James Hodgson (mathematician)

James Hodgson (1672–1755) was an English mathematical teacher, lecturer and writer.

James Hodgson, engraving by George White after Thomas Gibson

Life

In 1703 he was elected Fellow, and in 1733 one of the council, of the Royal Society. For many years before his death he was master of the Royal School of Mathematics at Christ's Hospital. Hodgson was a friend of John Flamsteed, married his niece, and took part in the controversies in which Flamsteed was engaged.^[1]

Hodgson died on 25 June 1755, leaving a widow and several children.^[1]

Works

The valuation of annuities upon lives, 1724 .

When Flamsteed died Hodgson assisted his widow in the publication of her husband's works, and he appears as co-editor of the Atlas Cœlestis, published in 1729. The share which Joseph Crosthwaite had in seeing the works through the press was not acknowledged.^[1]

Hodgson wrote papers in the Philosophical Transactions (vols. xxxvii–xlix.), and also:^[1]

• The Theory of Navigation, 1706.
• The Laws of Stereographick Projection, printed in Miscellanea Curiosa, vol. ii., 1708.
• A System of the Mathematics, 1723.
• The Doctrine of Fluxions founded on Sir Isaac Newton's Method, 1736.
• An Introduction to Chronology, 1747.
• A Treatise on Annuities, 1747.
• The Theory of Jupiter's Satellites, 1750.

He prefixed a short treatise on The Theory of Perspective to the English translation of the French Jesuit Jean Dubreuil's work on perspective, which went to a fourth edition in 1765.^[1]

Notes

1.  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hodgson, James". Dictionary of National Biography 27. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1891). "Hodgson, James". Dictionary of National Biography 27. London: Smith, Elder & Co.