and colours was disputed by Monsieur Marriotte who had unsuccessfully attempted the confirmatory experiments. Desaguliers repeated those experiments with perfect success in 1714 and in 1728, “after which,” says Priestley, “no person who chose to give his name to the public, or whose name is worth recording, made any more opposition to it.”
A rather amusing anecdote is told regarding a publication suggested by the troubles of housekeeping. In 1716 he published a pamphlet entitled, “Fires Improved; being a new method of building chimneys so as to prevent their smoking.” It was a translation from the French. Edmund Curll, as publisher and part-proprietor, puffed it off with gross exaggerations, in order to increase the sale. This offended Desaguliers, who published a letter in Sir Richard Steel’s periodical, called “The Town Talk,” informing the public that whenever the writer’s name hereafter “was or should be printed along with that egregious flatterer Mr CurlPs, either in an advertisement, or in the title page of a book (except that of Fires Improved), he entirely disowned it.”
The Hanoverian Royal Family shewed a laudable interest in science. The Countess Cowper in her Diary, under the date 11th February 1716 (n.s.), says, “Sir Isaac Newton and Dr Clarke came this afternoon to explain Sir Isaac’s System of Philosophy to the Princess [of Wales].” And in 1717 King George I. requested Desaguliers to give his course of lectures at Hampton Court; His Majesty and the royal family were among the auditors, his course being a popular one addressed to the general public, including the fair sex. The lecturer was made LL.B. and LL.D. of Oxford on the same day, 16th March 1718.
It should be noted that Dr Desaguliers was a clergyman of the Church of England. The Earl of Carnarvon (a generous friend to Dr Keill) took Desaguliers under his patronage, made him his chaplain, and presented him to the living of Stanmore Parva or Whitchurch. In 1717 he preached before the king a sermon on Luke xiii. 5, which would have been rewarded with the gift of the Rectory of Much- Munden in Hertfordshire, if a friend of the Earl of Sunderland had not produced a prior claim. He obtained in that year a benefice in Norfolk (worth £70 per annum), which he exchanged in 1727 for the Rectory of Little Warley, Essex, of which Sir John Tyrrell, Bart., was the patron. In the reign of George II. he was made chaplain to Frederick Prince of Wales, and in 1738 chaplain to Bowles’ Dragoons. His one sermon standing alone, among so many scientific lectures and literary performances, might seem to divest him of his clerical character; but he was always recognised as a clergyman. On one occasion, when he was dining in illustrious company, an officer swore in conversation, and after each oath he asked Dr Desaguliers pardon. After bearing this gross misconduct patiently for some time, the Doctor silenced the offender by saying to him, “Sir, you have been attempting to render me ridiculous by your pointed apologies. All I shall say to you is, if God Almighty does not hear you, I will never tell him.”[1]
In his family register, written in the French language within the boards of his Bible, he continued his father’s pious tone and devout spirit. We obtain from it the names, birthdays, and baptisms of his children. His eldest son and namesake was born 7th March 1715, and died 19th August 1716. But the second son, born 18th August 1718, was also named John Theophilus, and grew up to manhood. John Isaac was born 17th October 1719, and was presented for baptism by Sir Isaac Newton, the Marquis of Carnarvon,[2] and Cassandra Cornwallis. Thomas was born 5th January 1721 (n.s.). Three daughters, Joanna, Sarah-Jane, and Elizabeth, died in childhood; the sponsors of the second daughter were Lord Malpas, the Duchess of Richmond, and the Countess of Dalkeith. The widowed mother of Dr. Desaguliers died on March 14th, 1722, aged eighty-two. The entry as to Thomas is a good specimen of a Huguenot registration: — “Aujourd’hui le 5 de Janvier est né mon quatrième fills Thomas au grand peril de la vie de sa mère qui par la misericorde de Dieu a enfin accouché heureusement. Cet enfant a eu pour parrains Thomas Parker Comte de Macclesfield et grand chancelier d’Angleterre, et Archibald Campbell Comte d’Ilay, et pour marraine Theodosia Comtesse de Clifton, fi lie de my Lord Clarendon, depuis decédée. Dieu donne cet enfant sa grace et benediction.” All his children were baptized at St. Margaret’s, Westminster.
On the 25th June 1720, a patent was granted to John Theophilus Desaguliers, Daniel Niblett, and William Vreem, of an invention for making the steam and vapour of boiling liquors useful for many purposes. In 1721 he was consulted by
