John Brinkley (astronomer)

John Mortimer Brinkley (born 1763 or 1766 – died 14 September 1835) was the first Royal Astronomer of Ireland and later Bishop of Cloyne.

In 1792 he became the second Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin,[7] which carried the new title of Royal Astronomer of Ireland.

[8] Together with John Law, Bishop of Elphin, he drafted the chapter on "Astronomy" in William Paley's Natural Theology.

Brinkley's observations that several stars shifted their apparent place in the sky in the course of a year were disproved at Greenwich by his contemporary John Pond, the Astronomer Royal.

In 1826, he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne in County Cork, a position he held for the remaining nine years of his life.