Alexander MacFarlane (astronomer)

Alexander MacFarlane, FRS (c. 1702 – 23 August 1755) was a Scottish merchant, planter and astronomer. Born into an aristocratic family, he graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1728. MacFarlane subsequently emigrated to the British colony of Jamaica, where he started working as a businessman before becoming a prominent landowner and politician. He was appointed as Jamaica's first Postmaster General in 1735 and elected to the colony's House of Assembly for Saint Elizabeth Parish in 1754. At the time of his death, MacFarlane's vast estate included six sugar plantations and 761 enslaved people.

MacFarlane was also an amateur astronomer who constructed observatories in Port Royal and Kingston, equipped with a variety of instruments purchased from a fellow astronomer, Colin Campbell. His astronomical observations, though limited in scope, resulted in MacFarlane being elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1746. Upon his death, he bequeathed all his scientific instruments to the University of Glasgow, which the university used to established Macfarlane Observatory, the first of its kind in Great Britain. In the 21st century, his legacy has come under scrutiny due to MacFarlane's slave ownership.