William Oughtred ( ;How to Pronounce: Oughtred Society Retrieved 9 August 2018.5 March 1574 – 30 June 1660), also Owtred or Uhtred, was an English mathematician and Anglican clergyman.'Oughtred (William)', in P. Bayle, translated and revised by J.P. Bernard, T. Birch and J. Lockman, A General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, (James Bettenham, for G. Strachan and J. Clarke, London 1734/1739), Vol. VIII, pp. 77-86 (Google).F. Willmoth, 'Oughtred, William (bap. 1575, d. 1660)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). After John Napier discovered logarithms and Edmund Gunter created the logarithmic scales (lines, or rules) upon which slide rules are based, Oughtred was the first known to use two such scales in separate rods sliding by one another to perform direct multiplication and division. He is credited with inventing the slide rule in about 1622, a priority disputed with Richard Delamain, by which Oughtred's innovation is brought forward to c 1632. Author's edit. He also introduced the "" symbol for multiplication and the abbreviations "" and "" for the sine and cosine functions.
Clerical life Education The son of Benjamin Oughtred of Eton in Buckinghamshire (now part of Berkshire), William was born there on 5 March 1574/75 and was educated at Eton College, where his father, a writing-master, was one of his teachers. Oughtred had a passion for mathematics, and often stayed awake at night to learn while others were sleeping.F. Cajori, William Oughtred, a Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of Mathematics (Open Court Publishing Company, Chicago 1916), pp. 12-14 (Internet Archive). He next attended King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1596/97 and MA in 1600, holding a fellowship in the college from 1595 to 1603. He composed a Funeral Ode in Latin for Sir William More of Loseley Park in 1600.'Funeral ode by William Outhred', Surrey History Centre, ref. 6729/7/129 (Discovery Catalogue).
Rector at Guildford and at Shalford
Admitted to holy orders, he left the University of Cambridge about 1603, when as "Master" William Oughtred he held the rectorate of St Mary's Church, Guildford, Surrey.Church of England Clergy database, Liber Cleri detail, CCEd Record ID: 199392, from British Library Harleian MS 595. At the presentation of the lay patron George Austen, gent., he was instituted as vicar at Shalford near Wonersh, in the neighbourhood of Guildford in western Surrey, on 2 July 1605.Church of England Clergy database, Episcopal Register of Thomas Bilson (Winchester), Appointment Record ("Owtred") CCEd Record ID: 59030.
On 20 February 1606, at Shalford, Oughtred married Christs-gift Caryll, a relation of the Caryll family seated at Great Tangley Hall at Shalford.ODNB, and see Aubrey's Brief Lives, Ed. Oliver Lawson Dick (Ann Arbor, Michigan 1962), pp. 222–224.'William Oughtred', in F. Willmoth, Sir Jonas Moore: Practical Mathematics and Restoration Science (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1993), pp. 43-61, at p. 45 (Google).Christes-Guift Carell, daughter of William and Dorothy, was baptized at Godalming on 21 April 1588 (Register). The Oughtreds had twelve children, William,William Oughtred (Owtred) junr was baptized at Shalford on 9 October 1608 (Register): the younger children were baptized at Albury. Henry, Henry (the first Henry died as a baby), Benjamin, Simon, Margaret, Judith, Edward, Elizabeth, Anne, George, and John. Two of the sons, Benjamin and John, shared their father's interest in instruments and became watchmakers.J.J. O'Connor and E.F. Robertson, "Biographies: William Oughtred", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, Last Update, 2017 (University of St Andrews).
Oughtred's wife was a cousin of Simon Caryll of Tangley and his wife Lady Elizabeth Aungier (married 1607), daughter of Sir Francis Aungier. Oughtred was a witness to Simon Caryll's will, made 1618,London Metropolitan Archive ref. DW/PA/5/1619/22.William "Owtred" also witnessed the first codicil (8 November 1620) to the Will of George Austen of Shalford (P.C.C. 1621, Dale quire). and through two further marriages Elizabeth remained matriarch and dowager of Great Tangley until her death in about 1650.W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the county of Surrey taken in the years 1530, 1572 and 1623, Harleian Society Vol. XLIII (1899), pp. 88–89 (Internet Archive).Cf. Will of John Machell, Gentleman of Wonersh (P.C.C. 1647, Fine quire); Will of Elizabeth Machell of Wonersh (P.C.C. 1650, Pembroke quire). Elizabeth's brother Gerald, 2nd Baron Aungier of Longford, was married to Jane, daughter of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle, Surrey, in 1638. Oughtred praised Gerald (whom he taught) as a man of great piety and learning, skilled in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and other oriental languages.E.W. Brayley, J. Britton and E.W Brayley jnr., A Topographical History of Surrey (G. Willis, London 1850), vol. II, p. 49 (Google). John Aubrey, The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, 5 vols (E. Curll, London 1718-19), III, at pp. 258-59 (Internet Archive), quotes Oughtred's original Latin for these remarks.Gerald is sometimes referred to as "Gerard", but the name derives from his mother's family of Fitzgerald, seated at Hatchlands Park in East Clandon.
In January 1610 Sir George More, patron of Compton church adjacent to Loseley Park, granted the advowson (right of presentation of the minister) to Oughtred, when it should next fall vacant, though Oughtred was not thereby empowered to present himself to the living. This was soon after Sir George More became reconciled to the marriage of his daughter Anne to the poet John Donne, which had occurred secretly in 1601.
Rector of Albury Oughtred was presented by Sir Edward Randyll of Chilworth (lord of the manor) to the rectory of Albury, near Guildford in Surrey and instituted on 16 October 1610,Church of England Clergy database, Episcopal Register of Thomas Bilson (Winchester), Appointment Record, CCEd Record ID: 59103. The advowson was in the lord of the manor, who was Sir Edward. vacating Shalford on 18 January 1611.Church of England Clergy database, Episcopal Register of Thomas Bilson (Winchester), Vacancy Evidence Record ("Outhred"), CCEd Record ID: 59115
In January 1615/16 Sir George More re-granted the advowson of Compton church (still occupied) in trust to Roger Heath and Simon Caryll, to present Oughtred himself, or any other person whom Oughtred should nominate, when the vacancy should arise.This was just one year after the ordination of John Donne (23 January 1615) and 6 months before his institution as rector of Sevenoaks (12 July 1616). The Clergy database, CCEd Ordination record ID 119823, and Appointment Evidence Record ID 114560. Soon afterwards Oughtred was approached by John Tichborne seeking his own nomination, and entering an agreement to pay him a sum of money upon certain days. Before this could be completed the incumbent died (November 1618), and Oughtred sought for himself to be presented, preaching several times at Compton, having the first fruits sequestered to his use, and, after four months, asking the patron to present him. However, Tichborne offered to complete the agreed payment at once, and was accordingly presented by the trustees in May 1619 (Simon Caryll dying in that year): but before he could be admitted, the Crown interposed a different candidate because the contract between Oughtred and Tichborne was deemed by Sir Henry Yelverton clearly to be Simoniacal."Yelverton, Sir Henry. Opinion that simony was involved in the contract between William Oughtred and John Tichborne for presentation to the church of Compton in Surrey", Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey, 1488-1682 (bulk 1538-1630), Surrey History Centre, ref. Z/407/Lb.668.4 (Discovery Catalogue). View original document at Folger Shakespeare Library. See also "Interrogatories", S.H.C. ref. LM/1329/104, 107, 109, 670 (Surrey History Centre Archives Catalogue).
Oughtred therefore remained at Albury, serving as rector there for fifty years.J. and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses Part 1 Vol. III (Cambridge University Press 1924), p. 288 (Internet Archive) (appointment 1610)."Parishes: Albury", in H.E. Malden (ed.), A History of the County of Surrey, Volume 3 (V.C.H./HMSO, London 1911), pp. 72-77 (British History Online): "was rector from 1610 to 1660". His patron, the Earl of Arundel, acquired the fine old seat of Albury House through trustees in 1638: title to the manor was assigned in trust for payment of debts to George Duncombe (of Weston in Albury, embedded in the Carrill and Onslow interests), who maintained the manorial courts until his death in 1646, and then to Duncombe's children.'26 September 1651' and following, in M.A.E. Green (ed.), Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding, 1643-1660, Part 4: Cases, July 1650 to December 1653 (HMSO 1892), p. 2472 (Internet Archive). See also The National Archives (UK), Chancery, Duncumbe v Onslow (1651), ref. C 10/467/79 (Discovery Catalogue). The Park and landscapes,J. Aubrey, The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, 5 vols (E. Curll, London 1718-19), IV, at pp. 65-70 (Internet Archive). which formed the subject of a series of etchings produced by Wenceslas Hollar, c. 1645,The British Museum, Print Collections. Hollar: "Alburgum in Comitatu Surriæ, vulgo Albury", ref. Q,6. 89 (The British Museum). See also a set of 6 Hollar views of Albury in Bonham's auction of Prints and Multiples, (2 May 2019, Knightsbridge, London) Lot 7 (Bonhams). were developed in this period, before a parliamentary sequestration which was eventually discharged in 1653. The Earl having died in 1646, and his son and successor Henry (who renewed the assignment) in 1652, it was the grandson Henry Howard (later Duke of Norfolk) who finally paid for and acquired Albury.'Parishes: Albury', in H.E. Malden (ed.), A History of the County of Surrey Vol. 3 (VCH, London 1911), pp. 72-77, at fn 15 ff. (British History Online).