Thomas Harriot

Thomas Harriot (Oxford, ca. 1560 – London, 2 July 1621) — was an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to the British Isles. Harriot was the first person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope, on July 26, 1609, over four months before Galileo. After graduating from Oxford University, Harriot traveled to the Americas, accompanying the 1585 expedition to Roanoke island funded by Sir Walter Raleigh and led by Sir Ralph Lane. Harriot was a vital member of the venture, having translated and learned the Carolina Algonquian language from two Native Americans, Wanchese and Manteo. On his return to England he worked for the 9th Earl of Northumberland, Henry Percy. At the Earl's house, he became a prolific mathematician and astronomer to whom the theory of refraction is attributed.