William Spottiswood

William Spottiswoode, printer, died of typhoid fever and was buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, near his ancestor John Spottiswood, Archbishop of St Andrews. He was the son of Andrew Spottiswoode, partner in the publishing firm of Eyre and Spottiswoode, queen's printers, and Mary daughter of Thomas N. Longman, publisher. He became a mathematician and physicist and President of the Royal Society. In 1861 he married Eliza daughter of William Arbuthnot. Their eldest son William Hugh was married in the Abbey to Sylvia Tomlin on 22nd July 1893.

The inscription on his gravestone (which was re-cut in 1971) reads:

WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE D.C.L. L.L.D & PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE WHOSE REMAINS WERE LAID TO REST IN THIS ABBEY AT THE REQUEST ALIKE OF THE FOREMOST OF HIS COUNTRYMEN IN CHURCH AND STATE IN SCIENCE, ART AND LITERATURE AND OF HIS OWN WORKMEN TO WHOSE BEST INTERESTS HIS LIFE HAD BEEN DEVOTED. "IN THY LIGHT SHALL WE SEE LIGHT" BORN 11th JANUARY l825 DIED 27th JUNE l883

Bibliography

See the entries for John Spottiswood and for James Spottiswood

Most of the biographical information given above is drawn from the accounts of the Spottiswoods in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Some other members of the family who are not buried in the Abbey are also noticed in this book