Martin Folkes

Martin Folkes (1690 to 1754) was an English antiquary, numismatist, mathematician and astronomer who served as president of the Royal Society from 1741 to 1752. Born in Westminster and educated at Clare College, Cambridge, he distinguished himself in mathematics so greatly that at twenty-three he was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society. He joined its council in 1716, was made a vice-president by Isaac Newton in 1723 and, after losing the presidency contest to Hans Sloane on Newton's death, succeeded Sloane in 1741. In 1742 he was made a member of the French Royal Academy of Sciences, and in 1746 he received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. He was president of the Society of Antiquaries from 1749 to 1754 and wrote Dissertations on the weights and values of ancient coins after a tour of Italy in 1733, as well as papers on Roman antiquities and a table of English gold coins. A prominent Freemason and an early vice-president of the Foundling Hospital, he was a noted atheist who opposed racial prejudice.