The Spitalfields Mathematical Society was founded in 1717 by Joseph Middleton. The society had 64 members when it was established, and at first meetings were held in the Monmouth's Head, a public house in the

Spitalfields Spitalfields is a district in the East End of London and within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area is formed around Commercial Street (on the A1202 London Inner Ring Road) and includes the locale around Brick Lane, Christ Church, ...

district of London. Fellows of the society were drawn from artisans and craftsmen such as weavers, apothecaries, brewers, ironmongers, stockbrokers, and makers of optical and mathematical instruments. Well-known members included

John Canton John Canton FRS (31 July 1718 – 22 March 1772) was a British physicist. He was born in Middle Street Stroud, Gloucestershire, to a weaver, John Canton (b. 1687) and Esther (née Davis). As a schoolboy, he became the first person to deter ...

John Dollond John Dollond FRS (10 June O.S. (21 June N.S.) 170630 November 1761) was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets. Biography Dollond was the son of a Hugue ...

Thomas Simpson Thomas Simpson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (20 August 1710 – 14 May 1761) was a British mathematician and inventor known for the :wikt:eponym, eponymous Simpson's rule to approximate definite integrals. The attribution, as often in mathe ...

, John Crosley, John Tatum,

Francis Baily Francis Baily (28 April 177430 August 1844) was an English astronomer. He is most famous for his observations of "Baily's beads" during a total eclipse of the Sun. Baily was also a major figure in the early history of the Royal Astronomical S ...

, and

Benjamin Gompertz Benjamin Gompertz (5 March 1779 – 14 July 1865) was a British self-educated mathematician and actuary, who became a Fellow of the Royal Society. Gompertz is now best known for his Gompertz law of mortality, a demographic model published in 1 ...

. It merged with the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

in 1846. The name lives on in the "Spitalfields Days" organised by, among others, the

Isaac Newton Institute The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and its many applications at the University of Cambridge. It is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathema ...

, Cambridge, Mathematics Research Centre, Warwick, and

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences The International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) is a mathematical research centre based in Edinburgh. According to its website, the centre is "designed to bring together mathematicians and practitioners in science, industry and commerce ...

, Edinburgh.

References

* http://www.mernick.org.uk/thhol/mathematical.html * http://technicaleducationmatters.org/2009/05/14/the-spitalfields-mathematical-society-1717-to-1846/ * Cawthorne. H.H. ‘The Spitalfields Mathematical Society’. (1717 – 1845). Journal of Adult Education. Vol. 111. No. 2. (April 1929). Cassels. * J.W.S. ‘The Spitalfields Mathematical Society’ Bulletin of LMS. 11 p. 241 – 258. 1979. {{authority control Mathematical societies 1717 establishments in England Defunct learned societies of the United Kingdom 1846 disestablishments in England Royal Astronomical Society Spitalfields