Lucasian Chair.org

``It is, however, to be remembered that in 1840 the Lucasian professor at Cambridge was a man who never wrote anything..." Sir Edmund Whittaker

Joshua King (1798-1857) was a sizar at Queens' College in 1816.¹ He graduated as senior wrangler in 1819, winning the Smith's Prize. He was elected a fellow of Queens' in 1820, earned the M.A. in 1822 and the LL.D. in 1832. King was president of Queens' College from 1832 until he died in 1857. He had received special dispensation in order to assume that post since he had never taken holy orders. His life was dedicated to administrative work at Cambridge. He was vice-chancellor of Cambridge during the academic year 1833-34. He was the president of the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1833.² He was elected to the Lucasian professorship in 1839 and resigned in 1849, giving no lectures and publishing no papers.

Sir Edmund Whittaker's above quote describes the generally poor state of publication and research in England during the first half of the nineteenth century. The statement reflects the view that the Lucasian Chair represented a high standard. To say that even the Lucasian professor did not publish is to say that the times in academe were very bad. King's major contribution was serving on fifteen different Syndicates or committees.

1) Burwell Syndicate
2) Botanic Garden (cost of building)
3) Degrading Syndicate
4) Fees Syndicate
5) Fitzwilliam Syndicate
6) Improvement Syndicate
7) Library Syndicate
8) Mathematical Tripos Syndicate
9) Medical Degrees Syndicate
10) Nine Wells Syndicate
11) Observatory Syndicate
12) Plumian Professor Syndicate
13) Press Syndicate
14) Press Premises Syndicate
15) Senate-House Syndicate

The only other work of King's to have been documented is his involvement in a case that he personally argued before the Crown. He argued the position that the president of Queens' College did not have the authority to participate in the election of fellows of the college. He lost the appeal in a decision by Lord Lyndhurst in 1828.³

Footnotes

1. Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1965), 226.
2. Venn, 43.
3. Venn, 43.