- William Whiston
Infobox Scientist
name = William Whiston
birth_date = birth date|1667|12|09|df=y
birth_place =Norton ,Leicestershire ,England
death_date = death date and age|1752|08|22|1667|12|09|df=y
death_place =Lyndon ,Rutland ,England
nationality =United Kingdom
field =Mathematician andtheologian
work_institutions =University of Cambridge
alma_mater =University of Cambridge
doctoral_advisor =
academic_advisors =Isaac Newton Robert Herne
doctoral_students =
notable_students =James Jurin
known_for = Maps showing direction of Earth's magnetic inclination
influences = David Gregory
influenced =
prizes =William Whiston (
9 December 1667 –22 August 1752 ), was as Englishtheologian ,historian , andmathematician . He is probably best known for his translation of the "Antiquities of the Jews " and other works byJosephus , his "A New Theory of the Earth ", and hisArianism .Biography
Whiston was born to Josiah Whiston and Katherine Rosse at Norton, near
Twycross , inLeicestershire , of which village his father wasrector . He was educated privately, partly on account of the delicacy of his health, and partly that he might act asamanuensis to his father, who had lost his sight. He was studied at Tamworth Grammar School. After his father's death, he entered atClare College, Cambridge as asizar in 1686, where he applied himself to mathematical study, where he was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts (B.A. ) (1690), and M.A. (1693), and was elected Fellow in 1691 and probationary senior Fellow in 1693.William Lloyd ordained Whiston atLichfield in 1693. In 1694, claiming ill health, he resigned his tutorship at Clare to Richard Laughton, chaplain to John Moore (1646-1714), thebishop of Norwich , and swapped positions with him. He now divided his time between Norwich, Cambridge and London. In 1698 Bishop More awarded him the living ofLowestoft where he became Rector. In 1699 he resigned his Fellowship of Clare College and left in order to marry Ruth, daughter of George Antrobus, Whiston's headmaster at Tamworth school.His "A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things" (1696), an articulation of
creationism andflood geology which held that the global flood ofNoah had been caused by acomet , obtained the praise of both Newton and Locke, the latter of whom classed the author among those who, if not adding much to our knowledge, "At least bring some new things to our thoughts." He was an early advocate, along withEdmond Halley , of the periodicity of comets; he also held that comets were responsible for past catastrophes in earth's history. In 1701 he resigned his Rectorship to become Isaac Newton's substitute as Lucasian lecturer at Cambridge, whom he succeeded in 1702. Here he engaged in joint research with his junior colleagueRoger Cotes , appointed with Whiston's patronage to thePlumian professorship in 1706.Arianism
In 1707 he was
Boyle lecturer . For several years Whiston continued to write and preach both on mathematical and theological subjects with considerable success; but his study of theApostolic Constitutions had convinced him thatArianism was the creed of the early church. For Whiston, to form an opinion and to publish it were things almost simultaneous. His heterodoxy soon became notorious, and in 1710 he was deprived of hisprofessor ship and expelled from the university after a well-publicized hearing. The rest of his life was spent in incessant controversy — theological, mathematical, chronological, and miscellaneous. Because of his Arianism, Whiston was never invited to be a member of theRoyal Society , due probably to Newton's feelings about him after he published his unorthodox views. Whiston was permitted, however, to lecture to the Society frequently.He vindicated his estimate of the Apostolical Constitutions and the Arian views he had derived from them in his "Primitive Christianity Revived" (5 vols., 1711-1712). In 1713 he produced a reformed
liturgy , and soon afterwards founded a society for promoting primitive Christianity, lecturing in support of his theories in halls and coffee-houses atLondon , Bath, andRoyal Tunbridge Wells . In 1714, Whiston was instrumental in the establishment of theBoard of Longitude and for the next forty years made persevering efforts to solve the longitude problem. He gave courses of demonstration lectures on astronomical and physical phenomena and engaged in many religious controversies. Whiston produced one of the first isoclinic maps of southern England in 1719 and 1721. One of the most valuable of his books, the "Life ofSamuel Clarke ", appeared in 1730.While considered heretical on many points, he was a firm believer in supernatural
Christianity , and frequently took the field in defense ofprophecy andmiracle , includinganoint ing the sick and touching for theking's evil . His dislike ofrationalism in religion also made him one of the numerous opponents ofBenjamin Hoadly 's "Plain Account of the Nature and End of the Sacrament". He held thatSong of Solomon wasapocrypha l and that theBook of Baruch was not. He was fervent in his views of ecclesiastical government and discipline, derived from the Apostolical Constitutions, on the ecclesiastical authorities. He challenged the teachings ofAthanasius . He challenged Sir Isaac Newton's Biblical chronological system with success; but he himself lost not only time but money in an endeavour to solve the problem oflongitude . In 1736 he caused widespread anxiety among London's citizen when he predicted the world would end on October 16th of that year because acomet would hit the earth; theArchbishop of Canterbury ,William Wake , had to officially deny this prediction to ease the public.Of all his singular opinions the best known is his advocacy of clerical
monogamy , immortalized in "The Vicar of Wakefield ". Of all his labours the most useful is his translation of the works ofJosephus (1737), with notes and dissertations, still often reprinted to the present day. His last "famous discovery, or rather revival of DrGiles Fletcher, the Elder 's," which he mentions in his autobiography with infinite complacency, was the identification of theTatars with thelost tribes of Israel . In 1745 he published his "Primitive New Testament". About the same time (1747) he finally left theAnglican communion for theBaptist , leaving the church literally as well as figuratively by quitting it as the clergyman began to read the Athanasian creed. He had a happy family life and died in Lyndon Hall,Rutland , at the home of his son-in-law, Samuel Barker on22 August 1752 . He was survived by his children Sarah, William, George, and John. Whiston left a memoir (3 vols., 1749-1750) which deserves more attention than it has received, both for its characteristic individuality and as a storehouse of curious anecdotes and illustrations of the religious and moral tendencies of the age. It does not, however, contain any account of the proceedings taken against him at Cambridge for hisantitrinitarianism , these having been published separately at the time.Bibliography
* [http://www.lucasianchair.org/bibliographies/whiston-bibB.html Bibliography for William Whiston] at the LucasianChair.org the homepage of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at
Cambridge University
*ee also
* "
A New Theory of the Earth "
* Lucasian Professor
*Arianism
*Isaac Newton
*Noah's Flood
*Catastrophism
*Biblical prophecy
*Dorsa Whiston , named after himReferences
*cite book | first = Maureen | last = Farrell | year = 1981 | title = William Whiston | publisher = Arno Press | location = New York
*cite book | first = James E. | last = Force | year = 2002 | title = William Whiston: Honest Newtonian | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = CambridgeExternal links
* [http://www.lucasianchair.org/18/whiston.html Biography of William Whiston] at the LucasianChair.org, the homepage of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at
Cambridge University
* [http://www.lucasianchair.org/bibliographies/whiston-bibB.html Bibliography for William Whiston] at the LucasianChair.org the homepage of the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge University
* [http://www.varchive.org/itb/ecwhist.htm "William Whiston and the Deluge"] byImmanuel Velikovsky
* [http://www.stanford.edu/~meehan/donnelly/whiston.html "Whiston's Flood"]
* [http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/aug/22.htm Whiston biography at "Chambers' Book of Days"]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/466/000107145/ Whiston biography at NNDB]
* [http://www.preteristarchive.com/StudyArchive/w/whiston-william_josephus.html Some of Whiston's views on biblical prophecy]
* [http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol31/jakapi.pdf "William Whiston, The Universal Deluge, and a Terrible Specracle" by Roomet Jakapi]
* [http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14549070 "Fitting geomagnetic fields before the invention of least squares" by William Whiston]
* [http://www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk/texts/viewtext.php?id=OTHE00037&mode=normalized "Collection of Authentick Records" by Whiston at the Newton Project]
* [http://www.lyndon-estate.co.uk/04%20History/Historical%20Figures/WilliamWhiston/William%20Whiston%20Abstract.htm William Whiston, 1667-1752]
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp04796 Collection of William Whiston portraits] at England's National Portrait Gallery
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Whiston.html Whiston's MacTutor Biography]
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