Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/305

 and his eldest son, and in 1874 a monument to his memory was placed by his surviving children in St. James's, Piccadilly, where he was buried. A silhouette of Rigaud is in the common room at Exeter College.

Arduous in attention to his professional duties, Rigaud was a laborious student, widely read, no mean conversationalist, and a copious correspondent. As an astronomer he was remarkable for his accurate knowledge of the literature and history of the subject. As a mathematical antiquary and bibliographer, he had no rival previous to De Morgan. It is to Rigaud that, in the first instance, we owe much of our information about Newton and the history of his discoveries, and he aided Brewster in his biography (cf. Edinb. Review, Oct. 1843, an article on two of Rigaud's works, probably by De Morgan).

In 1831 he edited in quarto ‘The Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence of Dr. Bradley,’ with a copious memoir, and in 1833 a supplement, including an account of Harriott's astronomical papers. The work was much appreciated on the continent, and the Academy of Sciences of Copenhagen announced in 1832 that the subject of their prize would be the reduction of Bradley's observations for aberration and notation. It was through the instrumentality of Rigaud that William IV caused a monument to be erected to Bradley at Kew.

In 1838 Rigaud published a valuable ‘Historical Essay on the First Publication of Newton's “Principia.”’ This was an admirable exposition of the facts then known, and contained much new and interesting matter about Halley, whose life Rigaud intended to write. The last work on which he was engaged was a publication of ‘The Correspondence of Scientific Men of the Seventeenth Century,’ such as Newton, Barrow, Wallis, Flamsteed, and others. He lived to see only the first volume and the first sheet of the second printed; the whole in two volumes was edited by his son, S. J. Rigaud, in 1841, and re-edited, with an index, by De Morgan in 1862 (Oxford, 8vo). Rigaud copied out all the letters himself. The collection is of great historical interest. Rigaud's valuable papers and letters, which were beautifully arranged, were presented in 1874 to the Savile Library, Oxford, by his sons (Monthly Notices R. A. S. 1875–6, p. 54).

Rigaud published the following papers: 1. ‘On the British MSS. of Pappus's “Mathematicæ Collectiones”’ (‘Edin. Phil. Journ.’ 1822). 2. ‘On Harriott's Papers’ (‘Roy. Instit. Journ.’ 1831). 3. ‘Account of James Stirling’ (Brewster's ‘Journal of Science,’ 2nd ser. vol. v. 1831). 4. ‘On the Discovery of Jupiter's Satellites’ (‘Brit. Ass. Report,’ 1831–2). 5. ‘On the Invention and History of Hadley's Quadrant’ (‘Naut. Mag.’ vols. i–iii. 1831–3). 6. ‘On Harriott's Astronomical Observations in some unpublished Manuscripts’ (‘Roy. Soc. Proc.’ 1832). 7. ‘On a Deposition of Ice on a Stone Wall’ (‘Phil. Mag.’ 1833). 8. ‘An Account of John Hadley and his brothers George and Henry’ (‘Naut. Mag.’ vol. iv. 1834). 9. ‘Some Account of Halley's Astronomiæ Cometicæ Synopsis,’ 1835. 10. ‘On Newton, Whiston, Halley, and Flamsteed’ (‘Phil. Mag.’ 1836). 11. ‘On the Aurora of 18 Nov. 1835’ (‘Phil. Mag.’ 1836). 12. ‘On Pemberton's Translation of Newton's “Principia”’ (‘Phil. Mag.’ 1836). 13. ‘Greenwich Observatory Instruments in Halley's Time’ (‘Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc.’ 1836). 14. ‘On the Rainfall in Different Seasons at Oxford’ (‘Ashmolean Society's Transactions,’ 1835). 15. ‘On the Arenarius of Archimedes’ (ib. 1837). 16. ‘An Account of some early Proposals for Steam Navigation’ (ib. 1838). 17. ‘Captain Savery and his Steam-engine’ (ib. 1839). 18. ‘On the relative Quantities of Land and Water on the Globe’ (‘Cambr. Phil. Soc. Trans.’ 1838). 19. ‘Account of the Radcliffe Observatory, with a notice of the older one used by Bradley’ (ib.) ‘A Defence of the Resolution for omitting Mr. Panizzi's Bibliographical Notes from the Catalogue of the Royal Society’ is ascribed to Rigaud by Sir Anthony Panizzi in his answer, and bears tokens of Rigaud's authorship.

[Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc. xi. 321; Gent. Mag. 1839, i. 542; A Memoir by J. Rigaud, Oxford, 1883 (privately printed), containing much interesting personal detail; Abstracts of the Phil. Trans. 1837–43, p. 175; Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Ashmolean Society; Boase's Reg. Exeter Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), p. 161; Knight's Cyclopædia of Biography; Ball's Essay on Newton's Principia.]  RIGBY, ALEXANDER (1594–1650), parliamentary colonel and baron of the exchequer, born in 1594, was eldest son of Alexander Rigby of Wigan, by his wife Alice, daughter of Leonard Asshawe or Asshal, of Shaw Hall, near Flixton. Joseph Rigby [q. v.] was his brother. The father's will was proved on 26 April 1632. In it he left very considerable property to Alexander, his heir, who was admitted to Gray's Inn on 1 Nov. 1610. In 1639 he was living near Rigby, a hamlet of the parish of Kirkham, and had a dispute with the vicar about his pew; but the court of Chester decided against him (Hist. of Kirkham, p. 101). On 17 March 1639–40 he was returned member for Wigan borough to the Short parliament (, Hist. of Wigan, i.