Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Farish, William (1759-1837), chemist and President of Magdalene College, Cambridge
Parallel form(s) of name
- The Revd Professor William Farish, BD
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1759-1837
History
Matriculated in 1774; Senior Wrangler in 1778; Made a Fellow in 1778 at the age of 19. Became President of the College in 1798.
1800 Vicar of St Giles
1794 Professor of Chemistry
1813-1837 Jacksonian Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy
A skilled engineering model-maker, he foresaw the time when steam would be the main motive power for travel by land and sea, and he predicted that the technology would one day be found to travel through the air. He was also an influential pioneer agitator against the slave trade and played a leading part in the related inauguration of the Protestant missionary movement: Marsden, Brown, Robert Grant and Lord Glenelg were among his protégés.
Further reading:
Article: 'William Farish, 1759-1837', by Charles Smyth, College Magazine, No. 76, December 1937
Article, ''William Farish, 1759-1837', by Dr K. R. Webb, College Magazine, No. 86, Michaelmas 1955