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 so far as to identify solar attraction with terrestrial gravity (ib. p. 295). He detected, so far as his own observations could reveal it, the ‘long inequality’ of Jupiter and Saturn, placed a maximum value of 14″ on the solar horizontal parallax, estimated by Kepler at 59″, by Hevelius at 41″ (, Phil. Trans. liii. 467), and from the instantaneous disappearance of the stars during an occultation of the Pleiades on 19 March 1637, inferred the extreme minuteness of stellar apparent diameters (, Hist. of Physical Astronomy, p. 545).

The career of Horrocks is, for its brevity, one of the most remarkable on record. He had no help but in his own enthusiasm; time and means were alike denied him. Sir John Herschel calls him ‘the pride and boast of British astronomy’ (Treatise on Astronomy, p. 86 n.) ‘His name,’ Professor Grant remarks, ‘would assuredly have formed a household word to future generations, if his career had not so soon been brought to a close’ (Hist. of Phys. Astr. p. 422). Hearne wrote in 1723 of his ‘very strange unaccountable genius,’ by which he became ‘a prodigy for his skill in astronomy, and had he lived in all probability would have proved the greatest man in the whole world in his profession’ (MS. Diary in Bodleian Library, No. 102, p. 62). His genius was akin, and certainly not inferior, to that of Kepler. He had the same patient fervour in the pursuit of knowledge, the same instinct for generalisation, the same fidelity to truth, and without Kepler's touch of extravagance. His disposition appears to have been amiable and affectionate, and he met the contrarieties of his life with cheerful and devout courage. He had scholarly and poetical, as well as scientific, tastes. 

HORROCKS, JOHN (1768–1804), manufacturer, the second son of a quaker, was born at The Birches, a small family property in the village of Edgeworth, near Bolton, Lancashire, in 1768. In 1786 he went to Preston, and erected a mill for cotton-spinning by machinery, successfully dealing with the prejudices of the workpeople, and employing the Horrocks power-loom, the invention of a relative. Shortly afterwards, being successful in a competition ordered by the East India Company for the sole manufacture of cotton goods to be exported to India, he altered his machinery, and became a manufacturer of muslin. He succeeded so well that he constructed other factories, and his elder brother Samuel and a workman named Miller entered into partnership with him. In 1802 he was returned to parliament in the conservative interest, with Lord Stanley, for the borough of Preston, and was consulted by William Pitt on commercial matters. He built for his residence a large stone house, Penwortham Lodge, near Preston. Dying of brain fever when in London, on 1 March 1804, he was buried in Penwortham churchyard. His fortune amounted to 750,000l. He married a Miss Lomax in 1787, and left two sons, Peter and John, who carried on his business. A pillar was afterwards erected to his memory at Preston.

(1818–1846), grandson of the above, landed near Adelaide, South Australia, in 1839, and founded Penwortham village, seventy-five miles north of Adelaide. He was killed by the explosion of his gun in 1846, while exploring the head of Spencer's Gulf. Mount Horrocks and Horrocks' Pass were named after him. 