Charles Hayes (1678–1760) was an English mathematician, chronologist and slave trader who wrote a book on the

method of fluxions ''Method of Fluxions'' () is a mathematical treatise by Sir Isaac Newton which served as the earliest written formulation of modern calculus. The book was completed in 1671 and posthumously published in 1736. Background Fluxion is Newton's term ...

. He also served as an official of the

Royal African Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of Eng ...

, which engaged in the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

Life

Hayes was a member of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

. Having made a voyage to Africa and spent some time there, he had a reputation as a geographer, and was chosen annually to be sub-governor or deputy-governor of the

(RAC), which engaged in the

. When the RAC was dissolved in 1752, Hayes settled at Downe, Kent. John Nichols remarks that Hayes spent much time in philosophical experiments. Hayes found favour with his contemporaries from his ‘sedate temper’ and clear exposition; and

Charles Hutton Charles Hutton FRS FRSE LLD (14 August 1737 – 27 January 1823) was an English mathematician and surveyor. He was professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich from 1773 to 1807. He is remembered for his calculation of th ...

remarked that he had erudition concealed by modesty. Hayes died at his chambers in Gray's Inn on 18 December 1760.

Works

In 1704, appeared his ''Treatise on Fluxions, or an Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy'', London, the first English work explaining

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

's method of infinitesimals. After an introduction on

conic section A conic section, conic or a quadratic curve is a curve obtained from a cone's surface intersecting a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a special case of the ellipse, tho ...

s with concise proofs, Hayes applied Newton's method systematically, first to obtain the tangents of curves, then their areas, and lastly to problems of maxima and minima. His preface shows he was well read in mathematical literature. In 1710 he printed a pamphlet, ''New and Easy Method to find out the Longitude''; and in 1723 ''The Moon, a Philosophical Dialogue'', arguing that she is not opaque, but has some light of her own. After studying Hebrew, Hayes in 1736 published his ''Vindication of the History of the Septuagint'', and in 1738 ''Critical Examination of the Holy Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. Luke'', with regard to the history of Christ's birth and infancy. His studies were from then mainly directed to chronology, except for some tracts written to defend the policy of the Royal African Company. In 1747 appeared his ''Series of Kings of Argos and of Emperors of China from Fohi to Jesus Christ'', to prove that their dates and order of succession agreed with the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, and in 1751 a ''Dissertation on the Chronology of the Septuagint'', a defence of the Chaldean and Egyptian chronology and history. In retirement, he became absorbed in a major work, ''Chronographia Asiatica & Ægyptiaca'', which he did not live to complete. Two parts of it only were published, during the last two years of his life, when he had chambers in Gray's Inn: first, ''Chronographiæ Asiaticæ & Ægyptiacæ Specimen'', and the second, subdivided into (1) ''Origo Chronologiæ LXX interpretum investigatur'', and (2) ''Conspectus totius Operis exhibetur''. Part of his argument is that the Seventy (authors of the Septuagint) and

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

made use of writings preserved in the library of the

Second Temple of Jerusalem The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod the Great around 18 BCE, co ...

, which had been omitted in making up the

Old Testament canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of the Bible. The English word ''canon'' comes from the Greek , meaning ' rule' or ' measuring stick'. The use ...

References

;Attribution

External links

''Treatise on Fluxions''
London, 1704 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Charles 1678 births 1760 deaths 18th-century English mathematicians Chronologists 18th-century English slave traders Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England