Nathaniel Bliss
Reverend Nathaniel Bliss
Born	(1700-11-28)28 November 1700 Bisley, Gloucestershire, England
Died	2 September 1764(1764-09-02) (aged 63) Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Astronomy, mathematics
Institutions	Oxford University

The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was an English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Britain's fourth Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764.

Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.

Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762, but held the post for too short a period to make a significant impact.^[1]

He died in Oxford, but was buried close to Halley in St Margaret's churchyard in Lee in south-east London.

  References

  Further reading

• Maunder, E. W. (1900). The Royal Observatory, Greenwich: A Glance at its History and Work. London: The Religious Tract Society. http://books.google.com/books?id=bRE6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA82&dq=Nathaniel+Bliss+astronomers#PPA3,M2. 

  External links

• Online catalogue of Bliss' working papers (part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives held at Cambridge University Library)

Savilian Professors of Geometry Henry Briggs (1619) Peter Turner (1631) John Wallis (1649) Edmond Halley (1704) Nathaniel Bliss (1742) Joseph Betts (1765) John Smith (1766) Abraham Robertson (1797) Stephen Peter Rigaud (1810) Baden Powell (1827) Henry John Stephen Smith (1861) James Joseph Sylvester (1883) William Esson (1897) Godfrey Harold Hardy (1920) Edward Charles Titchmarsh (1931) Michael Atiyah (1963) Ioan James (1969) Richard Taylor (1995) Nigel Hitchin (1997) University of Oxford portal

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