Thomas Harriot: Renaissance Scientist

260 Pages·1983·20.252 MB·English

by  John William Shirley

Thomas Harriot:
A Biography
by
John W. Shirley
l»
«*
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Clarendon Press • Oxford
1983
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
Preface
London Glasgow New York Toronto
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town
Melbourne Auckland
and associates in
Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City Nicosia
Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press
It has been more than thirty-five years since I began seriously
Published in the United States by to study Thomas Harriot. Though most of these years have
Oxford University Press, New York been occupied in more contemporary activities, this fas
cinating man has occupied a large portion of my waking
© fohn W. Shirley 1983
thoughts during this period. Following his elusive genius has
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, taken me to most of the places that Harriot himself visited
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
during his sixty years, and has led me to view all or nearly
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior permission of Oxford University Press all of the remaining records of his life and work. In this
i i
odyssey I have met literally hundreds of people who have
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
taken pains to be of assistance in one way or another; among
Shirley, John W.
them I number a great many whom I have come to consider
Thomas Harriot.
1. Harriot, Thomas 2. Science, Biography as personal friends. To give all credit in detail would require
I. Title more space than the printer will allow, and, to be truthful,
509'.2'4 Q143.H/
the infirmities of memory do not, at my present age, permit
ISBN 0-19-822901-1
me to recall them all. So to those of you who are not here
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data mentioned, I apologetically acknowledge my debt.
Shirley, John William, 1908- First, I must thank my family — Jerry, Jean, and Linda —
Thomas Harriot, a biography.
for their patience in bearing with my interest. They have
Bibliography: p.
Includes index. trundled hither to yon, living in trailers and castles, without
• i t
1. Hariot, Thomas, 1560-1621. 2. Scientists — complaint. They have joyed and suffered with me in finding,
Great Britain — Biography. 3. Science — Great Britain —
or not finding, what I sought. And Jerry has read the manu
History — SWurces. I. Title.
Q143.H36S46 1983 510'.92'4 [B] 83-3961 script for these writings in many versions. Without them,
. ISBN 0-19-822901-1 this search would not have been so much fun.
Four particular institutions must be thanked for their
help. When I was just starting, the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation generously awarded me a fellowship
to spend more than a year in England to locate and photo
graph Harriot manuscripts, and Michigan State University
Set by Hope Services, Abingdon
granted a sabbatical to extend that study period at the
and printed in Great Britain by
Redwood Bum Ltd., Trowbridge Henry L. Huntington Library. The University of Delaware,
VI Preface Preface vn
particularly in the persons of President E. A. Trabant, Provost Radcliffe at Oxford, the Public Record Office, the Sion
Leon L. Campbell, and Board Chairman J. Bruce Bredin, has College Library, the Victoria and Albert and the Warburg
done all in its power to assist my studies, including travel Institute in London (with special thanks to the late Frances
grants and a sabbatical for further English study. And the Yates), the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Library of
National Endowment for the Humanities helped by joining Congress in Washington, the Clements Library in Ann Arbor,
with the University to support the Thomas Harriot Symposium and the Henry L. Huntington Library in San Marino. In my
in 1971 which brought many Harriot scholars together to own institutions, Michigan State University, North Carolina
share their collective knowledge of the man whom they all State, and the University of Delaware, I have had full support,
admired. including inordinate inter-library loan service. The efforts of
From the outset I have enjoyed in many ways the assistance all these professionals make it clear that the academic com
of the man who is undoubtedly the greatest scholar in the munity (in spite of its rivalry in many areas besides sports)
field of American exploration, David B. Quinn, and of is really unified in its search for truth.
Alison Quinn, his scholarly wife, who has graciously indexed Among others who deserve special mention for their
the present volume. Never has either refused help when asked; participation in memorable aspects of photographing the
David has corrected many of my howlers, and those that Harriot manuscripts are Arundel Esdaile and David Wilson
remain are because he did not see those sections. Another of the British Library, Eugene Powers and E. M. V. Glanville
invaluable support has been His Grace, the Duke of North of University Microfilms, andMr Tye of Rank-Xerox, London.
umberland, direct descendant of Harriot's patron, the Wizard A most pleasant group of friendships has evolved among
Earl. A man (like his ancestor) of wide and deep scholarly present-day scholars who are particularly interested in Harriot
interests, His Grace has been generous beyond belief in — Harrioteers, they call themselves — who meet annually in
giving me the keys to his archive and muniment rooms the Harriot seminars held alternately at Oxford and at
at both Syon House and Alnwick Castle, and has followed Durham, with one visit to Delaware. R. C. H. (Cecily) Tanner
my research with personal interest. I cannot express the is one of the founders of the group, which includes Alistair
gratitude I feel for him. Three of the five latest Lords Lecon- Crombie as host of the Oxford meetings and Gordon R. Batho
field and Egremont have also graciously permitted me full as host at Durham. Members who have been active from the
access to the Harriot manuscripts still remaining at Petworth beginning include John D. North, David and Alison Quinn,
House, Sussex, and I owe them a debt of gratitude. The John Roche, Jon V. Pepper, D. T. Whiteside, Ivor Grattan-
estates agents and housekeepers at Alnwick, Syon, Petworth, Guinness. Among others who have joined the group on oc
and Sherborne have also been most helpful in locating and casion and made important contributions must be mentioned
photographing manuscripts. The Reverend F. J. (Cousin Commander D. W. Waters, Alec Wallace, Jean Jacquot, F. R.
John) Shirley, Residentiar^erCanon at Canterbury Cathedral Maddison, Muriel Ruykeyser, Christopher Hill, and Ernest
and Headmaster of the venerable King's School, was able to Strathmann. Harriot's strong character welds such diverse
get me access to many private libraries and gave me background scholars into a friendly community.
in the religious controversies of Harriot's day. His untimely It is with some regret that I see this book in print; I have
death was a great loss to us all. lived with it so long it has become a part of me. I realize how
Librarians and research staffs of many great libraries incomplete it is and how many errors it must contain. Had I
willingly and without complaint came to my assistance another thirty-five years it would, I am sure, be a better bio
coundess times. Though I cannot name them all, I remember graphy than it is, but time has a way of insisting that a book
kindly the staffs of the British Library (particularly the Manu be closed. Yet thoughts of Harriot and friendly associations he
script and Photographic Departments), the Bodleian and the has generated will remain for me to enjoy in those years that
lie ahead.
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
I. Harriot in History 1
II. Harriot at Oxford, 1560-1580 38
III. Harriot with Ralegh, 1580-1585 70
IV. New Horizons, 1585-1590 113
V. Years of Transition, 1590-1600 175
VI. The 1590s: Harriot Expands his Interests 241
VII. From the Court to the Tower — Ralegh 288
VIII. From the Court to the Tower — Northumberland 327
IX. The Northumberland Circle 358
X. The Mature Scholar 380
XI. The Bitter End: Illness and Death 425
Bibliography 476
Index 491
IX
Illustrations
Section of Robert Whittlesey's Engraving
of the Plan of Oxford by Ralph Agas.
Courtesy of the Bodleian Library 39
Harriot's Matriculation, Oxford Archives,
KK9, f. 636
Courtesy of the Bodleian Library 50
Harriot's Supplications, Oxford Archives,
KK9, f. 296r .
Courtesy of the Bodleian Library 55
4.
Notes on Officers and Watches, BL, Add.
MSS6788, f. 21.
Courtesy of the British Library 98
Harriot's Phonetic Alphabet, Taken from
BL, Add 6782, f. 337.
Courtesy of the British Library H I
The Landing of the English.
Courtesy of the British Library 130
Map of Ralegh's Virginia.
Courtesy of the British Library 132
Indenture Granting Brampton Property
to Harriot. Alnwick Castle: Syon MSS
X.II.5.d.
Courtesy of the Duke of Northumberland 213
Harriot's Release of Brampton. Alnwick
Castle: Syon MSS X.II.5.d.
10a.
Courtesy of the Duke of Northumberland 'ZXl
Notes on Trajectories (1). BL, Add
MSS 6789, f. 30r .
10b.
Courtesy of the British Library 256
Notes on Trajectories (2). BL, Add MSS
6789, f. 30 \
Courtesy of the British Library 257
xi
xii List of Illustrations !
11. Notes on Parabolic Motion. BL, Add MSS
6789, f. 67.
Courtesy of the British Library 260
I. Harriot in History
12. Calculations of the Rate of Fall. BL, Add
MSS 6788, f. 144.
Courtesy of the British Library 264
13. The Imposition of Terra. Petworth 241/iv, f. 29r.
Courtesy of Lord Egremont 274
14. Waterworks at Syon. BL, Add MSS 6786,
f. 369.
Courtesy of the British Library 294 On the twenty-ninth of June in the year of our Lord God
15. Pensions for the Three Magi. Petworth #600. 1621, Master Thomas Harriot 'of Syon in the County of
The General Account, 1620. Middlesex, Gentleman, being troubled in [his] bodie with
Courtesy of Lord Egremont 378 infirmities. But of perfecte minde & memorie', lay on his
16a.b.c. Harriot to Mayerne. BL, Add MSS 6789, deathbed at the home of his friend, Thomas Buckner, Mercer,
f. 446-7. in St. Christopher's parish, not far from the Royal Exchange
Courtesy of the British Library 435-437 in London. As he itemized his personal possessions and made
careful disposition of his maps, his globes, his telescopes and
scientific instruments, Harriot naturally considered the mass
of unpublished mathematical and scientific papers which had
occupied the last forty years of his active life. He must have
considered his rightful place in history, and recognized all too
late that his failure to publish his discoveries jeopardized his
eternal reputation. He may have recalled that more than a
decade earlier his favourite student-friend, Sir William Lower,
MP for Lostwithiel in Cornwall, had strongly urged him to
mend his ways before it was too late. On 6 February 1610
Lower had written to his 'assured and true frind': '
Doe you not here startle, to see every day some of your inventions
taken from you; for I remember longe since you told me as much [as
Kepler has just published] that the motions of the planets were not
perfect circles. So you taught me the curious way to observe weight in
Water, and within a while after Ghetaldi comes out with it, in print.
A little before Vieta prevented you of the Gharland for the greate
1 This important letter has been widely quoted. It was originally discovered
among the Petworth papers by von Zach in 1784 and extracted with others for
his proposed biography. Unfortunately, however, when the papers were returned
to Oxford, this part of Lower's letter was not included. As a result, it exists only
as reprinted in von Zach's publication of July 1803. See Monatliche Correspon-
denz zurBeforderung der Erd-und-Himmels-Kunde, herausgegeben vom Freyherm
von Zach, Gotha, 28 bd., 1800-13, vol. VTII, pp. 49-54.
Thomas Harriot: A Biography Harriot in History
Invention of Algebra, al these were your deues and manie others that anie of the aforesaid to haue them for theire vse so long as shall be
I could mention; and yet too great reservednesse hath rob'd you of thought Convenient, and afterwards to be restored agayne vnto the
these glories, but although the inventions be greate, the first and last Truncke in the aforesaid Earles Lybrary Secondly my will & desire is
I meane, yet when I survei your storehouse, I see they are the smallest that the said Nathaniell Thorperley be also Ouerseer of other written
things, and such as in Comparison of manie others are of smal or no bookes & papers as my Executors and hee shall thincke Convenient.
value. Onlie let this remember you, that it is possible by to much
But like other well-laid plans, this one, too, went awry, and
procrastination to be prevented in the honor of some of your rarest
inventions and speculations. Let your Countrie and frinds injoye the Harriot's hope for the ordering of the papers of a lifetime of
comforts they would have in the true and greate honor you would effort, the careful selection of 'the Cheife', and the uttering
purchase your selfe by publishing some of your choise workes. but of them 'for publique vses' was never accomplished.
you know best what you have to doe. Onlie I, because I wish you all
Nathaniel Torporley (1564-1632), named by Harriot as his
good, wish this, and sometimes the more longhinglie, because in one of
literary executor, though a clergyman by profession, was
your lettres you gave me some kind of hope thereof.
qualified by experience for the publication of mathematical
Too late, Harriot tried to make amends, leaving to his tracts. An amanuensis of Francois Vieta, Torporley had been
friends the task which for some reason he had found himself engaged in transcribing his notes at the time of the publication
unable to do. Carefully he dictated to the scrivener who was of Vieta's great work on algebra, his Algebra nova, in 1591.
writing down his last recorded words:2 A letter from Torporley to Harriot on the eve of his first
meeting with Vieta shows that the two were close friends as
Item. I ordayne and Constitute the aforesaid Nathaniell Thorperley
early as 1586,3 and at least one problem of Vieta was passed
first to be Ouerseer of my Mathematicall writinges to be received of
my Executors to pervse and order and to separate the Cheife of them on to Harriot during the years while Torporley was in the
from my waste papers, to the end that after hee doth vnderstande service of the French mathematician.4 On his return to
them hee may make vse in penninge such doctrine that belonges vnto England from France, however, Torporley had involved
them for publique vses as it shall be thought Convenient by my
himself in ecclesiastical matters, though he undoubtedly
Executors and him selfe. And if it happen that some manner of
kept his interest in new developments of mathematics through
notacions or writinges of the said papers shall not be vnderstood by
him then my desire is that it will please him to Conferre withe Master his English friendships. But by 1621 Torporley was ready
Warner or Master Hughes Attendants on the aforesaid Earle Concern to retire from active service as a clergyman and probably
ing the aforesaid doubtes And if hee he not resolued by either of accepted the new editorial assignment willingly. The follow
them That then hee Conferre with the aforesaid John Protheroe
ing year he gave up his ecclesiastical post at Salwarpe, ac
Esquior or the aforesaid Thomas Alesbury Esquior (I hoping that
cepted a pension from John Protheroe (1582-1624), one of
some or other of the aforesaid fower Last nominated can resolve him).
And when hee hath had the vse of the said papers soe longe as my Harriot's executors, and prepared to work on the Harriot
Executors and hee haue agreed for the vse aforesaid That then hee manuscripts. A memorandum still remaining among the
deliuer them againe vnto my Executors to be putt into a Convenient Harriot papers is headed:3 'Copyed from Master Protheroe.
Truncke with a locke & key a*d to be placed in my Lord of North-
A note of the papers and bookes in Master Harriots truncke
umberlandes library and the key thereof to be deliuered into his Lord-
delivered to Master Torporley', and a subsequent list begins
shipps hands And if at anie tyme after my Executors or the aforesaid
Nathaniell Thorperley shall agayne desire the vse of some or all of the 'Notes of Papers of Master Harriots delivered to Master
said Mathematicall papers That then it will please the said Earle to let t Torporley'.
'Jon. V. Pepper, 'A letter from Nathaniel Torporley to Thomas Harriot',
2 Harriot's will is now in the Guildhall in London in both the authentic copy British Journal for the History of Science, III.ll (1967), 285-90.
for Probate proved in the Archdeaconry of London Court on 6 July 1621, and 4BL Add. MS 6782, fo. 483.
the Register Copy of the same Court. This quotation is from the Probate Copy. *BL Add. MS 6789, fos. 448r&v, 449, 450. These lists have been published
In this volume, customary manuscript abbreviations have been silently expanded by Tanner, 'Nathaniel Torporley and the Harriot Manuscripts, Annals of Science,
in transcription. XXV.4 (1969), 339-49.
4 Thomas Harriot: A Biography Harriot in History 5
Just why Torporley did not follow through with the there is evidence that Torporley had a hand in the selection
publication of Harriot's mathematical papers as he was of Harriot's papers to be printed by Warner and had some
asked to do is still subject to speculation. Torporley's study editorial prerogatives over some of the text, the sight of the
of Harriot's 'doctrine' was thorough, and by 1630 when he final volume came as a shock to the old man. A manuscript
moved into Sion College, a home for retired clergy, his notes fragment among Torporley's papers at Sion College severely
show that he had transcribed and understood most of Harriot's criticizes the editors for the way in which they presented
work on algebra.6 One suggestion that has some supporting Harriot's solutions, for their failure to recognize some of his
evidence is that in going through Harriot's non-mathematical major accomplishments, and even for their inability to
papers Torporley had discovered Harriot's atomistic theories understand some of his notations.7 He even went so far as
of light and matter, and as a clergyman was very upset by to prepare a peevish title-page for a proposed work which he
this unorthodox view of the nature of God's creations. suggested he might write to rectify these errors. This title-
Torporley may, as has been claimed, have turned his energies page, translated from the original Latin by Henry Stevens,8
to the refutation of these erroneous views and lost interest reads as follows:
in the development of Harriot's mathematical innovations.
THE ANALYTICAL CORRECTOR
Whatever the reason, Torporley did not fulfil the obligation
of the posthumous scientific writings
placed on him by Harriot and this lack of action led the
other literary executors to action. Lower and Protheroe had of THOMAS HARRIOT.
both died, so it was left to Harriot's long-time friend and As an excellent Mathematician, one who very seldom \
associate in the household of the 9th Earl, Walter Warner As a bold Philosopher, one who occasionally j erred.
As a frail Man, one who notably I
(1550?-1636), to deal with the situation. Warner extracted
from the voluminous notes of Harriot a small portion dealing For
with his method of solving algebraic equations, and ten years the more trustworthy refutation of the pseudo-philosophic
after Harriot's death he took them to press under the title atomic theory, revived by him and, outside his
other strange notions, deserving of
ARTIS ANALYTICAE PRAXIS, Ad cequationes Algebraicas
reprehension and anathema.
noua, expedita, & generali methodo, resoluendas: TRACT-
A Compendious Warning with specimens by the aged
ATVS E posthumis THOMAE HARRIOTI Philosophi ac
and retired-from-active-life
Mathematici celeberrimi schediasmatis summa fide &
Na: Torporley.
diligentia descriptus:... LONDINI. . . Anno 1631. This small
volume of 180 pages, representing but a part of Harriot's So that
innovative work on mathematics, was the only portion of The critic may know
The buyer may beware,
Harriot's work to rema|p 'publique', and it is on this single
It is not safe to trust to the bank
work that his fame as a mathematician has rested in the
The bell-wether himself is drying his fleece.
centuries following his death.
The appearance of the Artis Analyticae Praxis started the
'Sion College MS L40. 2/E10. This MS is reprinted (with some inaccuracies)
famous controversy over Harriot and his proper place in the
by James Orchard Halliwell in his Collection of Letters Illustrative of the Pro
history of mathematics. Harriot's own literary executor could gress of Science in England from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to that of Charles
be charged as responsible for starting the debate. Though the Second, London, for the Historical Society of Science, 1841. See the Appen
dix, 109-16. See also Tanner's two articles on Torporley and Harriot.
* R. C. H. Tanner, 'Nathaniel Torporley's "Congestor analyticus" and Thomas "Henry Stevens, Thomas Hariot, The Mathematician, the Philosopher, and
Harriot's 'De triangulis laterum rationalium"', Annals of Science, XXXIV (1977), the Scholar, London, Privately Printed, 1900, p. 174. Stevens also gives the
393-428. original Latin on p. 172.
6 Thomas Harriot: A Biography Harriot in History
The Revd. Torporley's rather peevish critical review adds little from your Lordship towards the repairing of the detriment that lies
to an understanding of Harriot's contributions to algebra.9 still vpon him by his last imploiment. But for the future my intention
is to haue the impression at my owne charge and not depend on the
Though the end note of the Praxis indicates that additional
curtesy of those mechaniks, making regard that that which may seeme
publication from Harriot's manuscripts was being considered,
to be saved by the other way will not counterVaile this trouble and
the cost of printing the volume had proved greater than tedious prolongation of the busines. But the copies being made perfect
anticipated so that any further works would require additional and faire written for the presse they shall be sufficiently bound to
subsidy. Through his close friend, Thomas Aylesbury (1576- deliver the books perfectly don out of their hands, and by this meanes
the trouble and charge of attending the presse will be saved. Therefore
1657), another of Harriot's executors, Warner approached
my Lord What you do now will be but for this once, and in such
Harriot's patron, the 9th Earl of Northumberland, for more
proportion "as shall best like you to favour the humble motion of him
support. A letter, inscribed in Warner's hand as 'Sir Th. A, who is
lettere about my busines' remains among the Warner manu Allway most redy at
scripts preserved in the Pell collection in the British Library.10 July .5. 1632 your Lordships command
It reads as follows: T. A.
Four months to the day after this letter was written, Henry
Right Honorable:
Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, died quietly at Petworth
May it please your Lordship: I presumed heretofore to moue your
House in Sussex, where he had retired following his release
Lordship on the behalf of Master W[arner] for some consideracion to
be had of his extraordinary expense in attending the publication of from the Tower shortly after Harriot's death. There is no
Master H[arriot's] book after the copy was finished. The same humble evidence that he responded favourably to Aylesbury's request,
request I am induced to renew by reson of his present wants occasioned and his oldest son, Algernon, who succeeded him as 10th
by that attendance.
Earl, seems even to have discontinued the pension which his
For his literary labour and paincs taken in forming the book and
father had given to Walter Warner. Any further publication
fitting it for the publik view he looks for no other reward then your
Lordships acceptance thereof, as an honest discharge of his duty. But pf Harriot's works was out of the question, as a result, and
his long attendance through vnexpected difficulties in seeking to get either Warner or Aylesbury, in accordance with Harriot's
the book freely printed, and after that was vndertaken the frivolous last will and testament, 'putt [Harriot's papers] into a Con
delais of the printers and slow proceding of the presse, which no
venient Truncke ... in the aforesaid Earles Lybrary' in the
intretees of his or myne could remedy, drew him to a gretter expence
country estate to which he had retired. There they remained,
then his meanes would bere, including both your Lordships pension
and the arbitrary help of his frends. It is this extraordinary expense in Petworth House, Sussex, though the memory that they
which he cannot recouer which makes both him and me for him appele wefe there was lost following the deaths of Warner in 1636
to your Lordships goodnes and bounty for some tollerable mitigation and Aylesbury in 1657.
thereof.
Though there was considerable discussion about the
I purpose god willing to set forth other peeces of Master H[arriot]
Harriot papers among English mathematicians of the time,
wherin by reson of my owne iacombrances I must of necessity desire
the help of Master W[amer] rather than of any other. Whereto I find like Pell and Wallis, the final disposition of the manuscripts
him redy enough because it tends to your Lordships service, and may remained unknown. Harriot's will, probated in Archdeaconry
the more freely trouble him, yf he receve some little encoragement Court in London because of his death in the city, was not
* According to Dr Tanner, Dr Landels is currently preparing a translation and located, and the fact that Harriot had willed them to his
analysis of this MS.
patron Northumberland had been forgotten. The question
"This letter was first printed with some misreadings and ascribed to Nathaniel
of the retrieval of the papers was raised at one of the early
Torporley by J. O. Halliwell, A Collection of Letters, p. 71. It was also printed,
correctly ascribed to Aylesbury by Stevens in his biography of Harriot (usually meetings of the Royal Society of London where the Secre
referred to by its originally proposed title, Thomas Harriot and his Associates), tary, the Revd. Thomas Birch, recorded in the minutes of
on pp. 189-90. This transcription is taken from the original, BL MS Birch 4396, the meeting of 29 October 1662:1 1
fo. 90r.
8 Thomas Harriot: A Biography Harriot in History 9
Sir ROBERT MORAY mentioned, that there were some considerable that he would endeavor to procure a sight and transcript
papers of Mr. HARRIOT and Dr. HARVEY, which might be retrieved. of them, if they were in those hands.' If Mr Oldenburg did
And it was ordered, that those of Mr. HARRIOT being in the pos
indeed seek the papers from Lord Herbert of Cherbury he
session of the earl of CLARENDON, lord high chancellor, should be
would have been disappointed, for it is obvious that Dr
inquired after by Mr. MATTHEW WREN, and those of Dr. HARVEY
by Dr. ENT and Dr. SCARBURGH. Birch heard Mr Collins incorrectly. Collins must have been
speaking not of Lord Cherbury, but of Lord Vaughan, son
A month later, on 19 November 1662, Mr Matthew Wren
of the Earl of Carberry. In one of his letters to Vernon,
reported back:12 'Mr. MATTHEW WREN acquainted the
undated, but apparently of about this time, Collins wrote
society, that the lord chancellor, upon the intimation of their
as follows:15
desire, had expressed his readiness to communicate to them
several papers of Mr. HARRIOT, which he had in his custody; As to Harriot, he was so learned, saith Dr. Pell, that had he published
and that he would give Mr. WREN access to his trunks for all he knew in algebra, he would have left little of the chief mysteries
them.' What papers the Earl of Clarendon might have had, or of that art unhandled. His papers fell into the hands of Sir Thomas
Aylesbury, who was father to the late Lord Chancellor's [Clarendon's]
thought he had, cannot be determined, for they were evidently
Lady, by which means they fell into the Lord Chancellor's hands, to
never produced for the scrutiny of Wren. After nearly a year
whom application was made by the members of the Royal Society to
had passed, on 30 September 1663, since no further infor obtain them: his lordship (then in the height of his dignity and employ
mation about the Harriot papers had been forthcoming, the ments) gave orders for a search to be made, and in result the answer
Secretary introduced a reminder into the minutes:13 'It was was, they could not be found. I am afraid the search was but perfunc
tory, and that, if his lordship (now at leisure) were solicited for them,
ordered, that Mr. MATTHEW WREN be put in mind of
he might write to his son the Lord Cornbury to make a diligent search
procuring from the lord chancellor the papers of Mr.
for them. One Mr. Protheroe, in Wales, was executor to Mr. Harriot,
HARRIOT, who had also made considerable observations and from him the Lord Vaughan, the Earl of Carbery's son, received
on the weather.' more than a quire of Mr. Harriot's Analytics. The Lord Brounker has
about two sheets of Harriot de Motu et Collisione Corporum, and
There the matter rested for the next half-dozen years,
more of his I know not of: there is nothing of Harriot's extant but
with no further search recorded and no progress indicated
that piece that Mons. Garibal hath.
in locating Harriot's mathematical manuscripts. Matthew
Wren, Member of Parliament for St. Michael and secretary Unfortunately for Harriot's reputation, lack of the primary
to Clarendon during early years, had transferred his position evidence of his manuscripts did not prevent speculation
to that of secretary to James, Duke of York, in 1667, but about their contents nor development of firm opinions about
still had not followed through on his charge. Again the what they must have contained, John Wallis (1616-1703),
matter was raised in the meeting of the Society on 2 Decem probably the most brilliant mathematician between Harriot
ber 1669:14 'Mr. COLLINS mentioned, that he had been and Newton, was somehow inspired to take up the cudgels
Informed, that many paper?* of the famous mathematician, on the behalf of his countrymen, Harriot and Oughtred. As
Mr. THOMAS HARRIOT were in the hands of the son of Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, President of the
the earl of Cherbury. Upon which Mr. OLDENBURG said, Oxford Philosophical Society, and a pioneer and close
associate of the Royal Society of London, Wallis carried great
"Thomas Birch, DD, Secretary to the Royal Society, The History of the influence. An early writer on the history and development
Royal Society for Improving of Natural Knowledge from its First Rise, London, of mathematics, Wallis became the leader of a great debate
MDCCLVI. This important work has recently been reprinted in photocopy in The
Sources of Science, no. 44, The Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1968. This extract
is from vol. I, p. 120. "Stephen P. and Stephen J. Rigaud, Correspondence of Scientific Men of the
"Ibid. I. 126. Seventeenth Century, 2 vols. Oxford, 1841. Letter LIX, Collins to Vernon,
iaR)id. I. 309. I4Ibid.II,410. undated, but about 1670. This extract is from 1. 152-3.