Jane Squire (bap. 1686 – 1743) was an English mathematician who was the only known woman to have participated openly in the 18th-century debates and discussions over the solution to finding longitude at sea. She was one of only two (the other being Elizabeth Johnson) who submitted schemes with the aim of receiving a reward under the 1714

Longitude Act The Longitude Act 1714 was an Act of Parliament of Great Britain passed in July 1714 at the end of the reign of Queen Anne. It established the Board of Longitude and offered monetary rewards (Longitude rewards) for anyone who could find a simple ...

Life and career

Squire was born in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and baptised in 1686 and died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1743. Her parents, Priscilla and Robert Squire, were wealthy and influential. Squire moved to London in 1720 where, although involved in litigation and imprisoned for debt for three years, she used her influential connections to pursue her religiously-based longitude project and the circulation of her book, ''A Proposal to Determine our Longitude'' (two editions, 1742 and 1743) She also sent copies to Rome in the hope of gaining the support of

Pope Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758.Antipope ...

. Squire was never married. She was determined to have her ideas heard, despite being a woman. She included in her book a letter that she wrote to Sir Thomas Hanmer in 1733 in which she stated, "‘I do not remember any Play-thing, that does not appear to me a mathematical Instrument; nor any mathematical Instrument, that does not appear to me a Play-thing: I see not, therefore, why I should confine myself to Needles, Cards, and Dice". Hanmer was one of the original Commissioners appointed by the 1714

and his response, also printed in Squire's book, indicated that "‘that you are to expect to lye under some Prejudice upon account of your Sex". Although her project was impractical, she gained the ear of a number of influential individuals, including

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

and

Abraham de Moivre Abraham de Moivre FRS (; 26 May 166727 November 1754) was a French mathematician known for de Moivre's formula, a formula that links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory. He moved ...

. She remained convinced to the end that she deserved a reward for her work. An obituary in the Daily Post referred to her as “a Lady excellently well vers’d in Astronomy, Philosophy, and most Parts of polite Literature”.

Longitude proposal

Squire's proposals to determine longitude at sea drew on contemporary astronomy and other learned traditions, as well as heavily depending on her religious world view. Her books outlined a scheme that involved dividing the heavens into more than a million segments as well as a

sidereal clock Sidereal time (as a unit also sidereal day or sidereal rotation period) (sidereal ) is a timekeeping system that astronomers use to locate celestial objects. Using sidereal time, it is possible to easily point a telescope to the proper coord ...

fixed to the position of the

Star of Bethlehem The Star of Bethlehem, or Christmas Star, appears in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 where "wise men from the East" (Magi) are inspired by the star to travel to Jerusalem. There, they meet King Herod of Judea, and ask him: ...

at the

birth of Jesus The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Jesus or birth of Christ is described in the biblical gospels of Luke and Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea, his mother Mary was engaged to a man na ...

. Similarly religiously motivated searches were "not uncommon" at the time. The clock was intended to announce the time from church steeples, and she also discussed the use of marine buoys (described as artificial sea creatures) to aid mapping. When

received Squire's communication he asked the Bologna Academy of Sciences to assess it. Their response was not positive, although they did indicate that women should be encouraged to study mathematical sciences. Squire's work was not considered within any of the minuted meetings of the British

Board of Longitude The Commissioners for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea, or more popularly Board of Longitude, was a British government body formed in 1714 to administer a scheme of prizes intended to encourage innovators to solve the problem of finding lon ...

and it has in the 20th century been dismissed as one of the many "nutty solutions" circulating at the time. More recently, scholars have started to take her contribution, and the responses of her contemporaries, more seriously in order to better understand the scientific and religious cultures of the period, and the importance of gender and social class in gaining a voice in debates.

Life and career

Longitude proposal

References

See also