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William Oughtred
William Oughtred (5 March 1574 – 30 June 1660), also Owtred, Uhtred, etc., was an English mathematician and Anglican clergyman. After John Napier discovered logarithms and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales (lines, or rules) upon which slide rules are based, Oughtred was the first to use two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division. He is credited with inventing the slide rule in about 1622. He also introduced the "×" symbol for multiplication and the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the sine and cosine functions.
The son of Benjamin Oughtred of Eton in Buckinghamshire (now part of Berkshire), William was born there on 5 March 1574/75 and was educated at Eton College, where his father, a writing-master, was one of his teachers. Oughtred had a passion for mathematics, and would often stay awake at nights to learn while others were sleeping. He then attended King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1596/97 and MA in 1600, holding a fellowship in the college from 1595 to 1603. He composed a Funeral Ode in Latin for Sir William More of Loseley Park in 1600.
Admitted to holy orders, he left the University of Cambridge about 1603, when as "Master" William Oughtred he held the rectorate of St Mary's Church, Guildford, Surrey. At the presentation of the lay patron George Austen, gent., he was instituted as vicar at Shalford near Wonersh, in the neighbourhood of Guildford in western Surrey, on 2 July 1605.
On 20 February 1606, at Shalford, Oughtred married Christs-gift Caryll, a relation of the Caryll family seated at Great Tangley Hall at Shalford. The Oughtreds had twelve children, William, Henry, Henry (the first Henry died as a baby), Benjamin, Simon, Margaret, Judith, Edward, Elizabeth, Anne, George, and John. Two of the sons, Benjamin and John, shared their father's interest in instruments and became watchmakers.
Oughtred's wife was a cousin of Simon Caryll of Tangley and his wife Lady Elizabeth Aungier (married 1607), daughter of Sir Francis Aungier. Oughtred was a witness to Simon Caryll's will, made 1618, and through two further marriages Elizabeth remained matriarch and dowager of Great Tangley until her death in about 1650. Elizabeth's brother Gerald, 2nd Baron Aungier of Longford, was married to Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle, Surrey, in 1638. Oughtred praised Gerald (whom he taught) as a man of great piety and learning, skilled in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and other oriental languages.
In January 1610 Sir George More, patron of Compton church adjacent to Loseley Park, granted the advowson (right of presentation of the minister) to Oughtred, when it should next fall vacant, though Oughtred was not thereby empowered to present himself to the living. This was soon after Sir George More became reconciled to the marriage of his daughter Anne to the poet John Donne, which had occurred secretly in 1601.
Oughtred was presented by Sir Edward Randyll of Chilworth (lord of the manor) to the rectory of Albury, near Guildford in Surrey and instituted on 16 October 1610, vacating Shalford on 18 January 1611.
In January 1615/16 Sir George More re-granted the advowson of Compton church (still occupied) in trust to Roger Heath and Simon Caryll, to present Oughtred himself, or any other person whom Oughtred should nominate, when the vacancy should arise. Soon afterwards Oughtred was approached by John Tichborne seeking his own nomination, and entering an agreement to pay him a sum of money upon certain days. Before this could be completed the incumbent died (November 1618), and Oughtred sought for himself to be presented, preaching several times at Compton, having the first fruits sequestered to his use, and, after four months, asking the patron to present him. However, Tichborne offered to complete the agreed payment at once, and was accordingly presented by the trustees in May 1619 (Simon Caryll dying in that year): but before he could be admitted, the Crown interposed a different candidate because the contract between Oughtred and Tichborne was deemed by Sir Henry Yelverton clearly to be Simoniacal.
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William Oughtred
William Oughtred (5 March 1574 – 30 June 1660), also Owtred, Uhtred, etc., was an English mathematician and Anglican clergyman. After John Napier discovered logarithms and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales (lines, or rules) upon which slide rules are based, Oughtred was the first to use two such scales sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division. He is credited with inventing the slide rule in about 1622. He also introduced the "×" symbol for multiplication and the abbreviations "sin" and "cos" for the sine and cosine functions.
The son of Benjamin Oughtred of Eton in Buckinghamshire (now part of Berkshire), William was born there on 5 March 1574/75 and was educated at Eton College, where his father, a writing-master, was one of his teachers. Oughtred had a passion for mathematics, and would often stay awake at nights to learn while others were sleeping. He then attended King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1596/97 and MA in 1600, holding a fellowship in the college from 1595 to 1603. He composed a Funeral Ode in Latin for Sir William More of Loseley Park in 1600.
Admitted to holy orders, he left the University of Cambridge about 1603, when as "Master" William Oughtred he held the rectorate of St Mary's Church, Guildford, Surrey. At the presentation of the lay patron George Austen, gent., he was instituted as vicar at Shalford near Wonersh, in the neighbourhood of Guildford in western Surrey, on 2 July 1605.
On 20 February 1606, at Shalford, Oughtred married Christs-gift Caryll, a relation of the Caryll family seated at Great Tangley Hall at Shalford. The Oughtreds had twelve children, William, Henry, Henry (the first Henry died as a baby), Benjamin, Simon, Margaret, Judith, Edward, Elizabeth, Anne, George, and John. Two of the sons, Benjamin and John, shared their father's interest in instruments and became watchmakers.
Oughtred's wife was a cousin of Simon Caryll of Tangley and his wife Lady Elizabeth Aungier (married 1607), daughter of Sir Francis Aungier. Oughtred was a witness to Simon Caryll's will, made 1618, and through two further marriages Elizabeth remained matriarch and dowager of Great Tangley until her death in about 1650. Elizabeth's brother Gerald, 2nd Baron Aungier of Longford, was married to Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle, Surrey, in 1638. Oughtred praised Gerald (whom he taught) as a man of great piety and learning, skilled in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and other oriental languages.
In January 1610 Sir George More, patron of Compton church adjacent to Loseley Park, granted the advowson (right of presentation of the minister) to Oughtred, when it should next fall vacant, though Oughtred was not thereby empowered to present himself to the living. This was soon after Sir George More became reconciled to the marriage of his daughter Anne to the poet John Donne, which had occurred secretly in 1601.
Oughtred was presented by Sir Edward Randyll of Chilworth (lord of the manor) to the rectory of Albury, near Guildford in Surrey and instituted on 16 October 1610, vacating Shalford on 18 January 1611.
In January 1615/16 Sir George More re-granted the advowson of Compton church (still occupied) in trust to Roger Heath and Simon Caryll, to present Oughtred himself, or any other person whom Oughtred should nominate, when the vacancy should arise. Soon afterwards Oughtred was approached by John Tichborne seeking his own nomination, and entering an agreement to pay him a sum of money upon certain days. Before this could be completed the incumbent died (November 1618), and Oughtred sought for himself to be presented, preaching several times at Compton, having the first fruits sequestered to his use, and, after four months, asking the patron to present him. However, Tichborne offered to complete the agreed payment at once, and was accordingly presented by the trustees in May 1619 (Simon Caryll dying in that year): but before he could be admitted, the Crown interposed a different candidate because the contract between Oughtred and Tichborne was deemed by Sir Henry Yelverton clearly to be Simoniacal.