Inigo Jones the architect was born in 1573. Although of humble origin he was lucky enough to become a protege of the Earl of Pembroke, who financed a tour of Europe.
While in Venice Jones became acquainted with the works of Andrea Palladio, and this Italianate Palladian style was to become the hallmark of his long career. He became one of the best known architects in England, numbering among his works the Queen's House in Greenwich, completed in 1617, and the Banqueting House in Whitehall, London, finished two years later. Inigo Jones died in 1652.
Inigo Jones the meteorologist was born in 1876. He was a distant relative of his famous namesake, and was taken by his parents to Australia at the age of two. As a schoolboy in Brisbane he developed an interest in the weather, which waxed into a benign fixation which was to dominate his life.
A few years after arriving in Australia, Inigo's father bought a small farm near Beerwah, north of Brisbane, and called it Crohamhurst. There, at the age of 14, Inigo set up the weather station he maintained for nearly 70 years, and there too, on February 2nd, 1893, he measured 36 in of rainfall, the greatest daily total ever measured in Australia.
Inigo grew up to be a long-range forecaster and based his methodology on sunspots. The sunspot cycle, he believed, was caused "electro-magnetically" by the movements of the larger planets. It was dominated by Jupiter's orbital period of 11.86 years, but irregularities due to Saturn, Neptune and Uranus gave the cycle its average length of 11.1 years.
Explanations for abnormal weather were to be found in the movements of these planets; of particular importance, for example, was the conjunction of the four, which occurs at intervals of about 164 years and which, he said, was invariably associated with extremes of weather and severe famines.
Inigo's enthusiasm brought financial backing, and he established the Queensland Long-Range Weather Forecasting Trust, directing its activities from his observatory at Crohamhurst. A contemporary summed up his life's achievements:
"Inigo Jones did not succeed in convincing the vast body of scientific opinion that his predictions were very soundly based, but among the less critical sections of the Australian community he had a wide and faithful following.
"Much was made of his successes, and when a drought or wet spell arrived a few months earlier or later than he had foreseen, there was a kindly disposition on the part of farmers and graziers to allow that the quasi-legendary old figure from the hinterland had scored again."
Inigo Jones, the meteorologist, died in 1954, aged 81.