Lawrence Rooke

Lawrence Rooke, also spelled Laurence (1622 to 1662), was an English astronomer and mathematician and one of the founders of the Royal Society, though he died while it was being formally constituted. Born in Deptford, a great-nephew through his mother of Lancelot Andrewes, he was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, graduating M.A. in 1647. Poor health led him to drop out of academic life for a time, and in 1650 he became a fellow commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, where he worked closely with John Wilkins and Seth Ward. He became Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in 1652 and Professor of Geometry there in 1657, an appointment in which Oliver Cromwell took an interest. He published nothing in his lifetime, but left papers on longitude and on the moons of Jupiter that appeared after his death. At the Royal Society's request he wrote directions for sailors on recording meteorological and oceanographic observations, printed in 1665 as Directions for Sea-men, bound for far Voyages. The lunar mountain range Montes Rook is named after him.