The British Society for the History of Mathematics
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Written by David Singmaster (zingmast@sbu.ac.uk ). Links to relevant external websites are being added occasionally to this gazetteer but the BSHM has no control over the availability or contents of these links. Please inform the BSHM Webster (A.Mann@gre.ac.uk) of any broken links.
[When the gazetteer was edited for serial publication in the BSHM Newsletter, references were omitted since the bibliography was too substantial to be included. Publication on the web permits references to be included for material now being added to the website, but they are still absent from material originally prepared for the Newsletter - TM, August 2002]
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was born here [Whittaker (2)].
This is 7 miles off the north coast of Antrim. See under Ballycastle, above, for a Marconi connection. [Hammond, p.267] says there is a columnar basalt formation at the SE end, near Doon Point. Cf entry for Giant's Causeway.
Eamon de Valera attended the Christian Brothers School in Rath Luirc. The town was founded by Roger Boyle, first Earl of Orrery - see under Orrery above.
The church of St. Laurence, by the Market Place, has a monument to John Blagrave (1558?-1611), a general mathematical practitioner of his time, author and deviser of instruments, including The Mathematical Jewel, an improved astrolabe. [E.G.R. Taylor, pp.181 & 327.] The monument shows him with quadrant and globe. This church is open only a few times per week: Sun 9:30-11:00; Wed 12:30-1:30; Thu 9:45-10:30; Fri 12:30-1:30.
In Nov(?) 1947 - Apr 1948, Wittgenstein stayed at the farmhouse of the Kingstons at Red Cross, Co. Wicklow [Monk, pp.520-524].
Richard Christopher Carrington (1826-1875) built an observatory here in the early 1850s and carried out observations in 1854-1856 which he published. See also Churt.
A public library was founded in Reigate in 1701, being one of the earliest in England - cf Manchester (1653) and Norwich (1608). It is still extant and located over the vestry of the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene. [Coster (2), p.69.] See entries for Norwich and Manchester, and also Innerpeffray and Marsh's Library, Dublin.
Francis Maseres (1731-1824) lived and died at his house in Church Street, Reigate.
Hermann Bondi lived at Reigate.
William Herschel lived here for some time while head of the Durham Militia Band in 1760-1761 [F. Brown]. Lewis Carroll attended the Grammar School here in 1844-1846. [Myers, p.16]
See under Croft-on-Tees.
Walter de Merton (??-1277), founder of the eponymous Oxford college, was Bishop of Rochester, and is buried in the north choir transept of the Cathedral there [Greenwood (2), pp.151-152]
There was a Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, founded in 1701, in the High Street, where Gallery Two now stands - the city wall actually was part of the building. The master's house survives at 115 High Street. The school actually survives, but moved some years ago to a site on the edge of Rochester, on the road to Maidstone. David Garrick was a pupil, but did not achieve fame as a mathematician! [Coster (2), p.111]
Sir Clowdisley Shovell was MP for Rochester and presented
the ceiling of the Council Room in the Guildhall [Timpson, p.100]. His coat
of arms is on the clock on the outside of the Old Corn Exchange [Coster (2),
p.110]
Samuel Horsley (1733-1806), Bishop of Rochester, was Secretary
of the Royal Society from 1773.
In the churchyard is a gravestone to Jonathan Horn (1724?-1798) "Who by the innate vigour of his / Genius improved by unwearied / Application acquired a most / extensive Knowledge of the / MATHEMATICS / ...." Horn seems to have been a surveyor. [Letter from John Fauvel describing Robin Wilson's discovery and photographing of this in 1991.]
n the south aisle of Romsey Abbey, is the grave of Sir William Petty (1623-1687), the political economist, one of the forerunners of the Royal Society at Oxford, a founder of the Royal Society and general polymath [Greenwood, pp.118-120]. The grave has an superb life-size effigy of him. He was also born here and attended Romsey Grammar School. See: under London, Oxford, Calne, Dublin and: Kerry for more details. [John Paddy Browne, The Romsey man who mapped Ireland for Cromwell, Hampshire (Nov 1980) 61, 64.]
See under Leamington Spa
See entry for Bayes under London.
Rugby School is one of the archetypal English public schools. H.J.S. Smith was a student in 1841-1843. Lewis Carroll (C.L. Dodgson) was a student in 1846-1850 and the student mathematics society is called the Dodgson Society. Frederick Temple was Headmaster in 1858-1869 [Greenwood (2), pp.160-161]. Charles Howard Hinton was a student in the 1860s [Rucker]. R.A. Fisher taught here in c1915-1919 [Goodhart]. John Robinson, the sculptor who frequently uses mathematical concepts, was a student before joining the merchant navy.
J. Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), the pioneer spectroscopist
who discovered helium in the sun, was born in Rugby.
Rugby is also the site of the BT transmitter which broadcasts a coded time signal
which allows receivers to know the year, month, day, hour, minute and second.
Such receivers are now built into wristwatches! The time signal is provided
by the National Physical Laboratory.
Here, 4 miles NW of Kettering, is Triangular Lodge, built by Sir Thomas Tresham in 1593-1596 (or 1594-1597 or 1595). It is one of the few triangular buildings in England. Tresham was a Catholic (spending some 15 years in prison because of this) and somewhat of a mystic numerologist. The whole design of the Lodge is based on the number three and its symbolism. He connected three with his own surname and used a trefoil as his emblem. Each side is 33 1/3 = 100/3 ft long (Barton says 33 ft 3 in), with three storeys and three windows, etc. The interior has three floors, each with three hexagonal rooms, each with a triangular corner. (Barton says each floor has a hexagonal room, with three triangular corners and this seems more likely.) The inscriptions all have 33 letters. It is an Ancient Monument and open to the public. [Lord Harlech, Illustrated Regional Guides to Ancient Monuments. Vol. 3: East Anglia and The Midlands, HMSO, (1936), 2nd ed., (1955), 4th amended ptg, 1962, pp.51-52 & 77; Lucinda Lambton, An Album of Curious Houses, Chatto & Windus, 1988, pp.2 & 49-51; Garry Hogg, Odd Aspects of England, David & Charles, Newton Abbott, 1968, p.10 with photo on p.11; Barton, pp.132-133; Burton, pp.65-66.] Barton dates it as 1593 and notes that 1593 is divisible by 3 and that the quotient, 591, is divisible by nine. In fact, 1593 = 33 x 59. Burton says the date is given as 93, reinforcing the trinitarian mysticism.
A mile or so west is another of Tresham's mystical buildings, Folly House, at Lyvedon New Buildings. This is based primarily on five, but three, seven and nine also occur. [Barton, p.133.]
[Timpson, p.157; D.J. Allen, p.49] say the oldest church turret clock with its original mechanism is the 1560 clock in St. Mary's Church, Rye.
Isaac Todhunter (1820-1884) was born in Rye [Ball (5), p.131].
See also: Northiam.
Written by David Singmaster. Last updated on 28th February 2003 by TM (A.Mann@gre.ac.uk). Copyright © BSHM and David Singmaster 1998 - 2003. All rights reserved.
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