Rectification help needed

[Lyse]

Jim, posting this here but if you feel it has any value I'm not opposed to this being moved.

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Jim or anyone really, if you have the time or interest, I’d appreciate a review of the following and an opinion on a potential nativity.

This past week a birthdate of a long dead relative suddenly came to me. I’ve been researching his life for sixteen years but unable to find this fact in any primary source.

According to the village of Bishops Cannings, he was born during the month of February, 1669. Baptism: Oct 2, 1669 OS.

The date revealed: February 27, 1669 OS - no time received.

His background: Clergyman, astronomer, naturalist, and medical doctor. He was a close friend and colleague of John Flamsteed and had a similar relationship with Isaac Newton. He was offered the post of Astronomer Royal after Flamsteed’s death but turned it down due to the low pay. A perpetual student, he finally graduated from Oxford aged 28. He was liked, friendly, well connected. He nursed his nephew through smallpox and went on to train him for the position of the third Royal Astronomer.

He had an interesting life with much travel through Asia. After casting the chart I noticed there was an extremely close Venus-Saturn conjunction. He was not born with a great deal of money but did become wealthy through his second marriage aged 52.

His Aquarius Sun and Gemini Moon seems to fit his personality. The Sun-Moon and Jupiter-Uranus aspects also match. As well, his chart tied up with Flamsteed and Newton.

There are numerous dates related to him professionally, probably too many and I’ve become a bit bogged down. Some of the returns were excellent but others so-so.

Anyway, what I’m working with is:
February 27, 1669 OS
Bishops Cannings, Wiltshire, England
4:38 PM LAT

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Father died, May 8, 1695 OS

Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, late 1699 but deferred entry until July 30, 1713 (probably due to expensive fellowship fees.)

Escaped an armed insurrection on Con Son Island, Vietnam, March 2-3, 1705 OS, massacre began at 12:00 AM.

Married: February 14, 1710 OS, wife buried June 17, 1715 OS.

Newborn son buried: October 23, 1710 OS, at Wanstead, England.

Daughter: Sarah, born September 16, 1713 OS. 10 PM, LAT - AA Rated, Wanstead

Second marriage: October 2, 1722 OS, Walthamstow, Essex, to a spinster who made her fortune during the South Sea Bubble.

Death: November 16, 1724 OS in Wanstead of a ‘dead palsy’ (complications of a stroke?) which occurred a few days earlier. It was definitely a sudden illness as he was dining in London on November 9th.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictiona ... und,_James

[Jim Eshelman]

I'll try to get to this tomorrow. It's difficult during the week because it takes long stretches of time - perhaps a few hours - without interruption, and I can't slip that into idle minutes at work. (But if I don't do it now, I'm likely to forget since there is no way to mark this unread to draw me back to it.)

[Lyse]

That’s great, Jim.

Whenever and if you have time. Thanks.

[Lyse]

Jim,

I realize this is a lot of work so a look at the date proposed, to see if I’m on the right track, would be good enough for me!

[Jim Eshelman]

Ah: I may have misunderstood. When you said the date "suddenly came" to you and was "revealed," you meant intuitively, not that you suddenly found documentation. Is that correct?

I'd have misunderstood that, assumed that date was a documented "given," and tried to proceed to a time.

I'll try to find ways I trust that could distinguish this for you.

[Lyse]

Yes, that’s correct!

The date came to me suddenly and I’ve been trying to work from there.

[Jim Eshelman]

February 27, 1669 OS, presuming noon while working on this, Bishops Cannings, England, 51N22'37", 1W56'49". The Aquarius Sun fits nearly everything you said (supported by Jupiter square Uranus). The chart has either a Taurus or Gemini Moon. - One might expect the Gemini Moon from the description and from the friendship with Newton, but that's probably jumping too far ahead too fast. - His Sun was on Flamsteed's Ascendant btw. That natal Venus-Saturn conjunction in the tail of Capricorn is a real standout, but doesn't necessarily match anything you reported (not in a big way). A second marriage late in life might fit, and raises the question of what happened in the first marriage. (I see his first marriage was to a widow.)

But, moving on with events...

I think the best way to test the date itself is by non-lunar secondary progressions, then maybe double-checking with Solar Arcs (excluding angles and Moon, of course).

His first marriage (2/14/1710) was a year past a Sun-Neptune square which might, therefore, suggest birth a day earlier.

His death date has no significant progressions unless he was born near or just before noon, giving Moon-Pluto conjunction. (This would deny a Gemini Moon at birth.)

The secondary progressions for these events are quite poor overall - not inclined to trust much in them for what I'm seeing. On to try Solar Arcs.

[Jim Eshelman]

Death - nothing at all. (This usually shows well.)

MAYBE his wife's death is described by directed Mercury square his natal Venus-Saturn. It at least sets off the Venus-Saturn and seems sufficiently appropriate. It's the first clear indication that this is likely the right date.

His second marriage has an interesting pattern. Neptune was leaving the degree of conjunct his Sun, suggesting birth a day later for it to be ideal (or hanky panky was happening in the year before?). Jupiter was just entering orb of opposition to his Neptune, as if financial and other embarrassments were being resolved. But both of these are week.

The Mercury directions for his first wife's death are the best yet, but this whole pattern is very iffy. I'll check transits, but with transits we start to get to much fuzzier stuff and I'm less willing to trust them - but we may find something worth finding.

[Jim Eshelman]

Death - Sun to his Jupiter is the only sign, and doesn't seem to fit (though the Jupiter is about the same all month, so this aspect was surely present).

Father's death had Jupiter pretty close to opposite his Venus-Saturn, but there doesn't seem to have been an inheritance of note. Not obviously right.

First marriage: Some good transits that are just a bit to far off. Maybe right on target with a return angle, but we're nowhere near being able to confirm that.

First wife's death Saurn 28° not quite opposite Sun and somewhere in the neighborhood of square Moon (give or take a large range). Again, probably on return angles but we're not even sure of the date yet, so...

Daughter's birth is pretty good. First (without confirming the birth date itself closely), a Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto in space is right atop his Jupiter-Uranus square, especially Jupiter. Second, Venus in the last degree of Cancer was opposite his Venus-Saturn opposition. I think this is important because, while he'd have Venus to Saturn for any birth in this range, he wouldn't have the Venus-Venus except for this day or adjacent days. It seems the driving aspect. There are then lesser aspects by and to Mercury - this Venus to Venus is good, though, and seems to fit the larger picture of Venus to Venus-Saturn.

Second marriage transits are quite good but don't firm up the date particularly. There was a partile Venus-Jupiter conjunction that day, atop his natal Jupiter-Uranus. (But those Jupiter-Uranus placements were there for many days.)


So, where does this leave us? There were surprisingly few contacts in the three methods (though we did have one and a half hands tied behind our backs). The Venus-Venus for his daughter's birth is encouraging. I think he surely was born in the last half of the month - Aquarius Sun - and there is some merit to this date, but I can't say it with confidence. It's interesting that the events suggesting a slightly different date had one for a day earlier and one for a day later - which seems encouraging.

So... I don't know.

[Lyse]

Thank you so much for your work. It’s much appreciated.

This date will have to remain a mystery for now; eventually I’ll find a primary source as I never give up. You’ve also given me some great tips.

Father's death had Jupiter pretty close to opposite his Venus-Saturn, but there doesn't seem to have been an inheritance of note. Not obviously right.

There was no family inheritance and last son in a long line of children. Pound basically lived on sponsorships.

His second marriage has an interesting pattern. Neptune was leaving the degree of conjunct his Sun, suggesting birth a day later for it to be ideal (or hanky panky was happening in the year before?).

That would be correct as he was commissioned by Mrs. Flamsteed to translate her husband’s papers which he never completed. Pound went missing and she was most annoyed trying to find out where he was. She sent a few people to his home to retrieve the papers only to find he was in Berkshire, which was where his soon to be second wife was then living.