Mathematician:John Pell

Mathematician

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

English

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, and 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

Pell's Equation (popularly believed to have been misattributed by Euler -- this is disputed)
Pell Numbers
Pell-Lucas Numbers (with Édouard Lucas)

Results named for John Pell can be found here.

Definitions of concepts named for John Pell can be found here.

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