We know but little of the family of HERSCHEL. The name is undoubtedly
Jewish, and is found in Poland, Germany, and England. We learn that the
ancestors of the present branch left Moravia about the beginning of the
XVIIth century, on account of their change of religion to Protestantism.
They became possessors of land in Saxony. HANS HERSCHEL, the
great-grandfather of WILLIAM, was a brewer in Pirna (a small town near
Dresden). Of the two sons of HANS, one, ABRAHAM (born in 1651, died
1718), was employed in the royal gardens at Dresden, and seems to have
been a man of taste and skill in his calling. Of his eldest son,
EUSEBIUS, there appears to be little trace in the records of the family.
The second son, BENJAMIN, died in infancy; the third, ISAAC, was born in
1707 (Jan. 14), and was thus an orphan at eleven years of age. ISAAC was
the father of the great astronomer.

He appears to have early had a passionate fondness for music, and this,
added to a distaste for his father's calling, determined his career. He
was taught music by an oboe-player in the royal band, and he also
learned the violin. At the age of twenty-one he studied music for a year
under the Cappelmeister PABRICH, at Potsdam, and in August, 1731, he
became oboist in the band of the Guards, at Hanover. In August, 1732, he
married ANNA ILSE MORITZEN. She appears to have been a careful and busy
wife and mother, possessed of no special faculties which would lead us
to attribute to her care any great part of the abilities of her son.
She could not herself write the letters which she sent to her husband
during his absences with his regiment. It was her firm belief that the
separations and some of the sorrows of the family came from too much
learning; and while she could not hinder the education of the sons of
the family, she prevented their sisters from learning French and
dancing. It is but just to say that the useful accomplishments of
cooking, sewing, and the care of a household, were thoroughly taught by
her to her two daughters. The father, ISAAC, appears to have been of a
different mould, and to him, no doubt, the chief intellectual
characteristics of the family are due. His position obliged him to be
often absent from Hanover, with his regiment, but his hand appears to
have been always present, smoothing over difficulties, and encouraging
his sons to such learning and improvement as was to be had.

His health was seriously injured by the exposures of th