Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet

Who was Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet?

Sir John William Lubbock, 3rd Baronet was an English banker, barrister, mathematician and astronomer.

He was born in Westminster, the son of Sir John William Lubbock, of the Lubbock & Co bank. He was educated at Eton and then Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1825. In the same year he became a partner in his father's bank.

In 1828 he became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, in 1829 he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and has been described as "foremost among English mathematicians in adopting Laplace's doctrine of probability." He joined the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1829, and was twice Treasurer and three times Vice-President of the Royal Society. For his studies of tides he was awarded the Royal Medal in 1834.

Lubbock was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, a position later held by his eldest son, Sir John Lubbock, 4th Bt, who was later created Baron Avebury in 1900. He was appointed Sheriff of Kent for 1852.

Lubbock became head of Lubbock & Co, retired mostly in 1840, but oversaw the merger that created Roberts, Lubbock & Co in 1860.²