Hayes, Charles

, esq. a very singular person, whose great erudition was so concealed by his modesty, that his name is known to very few, though his publications are many. He was born in 1678, and became distinguished | in 1704 by a “Treatise of Fluxions,” in folio, which was, we believe, the first treatise on that science ever published in the English language; and the only work to which he ever set his name. In 1710 came out a small 4to pamphlet in 19 pages, entitled “A new and easy Method to find out the Longitude from observing the Altitudes of the Celestial bodies.” Also in 1723, he published “The Moon, a Philosophical Dialogue,” tending to shew that the moon is not an opaque body, but has native light of her own.

To a skill in the Greek and Latin, as well as the modern languages, he added the knowledge of the Hebrew; and he published several pieces, which we shall enumerate, relating to the translation and chronology of the Scriptures. During a long course of years he had the chief management of the African company, being annually elected subgovernor. But on the dissolution of that company, in 1752, he retired to Down, in Kent, where he gave himself up to study; from whence, however, he returned in 1758, to chambers in Gray’s-inn, London, where he died Dec. 18, 1760, in his eighty-second year.

His works relating to the translation and chronology of the holy Scriptures, were, 1. “A Vindication of the History of the Septuagint,” from the misrepresentations of its opponents, 1736, 8vo. 2. “A Critical Examination-of the Holy Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. Luke, with regard to the history of the birth and infancy of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1738, 8vo. 3. “Dissertation on the Chronology of the Septuagint,” 1741, 8vo, a very learned, and in many respects an original work, to which in 1757, he printed “A Supplement.” 4. “Chronographiae Asiatics et Egyptiacae Specimen; in quo, 1. Origo Chronologiae LXX Interpretum investigatur; 2. Conspectus totius operis exhibetur,” 1759, 8vo. In this laborious work, which he began in 1753, when he was seventy-five years old, his opinions are sometimes not quite correct, nor such as he perhaps would probably have advanced had he begun it in an earlier period of lite, but the whole is highly creditable to his learning and researches. ¹