23 August 2025

In one of its more recent ten pound notes, the Royal Bank of Scotland  featured a portrait of the Scottish mathematician and astronomer, Mary Somerville who was born in 1780 in the manse at Jedburgh and was  brought up in nearby Burntisland.

Her education was limited. She was largely self-taught. Her first marriage was unhappy but  she inherited money after her first husband’s  death which she used to enhance her education.

She then married  her cousin, the medic, Dr. William Somerville, who encouraged her to study science. However, when her paper on ‘Sunlight’ was to be read to the Royal Society, she wasn’t allowed to read it herself and had to get  her husband to do it for her! Such was the prejudice of these Victorian times!

Mary Somerville excelled as a writer. She had the ability to write about science in such a way that ordinary people could understand. It was her intention, ‘to make the laws by which the material world is governed, more familiar to my country-women’.

It was in the scientific review of one of her books that the term ‘scientist’ was applied to her. This was the first time the term had ever been used. It is highly significant that the first person afforded the professional title of ‘scientist’ was a  Scotswoman!

Some people are afraid of science. And whenever fear abounds, dominance follows and a skewed perspective on the world. Truth is an inevitable casualty.  Science is important but other things are equally important especially when it comes to  understanding reality!