Saunderson, Nicholas, 1682-1739 (mathematician)
Dates
- Existence: 1682 - 1739
Biography
Nicholas Saunderson [Sanderson] (1682-1739), Lucasian professor of mathematics was born to an exciseman in Yorkshire. He was baptised in 1683. He lost his eyesight to smallpox when he was a year old. At an early age he was taught arithmetic by his father whom he helped with his excise work. At 24 Saunderson went to Cambridge and resided with a friend at Christ's College, though not as a member of the University. Hoping to teach he was allowed to form a class by the Lucasian professor, William Whiston, and taught mathematics, astronomy and optics. Saunderson built a reputation as an excellent teacher, so much so that when Whiston was expelled from the professorship in 1710 Saunderson was made MA by special patent from Queen Anne to enable him to become Lucasian professor. He continued to live at Christ's until 1723 when he took a house in Cambridge and married Abigail Dickons. They had two children. In 1728 he was made Doctor of Laws. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1718 and also sat on the Board of Longitude. He died of scurvy 1739. He didn't publish whilst alive, but his Algebra, which he had been working on for six years, was published by subscription in 1740.
Found in 7 Collections and/or Records:
Edmund Hopkinson: Notes on Nicholas Saunderson's Lectures
Covers mechanicks, hydrostaticks, pneumaticks, sounds, opticks, the rainbow, astronomy and tides.
Letter from Nicholas Saunderson to William Jones, 4 February 1713 (1713/14)
This is an album consisting primarily of holograph letters to and from 17th and 18th century scientists, including Collins, Oughtred, Cavendish, Briggs, Fermat, Oldenburg, Halley, Boyle, Wallis and others. There are also some copy letters and other scientific papers.
Letter from Nicholas Saunderson to William Jones, 1713
This is an album consisting primarily of holograph letters to and from 17th and 18th century scientists, including Collins, Oughtred, Cavendish, Briggs, Fermat, Oldenburg, Halley, Boyle, Wallis and others. There are also some copy letters and other scientific papers.
Nicholas Saunderson: A Treatise of Fluxions
fo. 5: shorthand note in pencil; fo. 5v: diagram; fo. 1: 'John Hall, Bought Clerk's Sale 1833.' Text written on every other leaf, alternate leaves either carrying diagrams or left blank. Printed as pp. vii-128 of Saunderson's Method of Fluxions, London, 1756.
Nicholas Saunderson: Lectures
Notes on Sanderson's lectures in the hand of William Haswell. Includes: lectures on hydrostatics, sounds, optics (with others), mechanics, astronomy, tides, technical chronology, and the doctrine of heat and cold. With (fo. 128) copy of letter from James Bate to Hans Deveille, 3 Jan. 1726
Nicholas Saunderson: Lectures
Nicholas Saunderson: MS notes on his lectures on Fluxions
Additional filters:
- Type
- Collection 5
- Archival Object 2
- Subject
- Astronomy 2
- Mathematics 2
- Barometers 1
- Chronology 1
- Hydrostatics 1