Wright, Edward

1. Dates

Born: Garveston, Norfolk, Oct. 1561. He was baptized on 8 Oct.

Died: London, November, 1615

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 54

2. Father

Occupation: Unknown

Henry Wright. We have only the information (from the records of Caius College) that the father was "mediocris fortunae, deceased."

No clear evidence on the family's financial situation. Although Wright attended Cambridge as a sizar, his brother who was two years older attended as a pensioner.

3. Nationality

Birth: Garveston, Norfolk, English

Career: English

Death: London, English

4. Education

Schooling: Cambridge, M.A.

Cambridge, Caius College, 1576-84; B.A., 1681; M.A., 1584.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Anglican

I accept this as an assumption from the silence of accounts about his religion. However, there is one report that at Cambridge he associated closely with the leaders of Puritanism there.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Mathematics, Navigation, Cartography

Subordinate: Magnetism

Famous for his contribution to mathematical navigation, especially Certaine Errors in Navigation, which set forth the Mercator projection. He also translated Stevin's Haven- Finding Art.

Wright also published some treatises on mathematics-- Description and Use of the Sphere, 1614, and especially A Description of the Admirable Tables of Logarithmes, a translation of Napier's Latin, published in 1616, just after Wright's death.

He helped Gilbert with De magnete and was even said (by Mark Ridley) to have written parts of it--presumably on the use of magnetic declination to determine longitude, a theme that Wright pursued in his own writings.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Patronage, Schoolmastering, Engineering

Secondary: Academia

Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, 1587-96.

Assistant to George, Earl of Cumberland, on an expedition to the Azores, 1589. Parsons and Morris say that he was called to this expedition by the Queen; the college records reveal that he was given a leave of absence by royal mandate. He remained in contact with Cumberland for the rest of his life and dedicated his major book on navigation to him.

Lecturer on navigation in London, supported by Sir Thomas Smith and Sir John Wolstenholme, rich merchants, 1600s. In 1614 the East India Company took over sponsorship of these lectures, with a salary of £50. I classify the lectures with private lessons under the heading of Schoolmaster.

Tutor of Mathematics to Prince Henry, 1608 or 9 until Prince Henry's death in 1612.

Surveyor for the New River Project, under Sir Hugh Myddleton.

8. Patronage

Types: Court Official, Aristrocrat, Merchant, Government Official

See above. Note that Myddleton was a London entrepreneur.

Note also that Wright dedicated the second edition of his

book on navigation to Prince Henry.

He dedicated his translation of Stevin to Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Navigation, Cartography, Instruments, Hydraulics

Wright did a chart of the Azores on a Mercator projection. He also did a map of the fens, and he collaborated on Hakluyt's world map, again on a Mercator projection and incorporating late information from explorers, published in the Principal Navigations.

Wright was an important designer of instruments for navigation.

Wright was apparently the technical expert on the New River project, a waterway planned (and ultimately constructed) to bring water from Uxbridge to London.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Collaboration with Hakluyt.

Friendship with William Barlow, William Gilbert, and Thomas Blundeville. He assisted Gilbert and wrote a preface for De magnete.

Lifelong collaboration with Briggs.

Sources

1. Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1949-50), 21, 1015-17. C. Hutton, A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary, 2, 619- 20 E.J.S. Parsons & W.F. Morris, "Edward Wright and His Work", Imago Mundi, 3 (1939), 61-71.
2. E.G.R. Taylor, Mathematical practioners of Tudor and Stuart England, (Cambridge, 1954), pp. 181-2.
3. J. Venn, Biographical History of Gonville and Caius College, (Cambridge, 1897), 1, 88-9.
4. D.W. Waters, The Art of Navigation, (London, 1958), pp.219-29, 316-17.

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.