William Vernon Harcourt (scientist)

Rev. William Venables-Vernon Harcourt (1789April 1871) was an English cleric, founder of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, canon residentiary of the York Cathedral, and later rector of Bolton Percy. Family He was born at Sudbury, Derbyshire, a younger son of Edward Vernon-Harcourt, Archbishop of York and his wife Lady Anne Leveson-Gower, who was a daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford and his second wife Lady Louisa Egerton. Her maternal grandparents were Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater and his second wife Rachel Russell. Rachel was a daughter of Wriothesley Russell, 2nd Duke of Bedford and the rich heiress Elizabeth Howland, daughter of John Howland of Streatham. Career After he had served in the navy, on the West Indian station, for five years, his father allowed him to become a clergyman. He was a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1807, graduating B.A. in 1811 and M.A. in 1814, and remained a student of Christ Church till 1815. He was on good terms with Cyril Jackson, the dean and Dr. John Kidd, then a teacher of chemistry at his college, influenced him. On leaving university in 1811, Harcourt began duties as a clergyman at Bishopthorpe, Yorkshire and aided the movement for establishing an institution in Yorkshire for the cultivation of science. He constructed a laboratory, and occupied himself in chemical analysis, aided by his early friends Davy and Wollaston.