Abstract
John Couch Adams was one of the leading mathematical astronomers in the country and at a very young age (27 in 1846) and a junior Fellow in his college, was a pivotal figure in the hotly disputed discovery of Neptune. Born within one of the more remote areas of England, Cornwall, the region of his birth and his Cornish upbringing were fundamental in understanding the circumstances which would frame his life. His parents were tenant farmers living through a period of decline in rural England and the family income had to stretch to accommodate a burgeoning large family. During his early years Adams attended a local village school, where it was quickly evident that he had mathematical talent. Bookish in nature, he outstripped his tutors’ abilities and was sent to a family run school in Plymouth to further his education during his teenage years. It was clear to the family and close acquaintances that Adams should attend Cambridge University, the leading centre for mathematical studies in Britain and that in itself held challenges due to the expense involved. The large and impecunious family drew together and unstintingly utilised every possible source of income they could to invest in his future by making Cambridge possible for him.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the owners of Lidcott Farm for their support and access to the manganese mine on Laneast Downs. Descendant Norma Foster has been very generous with her time and discussions over her family knowledge of the Couch Adamses. The authors also thank Dr. Maarten Roos of Lightcurve Films for a still from his online film “Searching for Neptune”, the Curator and Staff of St Lawrence House Museum, the Librarians past and present of the Royal Astronomical Society (Peter Hingley and Sian Prosser), the Librarians of St John’s College, (Kathryn Mckee, Adam Crothers and Fiona Colbert) and Mark Hurn Librarian of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge. The author, Brian Sheen appeciated the conversations he had with Les Sleep, the Laneast descendent of Richard Sleep, John Couch Adams’s first teacher. Finally, many thanks go to all those who have supported us in so many ways over many years; Richard Baum, Allan Chapman, Cliff Cunningham, Roger Hutchins, Davor Krajnović, James Lequeux, William Sheehan, Robert W. Smith, Trudy E. Bell, Kenneth Young, and Craig B. Waff.
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Sheen, B., Kennett, C. (2021). John Couch Adams: From Cornwall to Cambridge. In: Sheehan, W., Bell, T.E., Kennett, C., Smith, R. (eds) Neptune: From Grand Discovery to a World Revealed. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54218-4_3
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