Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope, FRS (15 August 1714 – 7 March 1786) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

peer. The son of

James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope (1673 – 5 February 1721) was a British army officer and Whig politician who effectively served as Chief Minister between 1717 and 1721. He was also the last Chancellor of the Exchequer to sit in the House o ...

, and Lucy Pitt, he succeeded to his father's titles in 1721. He was a 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 ...

from 1735, and had a lifelong interest in mathematics. He was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1774. He privileged the pursuit of science and mathematics over politics and became close to prominent natural philosophers such as

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...

and

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

. As a patron of various mathematicians, he came into contact with

Thomas Bayes Thomas Bayes ( , ; 7 April 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher and Presbyterian minister who is known for formulating a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem. Bayes never published what would become his m ...

, one of the founders of

Bayesian inference Bayesian inference ( or ) is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to calculate a probability of a hypothesis, given prior evidence, and update it as more information becomes available. Fundamentally, Bayesian infer ...

. On 25 July 1745, he married Grizel Hamilton, daughter of

Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning (1697 – 27 December 1732), was a Scotland, Scottish nobleman, politician and poet. Life The son of Thomas Hamilton, 6th Earl of Haddington, and Helen Hope, he used the courtesy title Lord Binning from birth. Lor ...

. They had two sons: *Philip Stanhope, Viscount Mahon (24 June 1746 – 6 July 1763). * Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (3 August 1753 – 15 December 1816).''The Register of Births & Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster Vol. IV. 1741–1760''. 29 August 1753.

References

* * Sharon McGrayne ''The Theory That Would Not Die'' (Yale 2011) Ch 1. 1714 births 1786 deaths Earls Stanhope Fellows of the Royal Society

Philip Philip, also Phillip, is a male name derived from the Macedonian Old Koine language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominen ...

{{GB-earl-stub International members of the American Philosophical Society