Richard Norwood (1590? – 1675) was an English

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, diver, and

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

. He has been called "Bermuda’s outstanding genius of the seventeenth century".

Life

Born about 1590, he was in 1616 sent out by the

Somers Isles Company The Somers Isles Company (fully, the Company of the City of London for the Plantacion of The Somers Isles or the Company of The Somers Isles) was formed in 1615 to operate the English colony of the Somers Isles, also known as Bermuda, as a commer ...

to survey the islands of

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(also known as the Somers Isles), then newly settled. He was later accused of collusion with the governor, and that, after assigning the shares to all the settlers, eight shares of the best land remained over, for the personal advantage of himself and the governor. His map was published in London in 1622. In 1623, Norwood patented lands in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, but it does not appear that he ever went there. He is said to have resided at that date in the Bermudas. He may have made several visits to the islands, but according to his own statements he was, for some years before 1630 and after, up to 1640, resident in London, near

Tower Hill Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher grou ...

, as a teacher of mathematics. He is also credited with founding Bermuda's oldest school,

Warwick Academy Warwick Academy is the oldest school in Bermuda, established in about 1659. It is located in Warwick Parish. It was named after the English colonial administrator Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, who gave the original land. Its first Schoolmas ...

, in 1662. Between June 1633 and June 1635 he personally measured, partly by chain and partly by pacing, the distance between London and York, making corrections for all the windings of the way, as well as for the ascents and descents. He also, from observations of the sun's altitude, computed the difference of

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

of the two places, and so calculated the length of a degree of the

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

(

arc measurement Arc measurement, sometimes degree measurement (german: Gradmessung), is the astrogeodetic technique of determining of the radius of Earth – more specifically, the local Earth radius of curvature of the figure of the Earth – by relating the ...

). His result was some 600 yards too great; but it was the nearest approximation that had then been made in England.

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 ...

noted Norwood's work in his ''

Principia Mathematica The ''Principia Mathematica'' (often abbreviated ''PM'') is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by mathematician–philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1913. ...

''. During the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

he seems to have resided in Bermuda, where he had a government grant as schoolmaster. In 1662, he conducted a second survey there. Norwood was in England in 1667, probably only on a visit. He died at Bermuda in October 1675, aged about eighty-five, and was buried there.

Works

His published works are: * '' Trigonometrie, or the Doctrine of Triangles'', 1631. * ''The Seaman's Practice'', 1637. Published London. * ''Fortification, or Architecture Military'', 1639. * ''Truth gloriously appearing'', 1645. * ''Considerations tending to remove the Present Differences'', 1646. * ''Norwood's Epitomy, being the Application of the Doctrine of Triangles'', 1667.

Family

In 1622 Norwood married, in London, Rachel, daughter of Francis Boughton of

Sandwich, Kent Sandwich is a town and civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, south-east England. It lies on the River Stour and has a population of 4,985. Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including sev ...

. He had a son Matthew, who in 1672–4 commanded a ship carrying stores to Bermuda.

Notes and references

;Attribution * *Richard Norwood, ''The Journal of Richard Norwood, 1639-1640, Surveyor of Bermuda'', 1945, ed. Wesley Frank Craven and Walter B. Hayward, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, .

External links

Account of Norwood’s connections with Bermuda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norwood, Richard 1590s births 1675 deaths 17th-century English mathematicians History of Bermuda