Seth Ward

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Seth Ward

Seth Ward (born March 1617 in Aspenden , Hertfordshire, † January 6, 1689 in Knightsbridge , Middlesex) was an English mathematician , astronomer and bishop .

Ward came from a poor family and studied at Cambridge University from 1632 . His mathematical talent fell on the first Savilian professor of astronomy John Bainbridge (1582-1643). In 1637 he made his bachelor's degree. In 1640 he became a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and in 1643 Professor (Lecturer) of Mathematics at Cambridge. In the same year he took private mathematics lessons from William Oughtred and then used material from the textbook Clavis Mathematicae by Oughtred in his lectures. Not recognizing the Solemn League and Covenant , he lost his post at Cambridge in 1644. He went to friends in London, visited Oughtred in Albury and was a tutor to the Ralph Freeman family in Aspenden. After the loosening of the validity of the Solemn League and Convenant, he became Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford in 1649. Cromwell had deposed old Savilian Professor John Greaves the year before . Ward lived at Wadham College , where he set up an observatory. He was the first to teach the Copernican system at Oxford .

He was one of the founding members of the Royal Society (1663) and previously a member of one of its predecessor organizations, the Oxford Philosophical Society. Other members were Robert Boyle , John Wilkins (Head of Wadham College), Thomas Willis , Jonathan Goddard , John Wallis , who were also founding members of the Royal Society. Demonstration experiments have also been performed at the Oxford Philosophical Society, and member papers have been collected for publication.

While he was a professor at Oxford University , he published his main works on the theory of planetary motion, in 1653 In Ismaelis Bullialdi astronomiae philolaicae fundamenta inquisitio brevis (in which he encountered attacks by Ismael Boulliau on the Kepler laws of planetary motion) and in 1656 Astronomia geometrica .

He also wrote mathematical works such as Idea trigonometriae demonstratae (1654). In the same year he defended with John Wilkins in Vindiciae Academiarum the university scholars against the accusation of the army chaplain John Webster (Academiarum Examen 1654), to be blindly attached to Aristotelianism and to contribute little to the progress of contemporary science (mathematics and natural science), in contrast to mathematicians like Oughtred, John Napier and Henry Briggs . There was also a dispute with Thomas Hobbes , who attacked mathematics and the universities, in Thomae Hobbii philosophiam exercitation epistolica of 1656, to which Hobbes answered with his Six Lessonts to the Savilian Professor of Mathematics in the same year.

In 1654 he received a degree in theology from Oxford University and in 1657 he was elected President of Jesus College, Oxford, but never took office as Oliver Cromwell preferred another. In 1659 he became President of Trinity College, Oxford, but lost the post after the accession of Charles II. In 1661 he resigned from the office of Savilian Professor (succeeded by Christopher Wren ) and in 1662 became Bishop of Exeter (the post of Dean of Exeter he already had). As a bishop, he was an opponent of the nonconformists and expanded the cathedral. In 1667 he became bishop in Salisbury , where he also restored the cathedral and rebuilt the bishop's palace. He is buried in the cathedral.

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predecessor Office successor
John Gauden Bishop of Exeter
1662–1667 		Anthony Sparrow
Alexander Hyde Bishop of Salisbury
1667–1689 		Gilbert Burnet
personal data
SURNAME Ward, Seth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English mathematician, astronomer and bishop
DATE OF BIRTH March 1617
PLACE OF BIRTH Aspenden , Hertfordshire
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1689
Place of death Knightsbridge, Middlesex