John Howard (1753–1799), was a

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and

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who as a

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worked on the

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...

of the

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Biography

Howard was born in the Fort George garrison, near Inverness, in 1753. He was the son of Ralph Howard, a

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in the

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, and he was brought up by relations in Carlisle. After being

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to an uncle as a

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-cutter at the age of thirteen, he worked as a

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, carpenter and flax-dresser. After developing interests in reading and mathematics, he opened a school near Carlisle. Under the patronage of

Edmund Law Edmund Law (6 June 1703 – 14 August 1787) was a priest in the Church of England. He served as Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, as Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge from 1764 to 1769, and as bishop of Carlisl ...

, Bishop of Carlisle, he was appointed

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at the

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. A love affair forced him to abandon a plan to become a

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of the

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, and instead when the bishop's son

John Law John Law may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Law (artist) (born 1958), American artist * John Law (comics), comic-book character created by Will Eisner * John Law (film director), Hong Kong film director * John Law (musician) (born 1961) ...

was appointed bishop of Clonfert in 1782 Howard became his steward. In 1786, Howard lost his job and had to return to Carlisle after "an unfortunate marriage".R. E. Anderson, ‘Howard, John (1753–1799)’, rev. Ruth Wallis, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 11 May 2010
/ref> Loss of the stewardship forced him to resume teaching until 1794, when he moved to

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. There, he rented the school-house built by Dr Charles Hutton and gained a position as instructor. 1798 saw the appearance of his long-projected ''Treatise on Spherical Geometry'', after which his health rapidly declined. He died on 26 March 1799, aged 46, near Newcastle, and was buried in St John's churchyard. The epitaph on Howard's tombstone records many other ingenious mathematical and poetical pieces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, John Heads of schools in England Scottish mathematicians People from Inverness 1799 deaths 1753 births