Born: 17 Nov 1597 in London, England Died: 16 Feb 1636 in London, England
Henry Gellibrand entered Trinity College, Oxford in 1615 where he was introduced to mathematics by Savile. He received a B.A. from Trinity College in 1619 and an M.A. in 1623. He became a friend of Briggs while in Oxford.
He entered the church becoming a curate in Chiddingstone, Kent a couple of years after receiving his M.A. from Oxford.
Gellibrand succeeded Gunter to the chair of astronomy in Gresham College, London in 1627. It was largely through the influence of Briggs that he received this chair.
Gellibrand's most famous scientific discovery was the change over the years in magnetic declination. He also made mathematical contributions to navigation, in particular working on methods to determine longitude. His methods were based on observing various celestial events and were published in Appendix concerning Longitude (1633).
Gellibrand also published logarithm and trigonometrical tables. After his friend Briggs died in 1630, he worked to complete Briggs' Trigonometria Britannica which he did, publishing the work in 1633.
Several of Gellibrand's publications appeared after he died. Institution Trigonometrical (1638) with an expanded version in 1658, applied trigonometry to navigation and astronomy. Epitome of Navigation first appeared 62 years after his death; a rather remarkable length of time.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Gellibrand, Henry
Catalog of the Scientific Community
Gellibrand, Henry
Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email
on genealogical questions.
1. Dates
Born: London, 17 Nov. 1597
Died: London, 16 Feb. 1636
Dateinfo: Dates Certain
Lifespan: 39
2. Father
Occupation: Physician
Henry Gellibrand was a graduate of Oxford and for a time a fellow of All
Souls. After 1602 he was a physician in Maidstone, Kent. The father died in
1615.
I always assume that physicians were affluent at least. In fact the father
left a considerable estate; our Henry was his sole heir. However, a reference
below to Henry's small patrimony (which could have been in error, to be sure)
leads me to list the family circumstances merely as affluent. It is surely
relevant that Gellibrand entered Oxford as a commoner.
3. Nationality
Birth: English
Career: English
Death: English
4. Education
Schooling: Oxford, M.A.
Oxford University, Trinity College, 1615-23. B.A., 1619. M.A., 1623.
5. Religion
Affiliation: Calvinist
Gellibrand was in holy orders; he held a curacy in Kent before 1623. In 1631,
when he published an almanac with definite Puritan hues, Laud attempted to
prosecute him.
6. Scientific Disciplines
Primary: Navigation, Magnetism
Subordinate: Mathematics, Astronomy
Gellibrand discovered the secular change in magnetic declination.
He attempted to solve the problem of longitude. His "Appendix concerning
Longitude" in Thomas James, Strange and Dangerous Voyage, 1633, attempted to
draw on observable celestial events as a means to establish longitude. His
Epitome of Navigation appeared in 1698, long after his death.
Gellibrand completed Briggs' Trigonometria britannica, 1633.
Institution Trigonometrical, 1638, a text. In 1652 (posthumous) a longer work
of tthe same name in Latin, with applications to navigation and astronomy, a
work much used in its English translation.
He composed "Astronomia lunaris," which survived in manuscript.
He is reported to have written a Treatise of Building of Ships.
7. Means of Support
Primary: Personal Means, Academia
Secondary: Church Life
Temporary curacy at Chiddingstone, Kent, 1620s.
It is said that Gellibrand settled in Oxford as a young man (by inference
after his M.A.) and became there a friend of Henry Briggs. The
information on how he supported himself in this period. However, the letter
from Trinity College, supporting his nomination to be Gresham Professor, spoke
of his being satisfied with his small patrimony (I now have doubt that the
patrimony was small) in order that the pursuit of preferment not interefere
with his studies.
Professor of astronomy at Gresham College, 1626-36.
8. Patronage
Type: Scientist
Owed the professorship to Henry Briggs.
9. Technological Involvement
Type: Navigation
Applied mathematics in navigation.
10. Scientific Societies
Memberships: None
Informal Connections: A close friend of Henry Briggs; he completed Briggs'
unfinished Trigonometria Britannica and published it in 1633.
Sources
Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press,
1949-1950), 7, 996-7. Biographia Britannica, 1st ed. (London, 1747-66), 4,
2188-91.
John Ward, The Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, facsimile ed.
(New York, 1967), pp. 81-5, 336.
Anthony Ó Wood, Athenae oxonienses (Fasti oxonienses is attached, with
separate pagination, to the Athenae), 4 vols. (London, 1813-20), 2, 622-3.
John H. Raach, "Five Early 17th-Century English Country Physicians," Journal
of Medical History, 20 (1965), 213-25.
Compiled by:
Richard S. Westfall
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Indiana University
Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email
on genealogical questions.
***************************************************************************************************************** galileo@@rice.edu
Copyright ®1995 Albert Van Helden
Gellibrand Henry Gellibrand
Born: 17 Nov 1597 in Aldersgate, London, England
Died: 16 Feb 1637 in London, England
Henry Gellibrand's father was also named Henry Gellibrand. Henry Gellibrand
senior was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Henry, the subject of this
biography, was his eldest son. He entered Trinity College, Oxford on 22 March
1616, in the year after his father died, and at Trinity he was introduced to
mathematics by Savile. He received a B.A. from Trinity College in 1619 and an
M.A. in 1623. He became a friend of Briggs while in Oxford.
He entered the church becoming a curate in Chiddingstone, Kent, a couple of
years after receiving his M.A. from Oxford. Gellibrand succeeded Gunter to the
chair of astronomy in Gresham College, London in 1627. It was largely through
the influence of Briggs that he received this chair. However he was involved in
a religious controversy which led to a court case [2]:-
Gellibrand held puritan meetings in his rooms, and encouraged his servant,
William Beale, to publish an almanac for 1631, in which the Catholic saints
were superseded by those in Foxe's book of martyrs. Laud, then bishop of
London, brought them both into the high commission court. They were acquitted
on the ground that similar almanacs had been printed before, and th
prosecution was used against Laud at his own trial in 1643.
Gellibrand's most famous scientific discovery was the change over the years in
magnetic declination. He achieved this by comparing measurement he took in
Deptford with similar ones taken by Gunter twelve years earlier. Gellibrand
published his findings in A discourse mathematical of the variation of the
magneticall needle together with its admirable diminution lately discovered
(1635).
He also made mathematical contributions to navigation, in particular working on
methods to determine longitude. His methods were based on observing various
celestial events and in particular he arranged with Captain Thomas James that
they would simultaneously observe the eclipse of the moon on 29 October 1831.
James was the leader of an expedition to try to find the north-west passage and
at the time of the eclipse was on Charlton Island in James Bay, Canada.
Gellibrand, on the other hand, was observing in Gresham College. The ti
difference allowed Gellibrand to compute the difference in longitude between the
two points of observation and he published the results in Appendix concerning
Longitude (1633). Gellibrand also published logarithm and trigonometric
tables. After his friend Briggs died in 1630, he worked to complete Briggs'
Trigonometria Britannica which he did, publishing the work in 1633.
Although only 39 years of age, Gellibrand retired in 1836 to Mayfield in Sussex.
He died of a fever at age 39 but several of his publications were published
after he died. Institution Trigonometrical (1638), with an expanded version in
1658, applied trigonometry to navigation and astronomy. Epitome of Navigation
first appeared 62 years after his death; a rather remarkable length of time. It
was his most popular work.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
February 2005
MacTutor History of Mathematics
[http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Gellibrand.html]