, elder brother of the preceding, was born in 1627 or 1628, and although he possessed all the genius
, elder brother of the preceding, was born in 1627 or 1628, and although he possessed all the genius of the other branches of his family, was educated by his father for trade, and served an apprenticeship to a mercantile house in Holland. Having a stronger passion, however, for knowledge than for money, he abandoned trade in 1655, and returning to his own country, he succeeded, upn the death of an elder brorher, to the estate of Kinarclie, situated about forty miles north of Aberdeen, where he lived many years, and where thirty-two children were born to him by two wives. Of these, three sons made a conspicuous figure in the republic of letters, being all professors of mathematics at the same time in three of the British universities, viz. David at Oxford, James at Edinburgh, and Charles at St. Andrew’s.