The material comprises two documents relating to a public appeal for the erection of a memorial to Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641), also known as Horrox, the celebrated Lancastrian astronomer who applied Kepler's laws of planetary motion to the Moon and who made the first recorded observations of a transit of Venus in 1639:
- A holograph letter from Robert Brickel, rector of Hoole near Preston, secretary of the appeal, dated 26 May 1858;
- A printed notice for the appeal, headed: An appeal to the men of science throughout the kingdom, and more especially to the inhabitants of Lancashire, for a memorial of Horrocks, the great astronomer, September 1857.