Letter 4124

Folkes writes to Sloane to recommend two gentlemen to Sloane who he thinks will be of service and use to the Society. A Professor of Alchemy and Meteorology at Padua and one who has published a book on Physick and Sr Isaac Newton’s principles. Martin Folkes was an antiquary and natural philosopher. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge and inherited a large estate from his father. Folkes was appointed Vice-President of the Royal Society in 1723 and contributed articles to the Philosophical Transactions. After the death of Royal Society President Sir Isaac Newton in 1727 Folkes and Sloane, both vice-presidents, petitioned to succeed him. Sloane won the election and Folkes only returned to the Royal Society Council in 1733. He succeeded Sloane as President from 1741 to 1752 (David Boyd Haycock, Folkes, Martin (16901754), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9795, accessed 16 Aug 2013]).