http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 25Epilogue: Searching for John Goodricke
How did a young man with such a serious handicap achieve
so much in such a short lifetime? Bits of Goodricke’s
story have been woven into a mostly false narrative. He is
frequently referred to as “deaf and dumb” or a “deaf mute”.
A plaque describing Goodricke in this manner is mounted on
a wall outside Treasurer’s House, the family’s home in York.
However, in his journals, Goodricke describes conversations
with a clockmaker. He writes, “I remonstrated with Mr
Hartley...” Although he was deaf, he read lips and attempted
to speak (learning to lip-read was part of the curriculum of
Braidwood Academy).
The Czech-British astrophysicist Zdeneˇk Kopal visited
the graveyard where Goodricke is buried and concluded
that he was not interred with his family because they were
ashamed of him, “a blot on the family’s escutcheon” because
of his deafness. Kopal apparently reached this conclusion
after seeing a stone in the graveyard marked simply, “The
Goodricke Vault”. But there’s a less sinister explanation. The
Goodricke vault was located under the floor of an earlier
church on the site. As their estate passed into other hands,
the new owners wanted to build their own church. None
of the Goodricke family was buried in the new church.
County records show that John Goodricke rests with his
grandparents, his parents, his brother and his nephew.
In preparation for a Semester Abroad course in England
with my university students, I looked into Goodricke’s life. I
realised that the stories I had learned could not be true. Cold,
unloving parents would not have provided their deaf child the
education he needed. John Goodricke thrived through their
support, an excellent education and the generous mentorship
of Edward Pigott. LINDA FRENCH is an astronomer and Professor of Physics
at Illinois Wesleyan University. She studies small Solar System
bodies in her ‘regular’ astronomical research. Goodricke’s
story piqued her interest due to her long teaching career and
her research with undergraduates.anddippingequalamountsduringeacheclipse.Sincethe
brightness seemed to vary during some ‘eclipses,’ Goodricke
andPigottbotheventuallyacceptedthevariationstheyhad
discovered as being due to starspots.
Goodricke had little time left to live. On April 6, 1786,
he was elected to membership in the Royal Society; on April
20thofthatyearhedied,aged21.Laterthatyear,Edward
Pigott published the work he and Goodricke had done to
determinethelatitudeandlongitudeofYork.Pigottnotedhis
youngcolleague’spassingthus:This worthy young man exists no more; he is not only
regrettedbymanyfriends,butwillprovealosstoastronomy,
asthediscoverieshesorapidlymadesufficientlyevince:alsohis
quicknessinthestudyofmathematicswaswellknowntoseveral
persons eminent in that line.Edward Pigott went on to discover the variability of the
starsRScutiandRCoronaeBorealis.
Proving the binary nature of Algol was impossible for nearly
acenturyuntiltheadventofastronomicalspectroscopy.It’s
easytolookbackandsay,“Theyhadtherightanswer!Whydid
theyletthemselvesbetalkedoutofit?”Butnophysicalbinary
stars(andcertainlynoexoplanets!)wereknownatthetime,
whilesunspotshadbeenobservedformorethanacentury.It’s
remarkable that the first explanation that occurred to Pigott
andGoodrickeledtotheverytechniqueastronomersusetoday
to detect exoplanets. Their observations and theorising were
decades ahead of their time.THE FAMILY PLOT
The Goodricke family is buried in
the yard of the Church of St. John
the Baptist near York. The flat
stone (right) marks the location of
the family vault. The inscription on
the stone reads “The Goodricke
Vault”. A letter ‘E’ is inscribed on
the stone’s east face.LINDA FRENCH (2)