Athenæ Oxonienses. The History of Oxford Writers. Vol. 2, p. 590
Robert Wood
was born in the Parish of Pepperharrow near Godalming in Surrey, educated in Grammar learning in the School at Eaton near Windsore, was made one of the Eaton Postmasters of Merton Coll. in 1642, took the degree of Master of Arts seven years after, having a little before submitted to the authority of the Parliamentarian Visitors, elected Fellow of Linc. Coll. by their order, dated 19. Sept. 1650 in the place of Thankful Owen made President of S. Johns Coll, went afterwards with the leave of his Society into Ireland and became a Retainer to Henry Cromwell L. Lieutenant of that Kingdom, who sent him as a spye into Scotland to give him an account how affairs stood there. Afterwards he returned into England, became one of the first Fellows of the Coll. at Durham, founded by Oliver Protector, an. 1657, a great Commonwealths man and a frequenter of the Rota-Club of Jam. Harrington. After his Majesties restauration, he was turn’d out of his Fellowship of Linc. Coll by the Kings Commissioners, and thereupon going into Ireland again, he. for lucre sake (for he was a covetous Person) expressed his Loyalty so much, that he became Doctor of Phys. there (and of the Law as I have heard) and Chancellour of two Diocesses, whereof Meath was one. So that purchasing an Estate in that Country, which he afterwards sold to buy one at Sherwill in Essex, he setled for a time in England, and became Teacher of the Blew-coated-children in Ch. Ch. Hospital in London in the Art of Mathematicks and Navigation. At length giving up that place, he went again into Ireland and was made one of the Commissioners of his Majesties revenue, and at length Accomptant-general to the Commissioners of the said revenue there, which he held at the time of his death, being then one of the Royal Society in England. Will. Oughtred the famous Mathematician saith ((g))((g)) In his pref. to the Reader before his Clavis Mathemat. &c. Oxon. 1652. e [•] it. tert. of this Dr. Wood (who had been sometimes his Scholar) that he is Philosophiae atꝫ Medicinae studiosus, vir optimus atꝫ doctissimus, qui non calamo solum, & scriptorum examinatione, n [•] quid forte mihi in computationibus erroris exciderit, amicum praestitit officium, sed etiam bene maximam horum partem (meaning his Clavis Mathematica) Anglicè non ita pridem edendam transtulit. Besides which he hath written,
The times mended: or, a rectified account of time by a new Luni-solar year; the true way to number our days. Lond. 1681. in 4. sh. and an half in fol. An account and abstract of which, is in the Philosophical Collections, written by Mr. Rob. Hook, numb. 2. p. 27. an. 1681.
A new Al-mon ac for ever; or a rectified account of time (beginning with March 10. an. 1680/1) by a Luni-solar year, or by both luminaries: that is by the moons monthly course primarily; so as the first of the month shall always be within about a day of the change, and yet adjusted to the Suns yearly course also, viz. keeping within about a week thereof at a medium. Described in, and dedicated to the most noble order of the Garter.—Printed the same year, with the Times amended, &c. An account of which is also in the said Philosophical Collections, p. 26. He also wrot some things in Mathematicks, not yet published; one piece whereof, he was pleased out of great friendship, and [〈◊〉] long acquaintance sake to dedicate to Mr. George T [••] let a Teacher of Gentlemen in London the faculty of Mathematicks. This Dr. Wood died at Dublin in Ireland on the ninth day of April in sixteen hundred eighty and five,1685. aged 63. or thereabouts, and was buried in St. Michaels Church there, notwithstanding he had desired his friends, some days before his death, that he might be buried in the Ch. yard of the Parish Church where he should happen to dye, thinking that Churches were the less wholsome for corps being buried in them.