The Venerable
The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism.
Christianity
Cathol ...
Edward Davenant or D’Avenant,
DD (1596–1679) was an English churchman and academic,
Archdeacon of Berkshire
The Archdeacon of Berkshire (also rendered Archdeacon of Berks) is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England Diocese of Oxford. The archdeacon is the head of the archdeaconry of Berkshire, a post historically found within the diocese ...
from 1631 to 1634, known also as a mathematician.
Life
He was the son of Edward Davenant and nephew of
John Davenant
John Davenant (20 May 1572, in London – 20 April 1641, in Salisbury) was an English academic and bishop of Salisbury from 1621. He also served as one of the English delegates to the Synod of Dort.
Life
He was educated at Queens' College, Ca ...
. ''
Brief Lives
''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century.
Writing
Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who ...
'' describes the elder Edward Davenant as a learned London merchant, involved in the
pilchard
"Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the ...
trade. Edward Davenant the younger was
baptised
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
at
All Hallows, Bread Street on 25 April 1596 and educated at
Merchant Taylors's School.
Davenant then went to
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...
, graduating B.A. in 1613, and M.A. in 1617. He was
incorporated at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
on 13 July 1619. He accompanied his uncle John to the
Synod of Dort
The Synod of Dort (also known as the Synod of Dordt or the Synod of Dordrecht) was an international Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618–1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy caused by the rise of Arminianism. The fi ...
in 1618, and kept a diary. He was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
in 1621. From 1615 to 1625 he was a Fellow of Queens', graduating B.D. in 1624. In 1629 he graduated D.D.
In the aftermath of the Synod, John Davenant gave Cambridge lectures, significant for
hypothetical universalism Hypothetical universalism is the belief that Christ died in some sense for every person, but his death effected salvation only for those who were predestined for salvation. In the history of Reformed theology, there have been several examples of h ...
. They were published only in 1650, the delay being for political reasons; this came about because Edward Davenant sent them to
James Ussher
James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his ident ...
, who had
Thomas Bedford, another Queens' graduate, edit them (in Latin).
Davenant held
incumbencies at
Poulshot
Poulshot (pronounced Pole-shot) is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. Its nearest town is Devizes, about to the northeast. The parish includes the hamlet of Townsend.
The A361 Trowbridge-Devizes road forms part of the northern b ...
,
North Moreton
North Moreton is a village and civil parish about east of Didcot. It was part of Wallingford Rural District in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to the new South Oxfordshire District of Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census re ...
and
Gillingham, Dorset
Gillingham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It lies on the B3095 and B3081 roads, approximately south of the A303 road, A303 trunk road and northwest of Shaftesbury. It is the most northerly town i ...
. He was
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
of
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The buildi ...
from 1634.
At Gillingham, he pursued mathematical researches, and took pupils, who included
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, ...
.
Aubrey recorded that Davenant was unwilling to publish on mathematics, preferring to keep his interest private. His algebra problems for his daughter Anne have survived in Aubrey's copy. Aubrey later took these problems to
John Pell, for solution and commentary. What Davenant preferred was to circulate portions of his work in manuscript.
According to
John Walker in ''Sufferings of the Clergy'', Davenant suffered sequestration at Gillingham during 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 ...
, when his family numbered seven sons and five daughters, being replaced by Thomas Andrews.
Writing to Ussher in 1646, during these troubles, Davenant introduced mathematical topics.
Davenant died on 17 March 1679. A memorial slate is in his parish church at Gillingham.
Works
Davenant proposed mathematical problems as challenges. One, on approximation to rational numbers by rationals with bounded denominator, was taken up by
John Wallis
John Wallis (; la, Wallisius; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal ...
. It led to the development of the theory of
continued fraction
In mathematics, a continued fraction is an expression (mathematics), expression obtained through an iterative process of representing a number as the sum of its integer part and the multiplicative inverse, reciprocal of another number, then writ ...
s.
John Collins in 1676 named the special case, of rational approximations to π, after Davenant; and Wallis praised him.
Jackie Stedall
Jacqueline Anne "Jackie" Stedall (4 August 1950 – 27 September 2014) was a British mathematics historian. She wrote nine books, and appeared on radio on BBC Radio 4's '' In Our Time'' programme.
Early life
Stedall was born in Romford, Esse ...
suggests, however, that Wallis was more concerned with misdirection, resisting the attribution of earlier work in the field to
John Pell. Another usage of "Dr. Davenant's problem" was to an unrelated question in
elimination theory
Elimination may refer to:
Science and medicine
*Elimination reaction, an organic reaction in which two functional groups split to form an organic product
*Bodily waste elimination, discharging feces, urine, or foreign substances from the body ...
. This latter problem was addressed by
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
using power series, and is documented in correspondence.
Family
Davenant's wife's name is given as Catherine. Their daughter Katherine married
Thomas Lamplugh
Thomas Lamplugh (1615 – 5 May 1691) was an English churchman who became Archbishop of York.
Life
He was the son of Christopher Lamplugh of Thwing, East Riding of Yorkshire, Yorkshire and his wife Anne, daughter and coheir of Thomas Roper of ...
in 1663. He had two sons, Ralph and John, and another daughter, Anne; she married
Anthony Ettrick
Anthony Ettrick (15 November 1622 – 5 October 1703) was an English politician.
Personal life
His son William Ettrick replaced him in Parliament.
References
1622 births
1703 deaths
17th-century English politicians
English MPs 1685â ...
, Member of Parliament for .
historyofparliamentonline.org, ''Ettrick, Anthony (1622–1703), of the Middle Temple and Holt Lodge, Dorset''.
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:DAvenant, Edward
1596 births
17th-century English mathematicians
People from the City of London
Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Archdeacons of Berkshire
1679 deaths