Edmund Wingate (1596–1656) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
mathematical and legal writer, one of the first to publish in the 1620s on the principle of the
slide rule
The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...
, and later the author of some popular expository works. He was also a Member of Parliament during the
Interregnum
An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...
.
Life
The second son of Roger Wingate of
Sharpenhoe in
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
and of his wife Jane, daughter of Henry Birch, he was born at
Flamborough
Flamborough is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Bridlington town centre on the prominent coastal feature of Flamborough Head.
The most prominent man-made feature o ...
in Yorkshire in 1596 and baptised there on 11 June. He matriculated from
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...
, on 12 October 1610, graduated B.A. on 30 June 1614, and was admitted to
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
on 24 May.
Before 1624 he went to Paris, where he became teacher of the English language to the Princess
Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...
. He had learned in England the "rule of proportion" (
logarithmic scale
A logarithmic scale (or log scale) is a way of displaying numerical data over a very wide range of values in a compact way—typically the largest numbers in the data are hundreds or even thousands of times larger than the smallest numbers. Such a ...
) recently invented by
Edmund Gunter
Edmund Gunter (158110 December 1626), was an English clergyman, mathematician, geometer and astronomer of Welsh descent. He is best remembered for his mathematical contributions which include the invention of the Gunter's chain, the Gunter's q ...
which he communicated to mathematicians in Paris. He rushed into print to obtain priority, an advocate in Dijon to whom he had shown the rule in a friendly manner having already begun to make some public use of it.
He was in England on the breaking out of the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
, sided with the parliament, took the
solemn League and Covenant
The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1 ...
, and was made
justice of the peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...
for Bedfordshire. He was then residing at
Woodend in the parish of
Harlington. In 1650 he took the
engagement
An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...
, became intimate with
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
, and one of the commissioners for the ejection of ignorant and scandalous ministers. He represented
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
in the parliament of 1654–5. He died in Gray's Inn Lane, and was buried in St. Andrew's, Holborn, on 13 December 1656. He left no will. Administration was granted to his son, Button Wingate, on 28 January 1657.
Works
His publications, which were numerous, include:
*''L'usage de la règle de proportion en arithmétique'', Paris, 1624; in English as ''The Use of the Rule of Proportion'', London, 1626, 1628, 1645, 1658, 1683 (rectified by Brown and Atkinson).
*''Arithmetique Logarithmetique'', Paris, 1626. In English as ''Logarithmotechnia, or the Construction and Use of the Logarithmeticall Tables'', London, 1635 (compiled from
Henry Briggs Henry Briggs may refer to:
*Henry Briggs (mathematician) (1561–1630), English mathematician
*Henry Perronet Briggs (1793–1844), English painter
*Henry George Briggs (1824–1872), English merchant, traveller, and orientalist
*Henry Shaw Briggs ...
).
*''The Construction and Use of the Line of Proportion'', London, 1628.
*''Of Natural and Artificiall Arithmetique'', London, 1630, 2 parts. Part i. had been designed "onely as a key to open the secrets of the other, which treats of artificial arithmetique performed by logarithms", and had therefore not been made sufficiently complete to stand alone as a textbook of elementary arithmetic. This defect was remedied by
John Kersey the elder
John Kersey the elder (1616–1677) was an English mathematician, as well as a textbook writer.
Life
He was son of Anthony Carsaye or Kersey and Alice Fenimore, and was baptised at Bodicote, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, on 23 November 1616. He ...
under the eye of Wingate, and a second edition appeared in 1650 as ''Arithmetique made easie''. Wingate himself re-edited part ii., which was published in 1652 as ''Arithmetique made easie. The second book.'' The first book ran through many editions, the expression ''natural arithmetic'' being discarded for that of ''common arithmetic'', London, 1658, 1673 (6th ed.); 1678 (7th ed.); 1683 (8th ed. and the last edited by Kersey the elder); 1699 (10th ed. edited by Kersey the younger); 1704 (11th ed. with new supplement by
George Shelley); 1708, 1713, 1720, 1753 (edited by
James Dodson), and 1760.
*''Statuta Pacis: or a Perfect Table of all the Statutes (now in force) which any way concern the office of a Justice of the Peace'', London, 1641, 1644 (under the initials ''E. W.'').
*''An Exact Abridgment of all the Statutes in force and use from the beginning of Magna Carta'', London, 1642, 1655, 1663 (continued by William Hughes), 1670, 1675, 1680, 1681, 1684, 1694, 1703, 1704, 1708.
*''Justice Revived: being the whole office of a country Justice of the Peace'', London, 1644, 1661 (under initials ''E. W.'').
*''Ludus Mathematicus'', London, 1654, 1681. The book is the description of an obscure logarithmic instrument (under initials ''E. W.'').
*''The Body of the Common Law of England'', London, 1655 (2nd ed.), 1658, 1662, 1670, 1678.
*''The Use of a Gauge-rod'', London, 1658.
*''Maximes of Reason'', London, 1658.
*''Mathematische Calculatie'' by
Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierop
Dirck Rembrantsz van Nierop (1610 – 4 November 1682) was a seventeenth-century Dutch cartographer, mathematician, surveyor, astronomer, shoemaker and Mennonite teacher.
Life
Van Nierop was born and died at Nieuwe Niedorp ("Nierop"), Holland ...
and Edmund Wingate (French translation), Amsterdam, 1659.
*''The Clarks Tutor for Arithmetick and Writing ... being the remains of Edmund Wingate'', London, 1671, 1676.
*''The Exact Constable with his Original and Power in the Office of Churchwardens'', London, 1660 (2nd ed.), 1682 (6th ed.) (under initials ''E. W.'').
In 1640 he published an edition of ''
Britton''.
In this he made corrections from some better manuscript than that used in the 1530 publication, but placed them in an appendix, reprinting the text in its corrupt form. He supplied an entire chapter (lib. iv. chap. 5) which had previously been omitted, placing it also in the appendix. He also edited the works of
Samuel Foster
Samuel Foster ( 1600 – July 1652) was an English mathematician and astronomer. He made several observations of eclipses, both of the sun and moon, at Gresham College and in other places; and he was known particularly for inventing and improvi ...
, and
Anthony Wood assigns to him a work entitled ''Tactometria ... or the Geometry of Regulars'', which might be a republication of John Wyberd's book, which appeared under the same title in 1650.
Family
Wingate married, on 28 July 1628, at
Maulden
Maulden is a village and civil parish located in the county of Bedfordshire. The village is located 1.5 miles east of Ampthill and about south of Bedford. It has about 1,250 homes and 3130 residents.
Maulden is referred to in the Domesday Book ...
, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Richard Button of Canons Manor,
Wootton in Bedfordshire,
by whom he had five sons and two daughters.
References
*
History of the Wingate Family in England and America.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wingate, Edmund
1596 births
1656 deaths
17th-century English mathematicians
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
English MPs 1654–1655
Members of Gray's Inn