Paul Neile

Sir Paul Neile (1613 to 1686) was an English astronomer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and from 1673 to 1677. Born at Westminster, the son of Richard Neile, later Archbishop of York, he was admitted to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1627, took his BA in 1631, served as an usher of the Privy Chamber to Charles I and was knighted in 1633. During the interregnum he lived at White Waltham in Berkshire, where he studied astronomy and built telescopes; Christopher Wren used his telescope there in 1655, and in 1658 Neile gave a 35-foot telescope to Gresham College. He was one of the twelve founder members of the Royal Society, which in 1661 asked him to continue employing the craftsman who made glasses for perspectives. Elected member of Parliament for Ripon in 1640 and for Newark in 1673 with his business partner Henry Savile, his second election was contested and was declared void in 1677. His son William Neile was a mathematician and astronomer.