John Wallis

Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

"...John Wallis (23 November 1616 – 28 October 1703) was an English mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. He is also credited with introducing the symbol for infinity. Asteroid 31982 Johnwallis was named after him..."

"...John Wallis was born in Ashford, Kent, the third of five children of Reverend John Wallis and Joanna Chapman. He was initially educated at a local Ashford school, but moved to James Movat's school in Tenterden in 1625 following an outbreak of plague. Wallis was first exposed to mathematics in 1631, at Martin Holbeach's school in Felsted; he enjoyed maths, but his study was erratic, since: "mathematics, at that time with us, were scarce looked on as academical studies, but rather mechanical" (Scriba 1970)..."

"...As it was intended that he should be a doctor, he was sent in 1632 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. While there, he kept an act on the doctrine of the circulation of the blood; that was said to have been the first occasion in Europe on which this theory was publicly maintained in a disputation. His interests, however, centred on mathematics. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1637, and a Master's in 1640, afterwards entering the priesthood. From 1643–49, he served as a non-voting scribe at the Westminster Assembly. Wallis was elected to a fellowship at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1644, which he however had to resign following his marriage.

Throughout this time, Wallis had been close to the Parliamentarian party, perhaps as a result of his exposure to Holbeach at Felsted School. He rendered them great practical assistance in deciphering Royalist dispatches. The quality of cryptography at that time was mixed; despite the individual successes of mathematicians such as François Viète, the principles underlying cipher design and analysis were very poorly understood. Most ciphers were ad-hoc methods relying on a secret algorithm, as opposed to systems based on a variable key. Wallis realised that the latter were far more secure – even describing them as "unbreakable", though he was not confident enough in this assertion to encourage revealing cryptographic algorithms. He was also concerned about the use of ciphers by foreign powers; refusing, for example, Gottfried Leibniz's request of 1697 to teach Hanoverian students about cryptography.

Returning to London – he had been made chaplain at St Gabriel Fenchurch, in 1643 – Wallis joined the group of scientists that was later to evolve into the Royal Society. He was finally able to indulge his mathematical interests, mastering William Oughtred's Clavis Mathematicae in a few weeks in 1647. He soon began to write his own treatises, dealing with a wide range of topics, continuing throughout his life.

Wallis joined the moderate Presbyterians in signing the remonstrance against the execution of Charles I, by which he incurred the lasting hostility of the Independents. In spite of their opposition he was appointed in 1649 to be the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford University, where he lived until his death on 28 October 1703. In 1661, he was one of twelve Presbyterian representatives at the Savoy Conference.

Besides his mathematical works he wrote on theology, logic, English grammar and philosophy, and he was involved in devising a system for teaching deaf-mutes. Although William Holder had earlier taught a deaf man Alexander Popham to speak ‘plainly and distinctly, and with a good and graceful tone’.[3] Wallis later claimed credit for this, leading Holder to accuse Wallis of 'rifling his Neighbours, and adorning himself with their spoyls’.."

Family

"...On 14 March 1645 he married Susanna Glynde (16??-16 March 1687) with three children:

1. Anne Wallis (4 June 1656 – 5 April 1718), married Sir John Blencowe (30 November 1642 – 6 May 1726) in 1675, with issue[14]
2. John Wallis (26 December 1650 – 14 March 1717[15]), MP for Wallingford 1690-1695, married Elizabeth Harris (−1693) on 1 February 1682, with issue: one son and two daughters
3. Elizabeth Wallis (1658–1703[16]), married William Benson (1649-1691) of Towcester, died with no issue..."

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wallis

Note: From NATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, London, 1851, Vol.xii, Charles Knight, 90 Fleet Street, p. 731. as quoted in THEALSTON FAMILY, pp. 17-19. John Wallis was the oldest son of theRev. John Wallis, incumbent of Ashford in Kent, where he wasborn Nov. 23, 1616. The father of Wallis died when he was sixyears old, leaving five children to the care of his widow. Hewas fifteen years old when his curiosity was excited by seeing abook of arithmetic in the hands of his younger brother, who waspreparing for trade. On his showing some curiosity to know whatit meant, his brother went through the rules with him, and in afortnight he had mastered the whole. He was entered at EmanuelCollege, Cambridge, where he soon obtained reputation. Amonghis other studies, anatomy found a place; and he is said to havebeen the first student who maintained, in a public disputation,the doctrine of the circulation of the blood, which had beenpromulgated by Harvey four or five years before. After takingthe degree of Master of Arts, he was chosen Fellow of Queens,and took orders in 1640. He was then chaplain in one andanother private family, residing partly in London, till thebreaking out of the civil war, in which he took the side of theParliament. He made himself useful to his party by decipheringintercepted letters, an act in which he was eminent. In 1643,the sequestrated living of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch street, wasgiven to him, and in the same year he published "Truth Tried, orAnimadversions on the Lord Brooks Treatise on the Nature ofTruth." In this year also he came into a handsome fortune by thedeath of his mother. In 1644 he was appointed one of thesecretaries of the Assembly of the Divines at Westminster. Inthis year also he married. In 1645 he was among the first whojoined those meetings, which afterwards gave rise to the RoyalSociety. When the Independents began to prevail, Wallis joinedwith others of the clergy in opposing them, and in 1648subscribed a remonstrance against the execution of Charles I. In1649 he was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxfordby the Parliamentary visitors. He now moved to Oxford andapplied himself diligently to mathematics. At the end of 1650he first met with the method of indivisibles in the writings ofTorricelli, and from this time his celebrated reserches begin.In 1658, Wallis, who with others desired the restoration of thekingly power, employed his art of deciphering on the side of theRoyalists, so that at the Restoration he was received with favorby Charles II., confirmed in his professorship and in the placeof keeper of the archives at Oxford, and was made one of theroyal chaplains. In 1661 he was one of the clergy appointed toreview the Book of Common Prayer. He was of course one of thefirst members of the Royal Society, and from this to his deathhis life is little more than the list of his works. Thecollections of his works by the Curator of the Oxford UniversityPress began to be made in 1692. The three volumes bear thedisordered dates of 1695, 1693 and 1699. In 1692 he wasconsulted upon the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, or newstyle, against which he gave a strong opinion, and the designwas abandoned. In 1696 when the first two volumes of his worksappeared he was the remote occasion of beginning the controversybetween the followers of Newton and Leibnitz. Some remarks weremade on his assertions as to the origin of the differentialcalculus in the Leipzig Acts, which produced a correspondence,and this correspondene was published in the 3d volume. He diedOct. 28, 1703, in his 88th year. Wallis in his literarycharacter is to be considered as a theologian, a scholar andmathematician. As a divine he would probably not have beenremembered but for his eminence in the other characters. Hisdiscourses on the Trinity are still quoted in the histories ofopinions on that subject. If the character of Wallis has beenelevated as a divine by his celebrity as a philosopher, hisservices as a scholar have for the same reason been, if notunderrated, at least thrown into a shade. He was the firsteditor of the "Harmonics" of Ptolemeus, of the commentary on itby Porphyrius, and of the later work of Brennius; as also ofAristarchus of Samoa. As a mathematician Wallis is the mostimmediate predecessor of Newton, both in the time at which helived and the subjects at which he worked. Those who incline tothe opinion that scientific discoveries are not the work of theman, but of the man and the hour, that is, who regard eachparticular conquest as the necessary consequences of the actualstate of things, and as certain to come from one quarter oranother when the time arrives, will probably say that if Wallishad not lived, Newton would but have filled his place as far asthe pure mathematics are concerned.