Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
Sir Samuel Morland, 1st Baronet (1625 – 30 December 1695), or Moreland, was a notable English academic, diplomat, spy, inventor and mathematician of the 17th century, a polymath credited with early developments in relation to computing, hydraulics and steam power.
[edit] Education
The son of Thomas Morland, the rector of Sulhamstead Bannister parish church in Berkshire, he was educated at Winchester School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow in 1649.[1] Devoting much time to the study of mathematics, Morland also became an accomplished Latinist and was proficient in Greek, Hebrew and French – then the language of culture and diplomacy. While a tutor at Cambridge, he first encountered Samuel Pepys who became a lifelong acquaintance.
[edit] Diplomat
A keen follower of public affairs, he left Cambridge and entered public service. He undertook a trip to Sweden in 1653, and in 1655 was sent by Oliver Cromwell on a mission to Italy to protest at actions taken against the Waldensians by the Duke of Savoy. He remained in Geneva for some time in an ambassadorial role, and also wrote a book: The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (1658).
[edit] Spy
However, while serving as secretary to John Thurloe, a Commonwealth official in charge of espionage, Morland became disillusioned with the Government of the Commonwealth (allegedly after learning of a plot by Sir Richard Willis, Thurloe and Richard Cromwell to assassinate the future King Charles II). As a double agent, Morland began to work towards the Restoration, engaging in espionage and cryptography – activities that later helped him enter the King's service.
[edit] Inventor
On 18 July 1660 he was created a baronet and given a minor role at court, but his principal source of income came from applying his knowledge of mathematics and hydraulics to construct and maintain various machines. These included:
- “water-engines”, an early kind of water pump. He was, for example, engaged on projects to improve the water supply to Windsor Castle, during which time he patented (c. 1675) a 'plunger pump' capable of "raising great quantities of water with far less proportion of strength than can be performed by a Chain or other Pump." He also experimented with using gunpowder to make a vacuum that would suck in water (in effect the first internal combustion engine[citation needed]) and worked on ideas for a steam engine. Morland's pumps were developed for numerous domestic, marine and industrial applications, such as wells, draining ponds or mines, and fire fighting. His calculation of the volume of steam (approximately two thousand times that of water) was not improved upon until the later part of the next century, and was of importance for the future development of a working steam engine.[2]
- a non-decimal adding machine (working with English pounds, shillings and pence)
- a machine that made trigonometric calculations
- an 'arithmetical machine' by which the four fundamental rules of arithmetic were readily worked "without charging the memory, disturbing the mind, or exposing the operations to any uncertainty" (regarded by some as the world's first multiplying machine, an example is in the Science Museum in South Kensington).
- in 1666, he also obtained a patent for making metal fire-hearths
- in 1671 he claimed credit for inventing the speaking trumpet, an early form of megaphone.
- He later won a contract to provide mirrors to the King and to erect and maintain the King’s printing press.
- In 1681, he was appointed magister mechanicorum (master of mechanics) to the King for his work on the water system at Windsor.
- He also corresponded with Pepys about naval gun-carriages, designed a machine to weigh ship's anchors, developed new forms of barometers, and designed a cryptographic machine.
From 1677, he lived in the Vauxhall area of central London, where he wasn't responsible for the antecedents of Vauxhall Gardens. He moved to a house in Hammersmith in 1684. He began to go blind, losing his sight in about 1692. Three years later, he died 30 December 1695 and was buried on 6 January 1696 in St. Paul's Church, Hammersmith.
[edit] Family
Morland married three times:
- In 1657 he married the Huguenot Susanne de Milleville, daughter of Daniel de Milleville, baron de Boissy; they had three children. She died in 1668.
- In 1670 he married Carola Harsnett, daughter of Sir Roger Harsnett; they had two children. She died in 1674.
- In 1676 he married Ann Feilding of Solihull, sister of Beau Feilding. There was no issue, and she died in 1680.[3]
There are monuments to two of Morland's three wives in the Nave of Westminster Abbey.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Venn, J.; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). "Morland, Samuel". Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols) (online ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Rosen, William (2010). "A Great Company of Men". The Most Powerful Idea in the World. New York: Random House. pp. 25. ISBN 978-1-4000-6705-3.
- ^ Marshall, Alan, "Morland, Sir Samuel", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/19282
[edit] External links
- Archival material relating to Samuel Morland listed at the UK National Register of Archives
- Works by or about Samuel Morland in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
| Baronetage of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Baronet (of Sulhamstead Banister)1660–1695 | Succeeded by Samuel Morland |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Morland, Samuel |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1625 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 30 December 1695 |
| Place of death | |
Annotations
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Wheatley:
Samuel Morland, son of the Rev. Thomas Morland, of Sulhamstead Banister, near Reading, Berks, was born about 1625. He was educated at Winchester School, whence he removed to Magdalene College, Cambridge; admitted to a scholarship, July 18th, 1645; to a quinquennial fellowship, November 30th, 1649; and to a foundation fellowship, September 24th 1651. One of the fellows who signed Pepys’s admission entry, October 1st, 1650. He became afterwards one of Turloe’s under-secretaries, and was employed in several embassies, particularly to the Vaudois, by Cromwell, whose interests he betrayed, by secretly communicating with Charles II. He published in 1658, in a folio volume, his “History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont [sic?]” He was knighted at Breda, and afterwards created a baronet. He was an ingenious mechanic, and made some improvements in the steam engine. At the Restoration he as made Master of Mechanics to Charles II, who presented him with a medal as an “honourable badge of his signal loyalty.” He subsequently received a pension of L400 but sold it for ready money. He died December 30th 1695 and was buried in Hammersmith church on the 6th of the following January. His MSS are at Cambridge, in the Public Library”
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S.Morland also played with a Calculating machine that I believe can be seen at the Science Museum London
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In 1656 Morland became Clerk of the Signet, with a salary of
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“Now Montagu gets the Position”
I think we can pretty well say that Montagu didn’t get S Morland’s position as Clerk of the Signet. The original annotation was probably based on Montagu’s own memory slip as recorded in the diary (May 4 1660 and June 6 1660). I can’t say for sure who got the position since the online reference of office holders runs out with S. Morland (1656-?)
http://www.history.ac.uk/office/signet.html -
In addition to signing off on Pepys’s admission to Cambridge, Morland was also his tutor at Magdalene College according to Tomalin: “The college register for 21 October 1653 reads, in the hand of [Sam’s] tutor Samuel Morland, ‘Peapys and Hind were solemnly admonished by myself and Mr. Hill for having been scandalously overserved with drink the night before. This was done in the presence of the Fellows then resident, in Mr. Hill’s Chamber’” (37).
That’s our Sam …
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The hapless Morland
In fact, he had an ongoing relationship with Pepys, and the contrast between their two careers in interesting. On the one hand Our Sam, living a life of unglamorous attention to detail and carefully managed rewards; on the other the anti-Sam, with much flash and glamour but a constant struggle for money. The L&M Companion entry is long and really brings Morland to life:
“Mathematician, inventor, and Pepys’s tutor at Magdalene, where he was a Fellow from 1649-54. He left Cambridge for the public service and held a post under Secretary Thurloe. By the summer of 1659 he was passing information to the royalists abroad. His reward at the Restoration was a knighthood, a baronetcy, a pension and a place in the Privy Chamber. But nothing went right with him: he passed the rest of his life ‘in a state of perpetual and clamorous impecuniosity’ (Bryant). He sold his English pension; for a while after 1668 he acquired a French one. He lived in the ’60s in Pall Mall; moved to Bloomsbury, later to Vauxhall, and by 1687 was living in what he called a ‘hut’ by Hyde Park gate. He produced inventions by the dozen, but could not invent a means of staying solvent. The most interesting of his inventions, technically, was his calculating machine. The most important, politically, was a device for opening and resealing letters—much used by the Post Office until the instruments were destroyed, with the Post Office building, in the Fire. He pressed on Pepys and the Admiralty several varieties of water pump, each better than the last, and a design for naval gun carriages. For his own delight he contrived indoor fountains, a portable cooking stove and a mechanical glyster with which he could administer an enema to himself without getting out of bed [!]. To pay his debts he fell back in 1687 on the oldest contrivance of all: he married, as he thought, an heiress—but she turned out to be an adventuress who was scheming to saddle him with her debts and her bastard. He managed to get rid of her after a few years by divorce, since she had set herself up as the mistress of Sir Gilbert Gerard, feeling cheated of her expectations. He told the whole tragic-comedy in a series of letters to Pepys, in the hope that his old pupil would be able, through his influence with the Chancellor and the King, to expedite the legal proceedings.”
Here’s a portrait of him—and no wonder he has bags under his eyes:
http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/fullsize/SIL14-M006-03a.jpg -
Vauxhaul connection:
Vauxhaul history and plan
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/4896.phpold gardens
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/4897.php
new gardens -
Morland also wrote a manual featuring several cryptographic methods including a cipher device used to perform an autokey. See Cryptologia article Sir Samuel Morland’s Machina Cyclologica Cryptographica, Volume XXVIII, 3, July 2004.
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Other references to Morland in the Diary:
1662 May 29th
1663 Aug 13th
1664 May 16th
Nov 25th
Dec 11th
1667 Sep 4th
Sep 16th
1669 Mar 14th
Apr 2nd
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SIR SAMUEL MORLAND’S MACHINA CYCLOLOGICA CRYPTOGRAPHICA
Cryptologia, Jul 2004 by Buonafalce, Augusto
ABSTRACT: A 17th century treatise featuring several cryptographic methods includes a cipher device used to perform an autokey. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3926/is_200407/ai_n9458622 -
In 1663 (12th August) he was married to Susanne de Milleville, daughter of Daniel de Milleville, baron of Boessen in France, naturalized 1662. Morland survived a second and a third wife, both buried in Westminster Abbey.
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Morland.
From Emilio’s post above…
“The most important, politically, was a device for opening and resealing letters—much used by the Post Office until the instruments were destroyed, with the Post Office building, in the Fire.”
A summary from Intelligence and Espionage in the Reign of Charles II by Alan Marshall…“In 1664 Morland went to see Arlington who told him that there was a method in Spain of sealing letters which were impossible to open without being discovered. He saw this as a challenge and undertook to examine a letter written by Arlington sealed in this fashion. This he did and returned it with three more sealed in the Spanish fashion. Arlington was startled to discover that he could not tell which was the original.
…After three months the King and Arlington visited him in his rooms to see the machines at work. For three hours they witness the counterfeiting of wax seals, wafers and “any handwriting whatever, so as not to be discovered by him who writes the original.”
…Charles gave orders that all these activities to be put into practice. They continued in use until the Great Fire of 1666 put an end to them.”
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Sir Samuel Morland’s Trigonometric machine in London’s Institute and Museum of the History of Science that vincent referred to:
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Wikipedia article about Sir Samuel with portrait http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Morland
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Cooper, Samuel (artist) 1609 - 1672
Portrait of Sir Samuel Morland, Bt
Miniature, Watercolour on vellum
ca. 1660-1661 (painted)
England (probably, painted)
V&A Museum number: 481-1903 Bequeathed by Mrs A. B. Woodcroft
Gallery location: Portrait Miniatures, room 90a, case 17
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O81939/miniature-portrait-of-sir-samuel-morland/
