Rev. Henry CODDINGTON FRS ⁵⁰⁸⁵

  General Notes:

Coddington, Henry (1798/9-1845), natural philosopher and Church of England clergyman, was born at Oldbridge, co. Meath, Ireland, the son of the Revd Latham Coddington, rector of Tinolin, co. Kildare, and his wife, Anne Bellingham. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1816 and graduated in 1820 as senior wrangler and first Smith's prizeman, being elected a fellow of his college the same year. He proceeded MA in 1823 and was tutor from 1822 to 1833. He was ordained priest in 1826 and he retired to the college living of Ware in Hertfordshire in 1832. Before 1839 he married a daughter of Joseph Hallet Batten, principal of East India College, Haileybury; they had a son, Henry Hallet Coddington (1839-1883), a clergyman.

Coddington was regarded as a good modern linguist, an excellent musician and draughtsman, and a skilled botanist. His scientific works, with the exception of an anonymous tract, The Principles of the Differential Calculus, were devoted to optics. An Elementary Treatise on Optics (1823; 2nd edn, 1825) was based on Whewell's lectures and displayed the prevailing Cambridge interest in 'geometrical' optics, de-emphasizing 'physical' questions about the nature of light itself. The book nevertheless hinted at an early acceptance of the new wave theory of light at Cambridge. A System of Optics, published in two parts, raised higher his claims as an independent enquirer in geometrical optics. The first part, A Treatise on the Reflexion and Refraction of Light (1829), contained a very complete investigation of the paths of reflected and refracted rays, while in the second, A Treatise on the Eye and on Optical Instruments (1830), were explained the theory and construction of the various kinds of telescope and microscope. His texts became standard material for Cambridge undergraduate studies. On 22 March 1830 he read a paper on the improvement of the microscope before the Cambridge Philosophical Society; his strong recommendation of the grooved sphere lens, first described by David Brewster in 1820, brought it into general use under the designation of the 'Coddington lens'. He also wrote A Few Remarks on the New Library Question, by a Member of neither Syndicate (1831) and The Church Catechism Explained, Enlarged, and Confirmed by Quotations from Holy Scripture (1840).

Coddington was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1829 and was in the first published list of members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1832. He was a founding member of the Royal Astronomical Society and was a fellow of the Geological and Cambridge Philosophical societies. The stress of dealing with dissension within his parish evidently led to a burst blood vessel, and while travelling abroad for his health he died at Rome on 3 March 1845, leaving seven children.

A. M. Clerke, rev.

David B. Wilson



Sources GM, 2nd ser., 24 (1845), 90-91 + Venn, Alum. Cant. + D. B. Wilson, 'The reception of the wave theory of light by Cambridge physicists, 1820-1850', PhD diss., The Johns Hopkins University, 1968 + G. G. Stokes, 'Optics I' and 'Optics no. II', undergraduate reading notes, c.1840, CUL, Stokes Collection, Add. MS 7656, PA15 and PA16 + Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society of London, 7 (1845-7), 48-9 + W. B. Carpenter, 'Microscope', Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edn (1875-89), vol. 16, pp. 258-78 + Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, 16 (1847), 484 + Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1831-2), 610 + H. W. Becher, 'Voluntary science in nineteenth century Cambridge University to the 1850s', British Journal for the History of Science, 19 (1986), 57-87 + Annual Register (1845), 257 + O. Henker, 'Microscope', Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edn (1910-11), vol. 18, pp. 392-407 + J. Morrell and A. Thackray, Gentlemen of science: early years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1981), 54, 431-3 + Burke, Gen. GB
Archives Trinity Cam., letters to W. Whewell, Add. MSS a.20260-20262

Henry married Priscilla BATTEN, daughter of Rev. Joseph Hallet BATTEN and Catherine MAXWELL, on 17 Dec 1833 in Great Amwell, , Hertfordshire, England. (Priscilla BATTEN was born on 28 Feb 1813, died on 2 Mar 1895 and was buried in Windsor.)