Napier, John, laird of Merchiston, mathematician, born in Merchiston Castle, near Edinburgh; famed over the world as the inventor of logarithms; wrote a book on the Apocalypse, which contains some plain-spoken counsel to King James; believed in astrology, and was addicted to divination as well as mechanical invention (1550‒1617).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Napier, Sir Charles * Napier, Sir William