|thumb|Mary Maclear]] '''Thomas Maclear''' (17 March 1794 – 14 July 1879) was an [[Ireland|Irish]]-born Cape Colony [[astronomer]] who became Her Majesty's astronomer at the [[Cape of Good Hope]].{{sfn|Anon|1870|p=509}}

==Early life== Born on 17 March 1794, in [[Newtownstewart]], the eldest son of Rev. James Maclear and Mary Magrath.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers|pages=722–723|date=2007|publisher=Springer|location=New York|isbn=978-0-387-30400-7|doi=10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_881|chapter=Maclear, Thomas|last1=Elliott |first1=Ian }}</ref> In 1808, he was sent to England to be educated in the medical profession. After passing his examinations, in 1815 he was accepted into the [[Royal College of Surgeons]] of England. He then worked as house-surgeon in the Bedford Infirmary.

In 1823, he went into partnership with his uncle at [[Biggleswade]], [[Bedfordshire]]. In 1825, he was married to Mary Pearse, the daughter of Theed Pearse, Clerk of the Peace for the county of Bedford.

== Career == Maclear had a keen interest in amateur astronomy, and would begin a long association with the [[Royal Astronomical Society]], to which he would be named a Fellow. In 1833, when the post became vacant, he was named as Her Majesty's Astronomer at the [[Cape of Good Hope]], and arrived there aboard the ''Tam O'Shanter'' with his wife and five daughters, to take up his new duties in 1834. He worked with [[John Herschel]] until 1838, performing a survey of the southern sky, and continued to perform important astronomical observations over several more decades.{{sfn|Clerke|1893}} The Maclears and Herschels formed a close friendship, the wives drawn together by the unusual occupations of their husbands and the raising of their large families. Mary Maclear, like Margaret Herschel, was a noted beauty and intelligent, though suffering from extreme deafness.

[[File:A memorial to the Abbe de la Caille, at Aurora in the Western Cape of South Africa.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|A memorial to [[Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille]] and Thomas Maclear, at [[Aurora, Western Cape]], South Africa. The English portion of the inscription reads: "This is the site of the Maclear Beacon positioned in 1838 near the original North Terminal of the Arc of Meridian positioned by Abbé de la Caille, the first surveyor to introduce Geodetic Surveying into South Africa." ]]

{{anchor|Arc measurement}}Between 1841 and 1848, Maclear would be occupied in performing a [[geodesy|geodetic]] survey for the purpose of recalculating the [[figure of the Earth]] (its dimensions and shape) via an [[arc measurement]]. He caused a [[Maclear's Beacon|beacon]] to be erected on top of [[Table Mountain]] which was used as a [[triangulation (surveying)|triangulation]] station for the checking of [[de Lacaille's arc measurement]].

[[File:Maclears beacon table moutain - dec 2023.jpg|thumb|right|Maclear's Beacon, Table Mountain, Cape Town, 2023]] He became close friends with [[David Livingstone]], and they shared a common interest in the exploration of Africa. He performed many other useful scientific activities, including collecting meteorological, magnetic and tide data.

== Later life and death == In 1861, his wife died. In 1863, he was granted a pension, but did not retire from the observatory until 1870. He lived thereafter at Grey Villa, Mowbray. By 1876, he had lost his sight, and died on 14 July 1878, aged 85, in [[Cape Town]]. He is buried next to his wife in the grounds of the [[Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope]].{{sfn|Clerke|1893}}

==Awards and honors== [[File:Thomas_Maclear_1860.jpg|thumb|right|Sir Thomas, on the receipt of his knighthood, 1860]] * Knighted in 1860 for his achievements as an astronomer. * [[Lalande Prize]] (1866) * [[Royal Medal]] of the Royal Society (1869), for his measurement of an [[arc of the meridian]] in the 1840s. * The crater [[Maclear (crater)|Maclear]] on the [[Moon]] is named after him; as is [[Maclear's Beacon]] on [[Table Mountain]]; the South African town, [[Maclear, Eastern Cape]];<ref name="Raper1989">{{cite book|last=Raper|first=P. E. |title=Dictionary of Southern African Place Names |url=https://archive.org/stream/DictionaryOfSouthernAfricanPlaceNames/SaPlaceNames#page/n287/mode/2up| year=1989|publisher=Jonathan Ball Publishers|isbn=978-0-947464-04-2|page=288|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> and [[Cape Maclear]] in Malawi, so named by his friend [[David Livingstone]].

==See also== * [[John Maclear]], his son, was an admiral in the Royal Navy, and commander of the 1873–1876 {{HMS|Challenger|1858|6}} expedition * [[Charles Piazzi Smyth]] * [[Edward James Stone]] * His grandson, [[Basil Maclear]], was an Irish rugby international, who was killed in action during [[World War I]]

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== {{refbegin}} *{{cite book|author=Anon|title=The Royal Kalendar, and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-sNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA509|year=1870|publisher=R & A Suttaby|location=London}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle=Maclear, Thomas |first=Agnes Mary |last=Clerke|volume=35}} {{refend}}

==External links== {{commons category}} *{{s2a3 name|id=1791}} * [http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/bios/maclear-t.htm Thomas Maclear 1794–1879] – SA History * [http://assa.saao.ac.za/sections/history/astronomers/maclear_t South African Astronomical Observatory History]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclear, Thomas}} [[Category:1794 births]] [[Category:1879 deaths]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:19th-century Irish astronomers]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:People from Newtownstewart]] [[Category:Royal Medal winners]] [[Category:Cape Colony scientists]] [[Category:Ulster Scots people]] [[Category:Recipients of the Lalande Prize]] [[Category:Scientists from County Tyrone]]