hydrostatic balance,’ with which Sir George Shuckburgh [see Shuckburgh-Evelyn, Sir George Augustus William] experimented on weights and measures in 1798 (Phil. Trans. lxxxviii. 137). He also constructed the apparatus used by Francis Baily [q. v.] in restoring the standard yard. His theodolites were of remarkable perfection, and he supplied the instrumental outfit for the American coast survey (1815), the Irish and Indian arc-measurements (1822 and 1829), and other famous geodetical operations. He took particular pains to meet the requirements of seamen. ‘Your fancies can wait,’ he would say to importunate customers, ‘their necessities cannot.’ His sextants were long in almost exclusive use, and he invented in 1788 the ‘double-framed sextant.’ He also devised the dipsector, and (in 1796) the ‘British reflecting circle;’ besides materially improving the marine and mountain barometers, the compensated mercurial pendulum, the ‘marine top,’ ‘snuff-box sextant,’ portable universal dial, and pyrometer. The substitution of spider lines for wires in filar micrometers was due to him.
Troughton read a paper on the repeating circle before the Astronomical Society on 12 Jan. 1821 (Memoirs, i. 33), and contributed to Brewster's ‘Edinburgh Cyclopædia’ articles on the ‘Circle,’ ‘Graduation,’ and other subjects. He wrote besides, in his curt clear style, most of the descriptions of his instruments inserted in astronomical publications. Pearson dedicated to him the second volume of his ‘Practical Astronomy’ (1829). Troughton was unmarried, and his freehold of Welcome Nook in his native parish was inherited by his sister, Mrs. Suddard, and is possessed by her descendants. In the cottage garden there, and in the graveyard of Corney, stand sundials said to have been made by him. A marble bust of him by Sir Francis Chantry, subscribed for by his friends, was placed at his desire in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.
[Monthly Notices Roy. Astr. Soc. iii. 149 (Sheepshanks); a list of references to the published descriptions of Troughton's instruments is given at p. 154; Lonsdale's Worthies of Cumberland, vi. 113; Grant's Hist. of Astronomy, p. 491; Annual Biogr. and Obit. xx. 471; Ann. Reg. 1835, p. 223; Poggendorff's Biogr.-Lit. Handwörterbuch; information from Mr. J. S. Slinger.]
TROUGHTON, JOHN (1637?–1681), nonconformist divine, son of Nathaniel Troughton, clothier, was born at Coventry about 1637. At four years old he became permanently blind from the effect of small-pox. He was educated at King Henry VIII's grammar school, Coventry, under Samuel Frankland (1618?–1691), and not, as Foster says, at Merchant Taylors' school. He entered as a scholar at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1655 (matriculated 28 March), graduated B.A. on 12 Feb. 1658–9, and was elected to a fellowship, but did not long hold it, his predecessor, displaced in 1648, being restored in 1660. Retiring to Bicester, Oxfordshire, he took pupils, and engaged in conventicle preaching. Under the indulgence of 1672 he joined Henry Langley [q. v.], Thomas Gilbert (1613–1694) [q. v.], and Henry Cornish in ministering to a nonconformist congregation which met in Thame Street, Oxford. Troughton was reckoned the best preacher of the four in spite of his blindness. Wood describes him as ‘learned and religious;’ his moderation kept him on good terms with clergy of the established church. He died in All Saints' parish, Oxford, on 20 Aug. 1681, aged 44, and was buried on 22 Aug. in Bicester church. His funeral sermon was preached by Abraham James, the blind headmaster of Woodstock grammar school, and contained reflections on constituted authorities which James retracted to avoid expulsion from his mastership.
Troughton published: 1. ‘The Covenant Interest … of … Infants,’ 1675, 8vo. 2. ‘Lutherus Redivivus,’ 1677, 8vo; 2nd part, 1678, 8vo (on justification by faith; answered by Thomas Hotchkis). 3. ‘A Letter … touching God's Providence about Sinful Actions,’ 1678, 8vo. 4. ‘Popery, the Grand Apostasie,’ 1680, 8vo. 5. ‘An Apologie for the Nonconformists,’ 1681, 4to (included is ‘An Answer’ to Stillingfleet). His son, John Troughton (1666–1739), was dissenting minister at Bicester from 1698, and published several sermons (1703–25). He died on 3 Dec. 1739, aged 73.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), vol. i. p. xcii; iv. 9, 407; Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 68; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 101; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1892, iv. 1513; Oxford Free Church Magazine, October 1897, p. 68.]
TROUGHTON, WILLIAM (1614?–1677?), nonconformist divine, son of William Troughton, rector of Waberthwaite, Cumberland, was born about 1614. He matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, on 24 Oct. 1634, aged 20. In 1647 he was chaplain to Robert Hammond [q. v.], governor of the Isle of Wight, when Charles I is said to have held affable discussions with him. A ludicrous story is told of his alarm at the bringing in of a sword for the knighting of John Duncomb. In 1651 he held the
