Bliss, Nathaniel

Nathaniel Bliss, (born Nov. 28, 1700, Bisley, Gloucestershire, Eng.—died Sept. 2, 1764, Oxford, Oxfordshire), Britain’s fourth Astronomer Royal.

Bliss graduated from Pembroke College, Oxford (B.A., 1720; M.A., 1723), and became rector of St. Ebbe’s, Oxford, in 1736. He succeeded Edmond Halley as Savilian professor of geometry at the University of Oxford in 1742 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society the same year. A correspondent and occasional assistant of James Bradley, third Astronomer Royal, Bliss acted for him in observing the transit of Venus in 1761 and succeeded him as Astronomer Royal in 1762.