Jonathan Cape FRS (1793 – 9 September 1868) was a mathematician and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

clergyman.

Life

Cape was born in 1793 in Uldale, Cumberland (now

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

), the eldest son of the Rev. Joseph Cape (d. 1830). He was admitted to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, in 1812 as a

sizar At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined jo ...

, graduating with a BA in 1816 (5th Wrangler) and MA in 1821. 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 ...

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

in 1816 by the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

(acting for the Bishop of Winchester), and priest by the Bishop of Salisbury in 1818. He was appointed Assistant Professor at the

Royal Naval Academy The Royal Naval Academy was a facility established in 1733 in Portsmouth Dockyard to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardised training, educa ...

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(a post which he held with the

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

of St George's, Portsea) in 1816, before being appointed in 1822 Senior Professor of Mathematics at

Addiscombe College The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, Surrey. He held this post until the closure of the College in 1861. Vibart's detailed history of Addiscombe contains anecdotal material about Cape, commenting that he was "the most remarkable member of the staff of the College during the whole course of its existence ... He was Addiscombe ... from its commencement until its end 40 years later".Vibart: ''Addiscombe, its heroes and men of note'' (1894) Cape was noted for his dry, sarcastic wit, and for his strong Northumbrian accent, as well as being "an excellent teacher and disciplinarian, with a keen sense of humour". He was appointed Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1852 for his mathematical publications. He retired on a very substantial pension, and died – a convivial bachelor – at Croydon on 9 September 1868 aged 75, leaving £12,000.

Notes and references

Publications

*''Mathematical tables'' ... (Croydon,1838; 3rd edition London, 1860). *''A course of mathematics principally designed for the use of students in the East India Company's seminary at Addiscombe''. (London, 1850). 2 volumes.

References

* * Boase, F., 1892/1965: ''Modern English Biography'', volume 1, p 539 * Venn, J.A., 1940/2001: ''Alumni Cantabrigiensis''. Part Two, volume 1, p 507 * Vibart, H.M., 1894: ''Addiscombe, its heroes and men of note'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Cape, Jonathan 1793 births 1868 deaths English mathematicians People from Cumberland Burials in Surrey Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 19th-century English Anglican priests