Thomas Robie (1689-1725) was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1689. He graduated from Harvard University in 1708 and worked as a teacher at Watertown, Massachusetts until 1713. In 1709 Robie published his first scientific work An Almanac of the Celestial Motions, Aspects, & Eclipses which he revised and annually produced until 1720. In 1713 Harvard elected him to be a 'Fellow of the House', thereby inviting him to join the faculty. While at Harvard his interests soon swelled to include medicine, meteorology, astrology, chemistry, and other topics which he published numerous scientific articles on in newspapers and as pamphlets. His first pamphlet entitled A Letter to a Certain Gentleman Desiring a Particular Account May be Given of a Wonderful Meteor that Appeared in New-England on December 11, 1719 (Boston: J Franklin for D. Henchman, 1719) was well received by the scientific community. He continued to teach at Harvard until moving to Salem in 1725 to practice medicine and study planetary movements with his recently purchased telescope. He died at Salem unexpectedly on August 28, 1725.