Barrow, Isaac

1. Dates

Born: London, Oct. 1630

Died: London, 4 May 1677.

Dateinfo: 47

Lifespan:

2. Father

Occupation: Merchant

Thomas Barrow was a linen-draper with connections with the court.

It appears that he was prosperous, until the Puritan victory.

3. Nationality

Birth: England

Career: England

Death: England

4. Education

Schooling: Cambridge, M.A.

Charterhouse; Felsted in Essex.

University of Cambridge (Trinity), 1646-52; B.A., 1648; M.A., 1652.

Bachelor of Divinity, 1661 (I don't list this).

5. Religion

Affiliation: Anglican

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Mathematics,

Subordinate: Optics.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Academia

Secondary: Patronage, Church Life

Patronage of Martin Holbeach, Dr. Duport and Henry

Hammond during the interregnum.

Professor, 1660-9: Professor of Greek in the U. of Cambridge, 1660-2. Professor of geometry in Gresham College, 1662-3. Professor of mathemetics in the U. of Cambridge, 1663-9.

Royal chaplain in London, 1669- .

He also received a sinecure from his uncle, a bishop, and in 1671 a prebend in Salisbury.

Master of Trinity.

8. Patronage

Types: Court Official, Eccesiastic Official, Gentry, Merchant, Academic

Minor patronage before the Restoration:

Ecclessiastical Officer: Henry Hammond, the great Oxford Divine, gave him monetary assistance before 1660.

Dr. Duport, professor of Cambridge, promised to coach him for nothing in 1640s. Before Duport, Thomas Hill, the Master of Trinity, helped Barrow.

During the Interregnum members of the Walpole family gave Barrow support and led him to enroll in Trinity.

Barrow dedicated his Euclid (1656) to three fellow-commoners of Trinity: Edward Cecil (son of the Earl of Salisbury), John Knatchbull (heir of Sir Norton K.), and Francis Willughby.

He dedicated his edition of Euclid's Data (1657) to James Stock, a London merchant whom Barrow met in Paris. Stock is described as Barrow's generous patron; he died, however, in 1658.

The English Ambassador to Constantinople, Sir Thomas Bendish, housed Barrow there for a year and a half, and the merchant Jonathan Dawes gave him financial support.

John Wilkins was the Master of Trinity when Barrow returned. He became Barrow's chief patron. Wilkins recommended him for the professorship in Gresham College in 1662, and also was responsible for his position of professor of geometry in Cambridge.

Barrow got the professorship in 1660 by royal order, and was created D.D. in 1670 by royal mandate. He was made University Vice-chancellor and Master of Trinity by order of the king.

In 1661 he obtained a letter patent allowing him, as Regius Professor, to retain his fellowship.

In Barrow's appointment as Master, the Duke of Buckingham and Archbishop Sheldon were pivotal.

Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, gave Barrow a prebend at Salisbury, which Barrow resigned when he became Master of Trinity.

Note that Barrow was University Vice-Chancellor, 1675, as the King's choice.

(Sources on patronage: H. Osmond, Isaac Barrow, His Life and Times, pp. 13-14, 98-99. Also Feingold, pp. 1-104.)

9. Technological Involvement

Types: None

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Royal Society

Informal connections: Intimate frienship with John

Ray; the relation with Newton.

Royal Society, 1662.

Sources

1. H. Osmond, Isaac Barrow, His Life and Times, (London, 1944), pp. 13-14, 40, 85, 98-99, 103. LF294 .B308
2. Mordechai Feingold, ed., Before Newton. The Life and Times of Isaac Barrow, (Cambridge, 1990), especially Feingold, "Isaac Barrow: Divine, Scholar, Mathematician," pp. 1-104.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.