Isaac Jamineau (110)

Isaac Jamineau (1710–3 November 1789) was a diplomat and scientific observer, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. Born in England, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and London’s Middle Temple. He began his career with a post office sinecure before taking the position of British Consul at Naples. His 1764 encounter with APS member Dr. John Morgan, then on a grand tour of Italy, initiated a lengthy correspondence. Three years later, Jamineau sent an account of the 1767 eruption of Mount Vesuvius to Morgan, who read it to the American Society the following year. Printed in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, APS member Lewis Nicola’s American Magazine, and the first volume of the APS Transactions, these observations led to Jamineau’s 1768 election to the Society. A decade earlier his account of the volcano’s 1754 eruption had been read to the Royal Society of London, but no evidence of his other scientific activities survives. He was, however, awarded a gold medal by the Society for Promoting Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in 1775. He resigned the consulship in 1779 and died in 1789. (PI)