Catalogue description Admiralty: Royal Greenwich Observatory, Board of Visitors: Minutes, Reports and Correspondence

Visitors to the Royal Observatory, which had been established in 1675, were first appointed in 1710 as the result of the efforts of Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society. A Royal Warrant was issued in December of that year appointing members of the Royal Society as "constant Visitors" to superintend the work of the Observatory and to ensure that the astronomical observations were published; they were to report on the condition of the Observatory and its instruments and to make an inventory of those instruments. The first visitation took place on 1 Aug. 1713.

The Royal Warrant of 1765 renewing the powers of the visitors was supplemented by a new set of regulations. Another Royal Warrant, issued two years later, ensured the future publication of the Greenwich observations by authorising the printing and by instructing the Board of Ordnance to meet the cost. Regular publication began in 1774.

1774 was also the year in which the visitation became an annual event, there having been only six since 1710. By 1789 it had become a formal occasion and by 1810 it had developed into a social event, the president and the council being accompanied by fellows and friends. The numbers increased during the next twenty years until there were often as many as forty to fifty members, prominent statesmen and politicians among them.

The royal warrant of May 1820 was accompanied by a letter confirming the Admiralty's liability for all charges.

The first significant change in the constitution of the visitors was introduced by the royal warrant of September 1830, which extended membership to members of the Astronomical Society of London, founded in 1820, and to the professors of astronomy at Oxford and Cambridge. The Hydrographer of the Navy was added in 1858, thus strengthening the position of the Admiralty. Subsequently, the secretaries of the board were nominees of the Hydrographer.

The last visitation in the traditional style was held in June 1939 and the last visitation of all was conducted in June 1964. The following year, with the transfer of the Royal Observatory to the Science Research Council, the board was dissolved by royal warrant.