The subject of pay at the Observatory becomes increasingly complex from the nineteenth century onwards. Although there is information in the various archives about the amounts individuals were paid on certain specific dates, information about the overarching pay structures, pay ranges and dates when they were introduced are less well documented – particularly in the twentieth century. When it has been possible to work out the date ranges over which the various pay scales apply, they have been given, when not, spot values are given instead. Restructuring of the pay scales took place in 1871, 1896, 1912, the mid 1930s and 1946. References to relevant archive files are given in brackets: RGO (Royal Greenwich Observatory Archive at Cambridge); ADM, WORK and T (former Admiralty and Treasury files at the Public Record Office Kew), MS (Royal Society).
This page should be read in conjunction with the pages pages listed below:
Background information
Pay of the Astronomers Royal & Directors, 1675–1998
Pay 1675–1811
Pay 1836–1871
Pay 1871–1945
Pay 1946–1998
This section covers the period when John Pond was the Astronomer Royal.
Pond arrived at Greenwich in 1811 with his 15 year old ward John Henry Belville who at once began to help out, being paid as a supernumerary either by Pond himself or possibly by the Ordnance until 19 March 1814 when he was put on the establishment list as Second Assistant with his salary being paid by the Admiralty (ADM181/24). This brought the number of established assistants to two, the two post holders being referred to respectively as the First and the Second Assistants.
After the Admiralty took over responsibility for the Observatory from the Board of Ordnance in 1818, the extra work associated with a new requirement to test and rate chronometers, the introduction of a second mural circle (which was used simultaneously with the first), together with pressure for observing to take place during more hours of the day, lead to an increase in the number of assistants to six – two additional second assistants being appointed in 1822, and two supernumerary computers in 1825. The later were referred to as ‘extra assistants’ and became established in about 1830.
During this period, the Assistants were:
1807–1835 Thomas Taylor, father of Thomas Glanville Taylor & later First Assistant
1811–1856 John (Thomas) Henry Belville, also known as John Henry (Second Assistant)
1822–1830 Thomas Glanville Taylor, son of Thomas Taylor & appointed as a supernumerary in 1820 (Additional Second Assistant)
1822–1845 William Richardson (Additional Second Assistant)
1825 (Feb-Jun) Captain William Ronald* (RGO6/1f52v & RGO6/1/56). Dates approximate
1825 (Feb-Jun) Mr Walker (RGO6/1/56)). Dates approximate
1825 (Jun-Aug) Mr G Bradley (RGO6/1/56). Dates approximate
1825–1853 William Rogerson (appointed 10 Aug)
1825–1852 Thomas Ellis (Father of William Ellis, appointed 10 Aug)
1830–1835 Frederick Walter Simms
*Went on to the Cape Observatory as Assistant Astronomer.
Astronomer Royal (John Pond) |
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| 1811–1835 | £600 + house + coals & candles + £100 as Superintendent of Chronometers from 1821 + £25 expenses per meeting Board of Longitude until 1828 (when the Board was dissolved). There were normally three meetings of the Board a year prior to 1818 and four after that date (See RGO14/2/5 re: expenses) |
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First Assistant (Thomas Taylor) |
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| 1811–1816 | £196 + allowances (see below) (£196 = £26 from the Ordnance and £170 from the civil list. After deductions of ‘property taxes’, the total salary was said to be worth £160.6s. (£23.8s. + £136.18s. (RGO6/1/38)). | ||
| 1816–1835 | £200–£300, with increments of £20 every 3 years, counted from when first appointed in 1807. ie salary in 1816 was £260 + allowances (see below) | ||
Second Assistant (John Belville (also known as John Henry)) |
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| 1811–1820 | £100 + allowances (see below) | ||
| 1816–1835 | £100 + £10 for every three years from date of first appointment in 1811 + allowances (see below) | ||
Additional Second Assistants (Thomas Glanville Taylor, Richardson & Simms) |
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| 1822–1835 | £100 + £10 for every three years service + allowances (see below) | ||
Extra Assistants (Rogerson & Ellis) |
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| 1825–1835 | £100 + allowances (see below) | ||
Labourer |
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| 1816–1835 | 18 shillings a week (equivalent to about £47 a year) | ||
Gate Porter |
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| ? | 4 shillings a week (equivalent to about £10 a year) | ||
During this period, the First Assistant (Taylor) was provided with an apartment at the Observatory, where he lived from 1807 until he resigned in 1835. He was the last of the First/Chief Assistants to live in. His four children were born between 1804 and 1812.
In 1811, the assistant’s apartment consisted of the top floor at the centre of Bradley’s Observatory (the west end of the present Meridian Building). A second apartment was built in 1813, at the same time as a dome for the Shuckburgh telescope was being built on the eastern end of the by then extended Bradley Observatory. It consisted of an attached single story building. Now much altered, it presently houses the Observatory shop.
The Second Assistant Belville (who was also the Astronomer Royal’s ward) resided at the Observatory from 1811 until 1822 when he moved to 16 Park Row at the time of the appointment of the two new assistants. He had married in 1819 and had his first child the following year.
Of the two new assistants, Richardson moved into 16 Park Row with Belville while Taylor junior was accommodated at the Observatory – presumably in the rooms previously occupied by Belville. He appears to have been the last assistant to move in to the Observatory.
In 1825, plans were formed to build further accommodation and in 1826 procedures were put in place to enclose an additional part of Greenwich Park to build three houses (Work16/126). By 1827, Admiralty approval had been given for the work to proceed (ADM359/47B/60). But while all this was going on, Belville had moved (in 1825) into a house in the newly built Park Terrace at the western end of what is now Park Vista, with arrangements being made to pay his rent, pay for coals and candles and pay some of the smaller expenses. The arrangement proved rather convenient and as a result, all plans for erecting new buildings to which there had in any case been some opposition, were abandoned. They were revived for a while in the 1830s after Pond’s long absence from the Observatory, but were again abandoned. (RGO6/44f25)
Documentation detailing the provision of accommodation after 1822 is sketchy, but it seems that it was provided for all four of the assistants in post in 1822, but not for any of the assistants apointed after that date. The earliest known invoice is dated 1829 (RS MS371/87). The allowances as paid in 1835 are listed below. From the locations of the properties involved, it would appear that the on-site accommodation of the First Assistant was somewhat inferior to that of the other assistants.
Rather than an allowance as such, it would appear that (inititally at least), it was the actual costs incurred that were paid. In 1835, all the Assistants received an allowance of £20 per year. It is not clear when the allowance was first paid to Rogerson and Ellis.
Prior to Pond’s arrival as Astronomer Royal in 1811, the salaries of the AR and First Assistant were paid by the Ordnance, but supplemented by a pension granted from the Civil List. Pond was paid the same as his predecessor from these sources, but had his salary topped up by the Admiralty to bring it up to £600; the top up being £292.10s (£600 less the gross ordnance salary (£100) less the income from the pension after deductions £207.10s).
The Civil list payments suggest that the amount paid to the First Assistant from the Civil list had been increased by 1812 from the rate of £100 that had been agreed in 1810 to £170, bringing his gross salary up to £196 (£26 + £170). RGO6/1f38 implies that the £170 was equivalent to £136.18s after deductions. The First Assistant’s salary was raised to £260 in 1816, with an increment of £20 applied every three years until a salary of £300 was reached in 1821.
In the early days of Pond’s tenure, there was much confusion amongst those in authority as to how the salaries were being paid. It wasn’t until 1814 that Banks, (President of the Royal Society and chairman of the Board of Visitors) understood what was going on (and what he understood seems only an approximation to the truth) (RS MS372/157). An explanation of how Pond’s salary was made up (also incorrect) was later given to MPs in the House of Commons in April 1815.
On 27 June 1818, a letter was sent from Treasury the treasury to the Admiralty, saying that the whole of the expenses of the establishment with the exception of the sum of £420 paid from the civil list towards salaries were to be transferred from the Board of Ordinance to the Admiralty as soon as is practicable. Steps to put this in place were completed by that December (RGO6/1 f49&50). The Navy Estimates show that in 1831, the Admiralty became responsibe for paying the entire salaries of the AR and First Assistant.
The two Extra Assistants were originally paid as supernumeraries. Their posts became established in 1831.
The rates and allowances listed below are those that prevailed in 1835 during Pond’s last year in office. They are based on the rates contained in a handover document left by Pond for Airy (RGO6/72/223).
| Astronomer Royal (Pond) |
£600 + house + coals & candles + £100 as Superintendent of Chronometers | ||
| First Assistant (Taylor) |
£300 + apartment at Observatory (valued nominally at £50 with taxes) +£20 coal and candles | ||
| Second Assistant (Belville) |
£180 + £52 rent and taxes of house + £20 coal and candles |
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| Additional Second Assistant (Richardson) | £140 + £51.10s. rent and taxes of house + £20 coal and candles | ||
| Additional Second Assistant (Simms*) |
£104.10s. + £20 coal and candles | ||
| Ellis | £100+ £20 coal and candles | ||
| Rogerson | £100+ £20 coal and candles | ||
| Labourer (to keep the premises clean) | 8 shillings a week (equivalent to about £47 a year) | ||
| Gate Porter (a Greenwich Pensioner) | 4 shillings a week (equivalent to just over £10 a year) |
*It is not been possible to ascertain why the Simms was paid £104.10s., rather than the £110 salary that he was due after three years of service.
| Pay 1675–1811 | Pay 1836–1871 |
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