The Sadleirian Professorship of Pure Mathematics, originally spelled in the statutes and for the first two professors as Sadlerian,Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition is a professorship in pure mathematics within the DPMMS at the University of Cambridge. It was founded on a bequest from Lady Mary Sadleir for lectureships "for the full and clear explication and teaching that part of mathematical knowledge commonly called algebra". She died in 1706 and lectures began in 1710 but eventually these failed to attract undergraduates. In 1860 the foundation was used to establish the professorship. On 10 June 1863 Arthur Cayley was elected with the statutory duty "to explain and teach the principles of pure mathematics, and to apply himself to the advancement of that science." The stipend attached to the professorship was modest although it improved in the course of subsequent legislation.
List of Sadlerian Lecturers of Pure Mathematics 1746–1769 William Ludlam 1826–1835 Lawrence Stephenson
List of Sadleirian Lecturers of Pure Mathematics 1845–1847 Arthur Scratchley 1847–1857 George Ferns Reyner 1851 Stephen Hanson 1855–1858 William Charles Green 1857–1864 John Robert Lunn
List of Sadleirian Professors of Pure Mathematics 1863–1895 Arthur Cayley 1895–1910 Andrew Russell Forsyth 1910–1931 E. W. Hobson 1931–1942 G. H. Hardy 1945–1953 Louis Mordell 1953–1967 Philip Hall 1967–1986 J. W. S. Cassels 1986–2012 John H. Coates 2013–2014 Vladimir Markovic 2017–2021 Emmanuel Breuillard 2024– Oscar Randal-WilliamsCambridge University Reporter, Vol. CLIV:6, No 6716, 1 November 2023, p. 95
References
Sources Obituary Notices of Fellows Deceased. (1895). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 58, I-Lx. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/115800 (Obituary of Arthur Cayley written by Andrew Forsyth). University of Cambridge DPMMS https://web.archive.org/web/20160624155328/http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/academic/secretary/professorships/sadleirian.pdf