Richard Helsham

Richard Helsham (1683 – 1 August 1738) was an Irish physician and natural philosopher at Trinity College Dublin. He was the inaugural Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy from 1724 and Regius Professor of Physic from 1733.[1][2]

Richard Helsham

Life

Helsham was born at Leggetsrath, Kilkenny City, son of Joshua Helsham.[3] He was educated at Kilkenny College, and entered Trinity College Dublin on 18 July 1697. He was a Scholar in 1700, graduated BA in 1702, was elected a Fellow in 1704, and got MA in 1705. He then studied medicine, and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1710. Back at TCD, he became MD in 1713, and was co-opted a senior fellow in 1714, eventually resigning from that position in 1730.[4]

Helsham was Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics (1723–1730), He was a trustee of Dr Steevens' Hospital.

Helsham was a friend of Jonathan Swift, and of Dublin men of letters generally, including Michael Clancy and Patrick Delany.[4][5][6] He died on 25 August 1738, and was interred in the churchyard of St Mary's Church, Dublin.[4]

Works

Helsham's Lectures on Natural Philosophy, edited by his lifelong friend Bryan Robinson, Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Dublin, were published in 1739, and a second edition appeared in 1743.[4] He found an inverse-square law in magnetism, but the early editions do not treat electricity.[7][8]

With Patrick Delany, Helsham wrote an anonymous political pamphlet, A long history of a short session of parliament in a certain kingdom (Dublin, 1714). It was aimed at the Irish Parliament, was considered scandalous, and was ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. The Privy Council of Ireland offered a reward to discover its author.[9]

Family

Helsham married Jane Putland, widow of Thomas Putland, in 1730. Her unmarried name was Rolton.[1]

Notes
  1. Welch, H. T. "Helsham, Richard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12877. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Erasmus Smith's professors of Mathematics Mathematics at TCD 1592–1992
  3. Burtchaell, G. D., and Sadleir, T. U. (eds), Alumni Dublinensis: A Register of the Students, Graduates, Professors and Provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin, 1593–1860 (Dublin, 1935), p. 387
  4. Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). "Helsham, Richard" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  5. Esposito, Anthony. "Clancy, Michael". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/46671. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. Barnard, Toby. "Delany, Patrick". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7443. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. Roderick Weir Home (8 March 2015). Aepinus's Essay on the Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. Princeton University Press. p. 171 note 75. ISBN 978-1-4008-6952-7.
  8. Michael B. Schiffer; Kacy L. Hollenback; Carrie L. Bell (2003). Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment. University of California Press. pp. 288 note 16. ISBN 978-0-520-23802-2.
  9. James Kelly, Regulating print: The state and the control of print in eighteenth-century Ireland, Eighteenth-Century Ireland / Iris an dá chultúr Vol. 23 (2008), pp. 142–174 at p. 161. Published by: Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27806928

Attribution  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). "Helsham, Richard". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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