Mathematician:John Pell

English mathematician and foreign diplomat most famous for what is now known as Pell's Equation.

Nationality
English

History

 * Born: 1 March 1611, Southwick, Sussex, England
 * Educated at Steyning Grammar School
 * 1624: Entered Trinity College, Cambridge
 * 1628: Received B.A.
 * 1630: Received M.A.
 * 1630: Started teaching at Collyer's School, Horsham, then Chichester Academy
 * 3rd July 1632: Married Ithumaria Reginolles, sister of Bathsua Reginolles Makin
 * 1638: Started teaching in London
 * 1643: Professor of Mathematics at the Gymnasium Illustre in Amsterdam
 * 1646: Professor of Mathematics at the University of Breda
 * 1652: Returned to England, appointed by Oliver Cromwell to a post teaching mathematics in London.
 * 1654 - 1658: Government post in Zurich
 * 1658: Returned to England, tried but failed to make contact with Cromwell, who shortly after died
 * 1661: Ordained a deacon, then a priest, became vicar at Fobbing in Essex
 * 20 May 1663: Elected to the Royal Society
 * 1663: Became vicar of Laindon and Basildon in Essex
 * Summer 1665: Left plague-ridden London to live with William Brereton at Brereton Hall in Cheshire
 * 1675: Elected vice-president of Royal Society
 * 3rd March 1680: Death of William Brereton
 * 1680: Returned to London, spent some time in a debtor's prison
 * Died: 12 Dec 1685, Westminster, London, England

Theorems and Definitions

 * Pell's Equation (popularly believed to have been misattributed by Euler -- this is disputed)

Books and Papers

 * 1634: Astronomical History of Observations of Heavenly Motions and Appearances
 * 1634: Ecliptica prognostica
 * 1638: An Idea of Mathematicks
 * 1644: Controversy with Longomontanus concerning the Quadrature of the Circle
 * 1672: A Table of Ten Thousand Square Numbers