, one of the greatest mathematicians in the sixteenth and seventeenth
, one of the greatest mathematicians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was born at Daisy Bank adjoining to Warleywood, near Halifax, in Yorkshire, in 1556, but according to the Halifax register probably sooner, as it is there recorded that he was baptised Feb. 23, 1560. From a grammar-school 'in that country he was sent to St. John’s college, Cambridge, 1579; where, after taking both degrees in arts, he was chosen fellow of his college in 1588. He applied himself chiefly to the study of the mathematics, in which he greatly excelled; in consequence in 1592 he was made examiner and lecturer in that faculty; and soon after, reader of the physic lecture, founded by Dr. Linacer.