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Paul Holden, Tuesday 19th March 2013, 6-7.30pm, Clore Learning Space, Holborne Museum, Bath.
Paul Holden, House & Collections Manager, Lanhydrock. "The Squire turn'd Ferret": Restoring the reputation of Samuel Molyneux (1689-1728)
In 1726, Samuel Molyneux and the Swiss surgeon and anatomist Nathaniel St Andre (1680-1776) applied their sceptical and analytical minds to the fraudulent claim that Mary Toft from Godalming was giving birth to live rabbits. Once exposed Molyneux was ridiculed by the popular press and pillioried by the satirists - within the year he was dead. Despite thirteen years loyal service to the Prince of Wales, later King George II, Samuel Molyneux has long been remembered for this private incompetence. Molyneux's disgrace epitomises the precarious nature of 18th century private and public reputation. This lecture will aim to restore Molyneux's reputation as a vocational scholar of antiquities, archecture, art, landscape and science. In doing so it will discuss his intellectual circle, establish his role as a patron of science and techology and explore his posthumous reputation.