Rev. Dr. John Pell[1] was born 1 November 1611 in Southwyck, Sussex, England to Rev. John Pell and Mary Holland, daughter of George Holland and of Halden, Kent, descended from the Holland earls of Kent.
He was educated at Steyning Grammar School, then attended Trinity College at Cambridge at age thirteen. In 1628 he received an A.B. (bachelor of Arts) degree, 1630 Master degree and later a D.D. (Doctor of Divinity. In 1631 he received a Masters from Oxford university. He was a professor of Mathematics at Amsterdam and Breda Netherlands.
Pell worked on a variety of topics in the area of pedagogy, encyclopedism and pansophy, combinatorics and the legacy of Trithemius. By 1638 he had formulated a proposal for a universal language. In mathematics, he concentrated on expanding the scope of algebra in the theory of equations, and on mathematical tables. His Idea of Mathematics was printed in October 1638.
From 1654-1658, John Pell served as Oliver Cromwell's Minister Resident with the Protestants Canons in Switzerland. At the restoration of Charles ll in 1660, Pell became Rector of Fobbing, Laindon and Orset in Essex. He was appointed Domestic Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1663. He was also elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 20 May 1663.
The original St. Giles in the fields was collapsed upon the crypt (as was the custom) and the new church was built on that site; therefore, John Pell does not have a visible tomb or grave marker. His name can be viewed in the burial register upon appointment. The church is located in central London, on St. Giles High Street,London, England.
Pell is a candidate for the originator of the division sign ÷ (obelus), although Johann Heinrich Rahn (aka Rhonius) is also credited with its origins. (Pell taught Rahn.) He is now best remembered, if perhaps erroneously, for the indeterminate equation:
which is known as Pell's equation. See Wikipedia for more about this equation and its relation to other mathematical work.
He returned to England by 1661, when he became rector of Fobbing in Essex. In 1663, he was given an honorary D.D. (Lambeth degree), and was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. At the same time he was presented by Bishop Gilbert Sheldon to the rectory of Laindon, Essex. He spent time as mathematics teacher to William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton, at Brereton Hall.
He survived the plague of 1665, but lost his London home and all his precious manuscripts in the London fire of 1666. A former student invited him to live in his home in Cheshire where he lived from 1666-1670.
In 1673 he met Leibniz in London, and was able to inform him that some of his mathematical work had been anticipated by François Regnaud and Gabriel Mouton.
His devotion to mathematics seems to have interfered with his advancement in the Church and with his private life. For a time, he was confined as a debtor in the King's Bench Prison. He lived, on the invitation of Dr Daniel Whistler, for a short time in 1682 at the College of Physicians, but died 12 Dec 1685[2] at the house of Mr Cothorne, reader of the church of St Giles-in-the Fields.
He is buried in the Rector's Vault at St. Giles in the Fields Churchyard, Borough of Camden, London.
Many of Pell's manuscripts fell into the hands of Richard Busby, master of Westminster School, and afterwards came into the possession of the Royal Society; they are still preserved in nearly forty folio volumes in the British Library, which contain, not only Pell's own memoirs, but much of his correspondence with the mathematicians of his time. See his wikipedia entry for a list of his works.
Upon the death of John Pell's brother, Thomas Pell, in 1670 (who had emigrated to Connecticut), the mathematician's son, Sir John Pell inherited lands in Connecticut, which he sold and removed to New York, where he lived as the first Lord of the Manor of Pelham.
His descendants have continued to be prominent in the American polity, including Ambassador and U.S. Representative Herbert Pell and U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell.
He married 3 July 1632 or 1633 in Ithamaria Reginolles daughter of Henry Reginolles of St. Margaret's Westminster, London. She remained in England with the children while John lived abroad. She died by 1665.
See also:
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