fitted him. While travelling on the continent he made the acquaintance of the leading scholars of the day, especially in the Netherlands. ‘All the Literati in Europe knew something of his merit, and the most noted of them were desirous to know more’ (Gent. Mag. l.c.)
Magellan was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1774, and was a corresponding member of the academies of science in Paris, Madrid, and St. Petersburg. His book on English reflecting instruments, published in Paris and London, 1775, was declared by Lalande (Bibl. Astron.) to be the most complete work on the subject at that period. In June 1778 Magellan was at Ermenonville, the seat of the Marquis de Gerardin, and there, with M. du Presle, visited Jean-Jacques Rousseau a few days before his death on 2 July. He added a postscript describing his visit to Du Presle's ‘Relation des derniers Jours de J. J. Rousseau,’ London, 1778. Magellan definitely settled in London soon afterwards. He still maintained an animated correspondence with the chief French, Italian, and German physicists, and endeavoured to establish a system by which they might communicate to one another the results of their investigations of special subjects. He was for some time engaged in superintending the construction of a set of astronomical and meteorological instruments for the court of Madrid, which he described in 1779; and he also published descriptions of apparatus for making mineral waters and of some new eudiometers for testing respirable air.
He devoted his last years to perfecting the construction of instruments for scientific observation, such as thermometers and barometers, &c. Among the most notable of his mechanical devices was a clock which he made for the blind Duke of Aremburg, which indicated by the strokes of various bells the hours, half-hours, quarters, and minutes, the day of the week, of the month, of the moon, &c.
Among Magellan's friends was the Hungarian Count de Benyowsky. About 1784 the count borrowed a large sum of Magellan, and was soon afterwards shot as a pirate by the French in Madagascar. Magellan gave the count's memoirs to William Nicholson, who published them in English in 1790. Magellan's French version of the memoirs appeared after his death, and the latest letters of Magellan to Benyowsky were published in the Hungarian writer Jokai's new edition of the count's memoirs. Magellan never recovered the money lent to the count, and suffered much from the loss. He died on 7 Feb. 1790, after more than a year's illness. He was buried in Islington churchyard, having many years previously renounced the Roman catholic religion. ‘His height was about six feet two inches, a bony and rather bulky man, plain in his dress, unaffectedly mild and decent in his whole demeanour.’
Magellan's chief works are: 1. ‘Collection de différens Traités sur des Instrumens d'Astronomie,’ &c., 4to, 1775–80. 2. ‘Description des Octants et Sextants Anglois,’ dedicated to Turgot, 1775. 3. ‘Description of a Glass Apparatus for Making Mineral Waters,’ &c., 1777; 3rd edit. 1783. 4. ‘Description et Usages des nouveaux Baromètres pour mesurer la Hauteur des Montagnes et la Profondeur des Mines,’ 1779. 5. ‘Essai sur la nouvelle Théorie du Feu élémentaire, et de la Chaleur des Corps,’ 1780. 6. ‘An Essay towards a System of Mineralogy,’ &c., 1788. 7. ‘Mémoires de Maurice Auguste, Comte de Benyowsky,’ &c. (posthumous), 1791. He also wrote various articles in ‘Journal de Physique,’ 1778–83.
[Gent. Mag. 1788 p. 77, 1790 p. 184, 1799 p. 434, 1818 pt. ii. p. 115; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, viii. 48 et seq.; Monthly Review, lix. 410; Dodsley's Annual Register, xxi. 132, xxxii. 196; Brit. Mus. Cat., art. ‘Magalhaens, João Jacinto de.’]
MAGEOGHEGAN, CONALL (fl. 1635), Irish historian, born in Westmeath, was descended from Cucochrich Mac Eochagain, the third son of Donnchadh, chief of Cinel Fhiachach. He became head of the sept of this clan, which was settled at Lismoyny, co. Westmeath, and there translated into English a volume of Irish annals, of which the original is not now extant. They are sometimes called ‘The Annals of Clonmacnois,’ and extend from the earliest times to 1408. He undertook the work for his kinsman, Turloch Mac Cochlain of Delvin, co. Westmeath, and finished it 30 June 1627. The translation is into good English of the time, and the Irish names are phonetically rendered into English; thus, Nial Glundubh is written Neal Glunduffe, and Gormflaidh is written Gormphley. Several manuscript copies exist: one in the British Museum, one in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, and one at Monasterevan, co. Kildare, in Lord Drogheda's library. On a blank leaf of a fifteenth and sixteenth century manuscript, which probably belonged to Mageoghegan, and is now in the British Museum, is an entry in Irish in his hand and signed by him, headed ‘Iongnad mor, 1635,’ ‘great marvel, A.D. 1635.’ It gives an account of a great hailstorm in that year, on 25 March, in the King's and Queen's Counties. The hailstones were four inches round, a hen was slain and both her legs broken by them at
