Thomas Barker (meteorologist)
Thomas Barker (1722 – 29 December 1809) was a Rutland squire who kept a detailed weather record at Lyndon Hall from 1736 to 1798. Life and work. Thomas Barker was born at Lyndon Hall, Lyndon, Rutland, England in 1722. The son of Samuel Barker and grandson of William Whiston, he came from a distinguished local family, which had lived in Lyndon from the time of Henry VIII. He married Anne White, sister of Gilbert White the famous naturalist. The couple had five children, a son and four daughters. Thomas Barker was a vegetarian, having discovered in early childhood  that his constitution was unsuited to the consumption of meat. Barker's meteorological records have proved a valuable resource for those researching the 18th century British climate, because of its early date for instrumental observations, its length and the meticulousness with which it was compiled. He recorded barometric pressure, temperature, clouds, wind and rainfall. (In the early years his thermometer was indoors, in an unheated room, as was common at the time.) Barker's temperature data was amongst that used by Gordon Manley in compiling his Central England Temperature series. Barker recorded during September 1749 what was clearly, from his  careful description, a tornado: Barker published a number of papers in the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society". As well as being a meteorologist, he was also an astronomer, publishing "An Account of the Discoveries concerning Comets, with the Way to find their Orbits, and some Improvements in constructing and calculating their Places" in 1757. He "provided a handy table for determining parabolic trajectories and orbits". He was the first modern astronomer to note the discrepancy between some ancient accounts of Sirius being a red star and its current blue-white colour. His journals include observations on the local flora  and fauna in addition to the weather. He also wrote a number of theological books. Thomas Barker died on 29 December 1809 and was buried in Lyndon churchyard on 3 January 1810.