Jeremy Shakerley

Jeremy Shakerley, also written Jeremiah Shakerley, who lived from 1626 to about 1653, was an English astronomer who came from astrological traditions and followed an observational approach that led him to critique several works of his time. Born in Halifax, Yorkshire, he was educated at a free school, studied in Ireland and returned because of unrest there, and from 1647 concentrated on mathematics and began to correspond with the astrologer William Lilly. He made calculations based on Kepler's tables, lived for a while under the patronage of Christopher Towneley at Carr Hall, and in 1649 published a critique of the almanac work of Vincent Wing and William Leybourne. He had examined the work of Jeremiah Horrocks and found a better explanation of the dynamics of the Moon, and his predictions were published in the Tabulae Britannicae of 1653. He travelled to India to observe a transit of Mercury predicted for 1651, calculated the latitude of Surat, and is thought to have died in India.