Morgan Crofton (1826,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland – 1915,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, England) was an Irish mathematician who contributed to the field of geometric probability theory. He also worked with

James Joseph Sylvester James Joseph Sylvester (3 September 1814 – 15 March 1897) was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, and combinatorics. He played a leadership ...

and contributed an article on probability to the 9th edition of the

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

. Crofton's formula is named in his honour.

Early life

Morgan Crofton was born into a wealthy

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

family. His father, the

Reverend The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

William Crofton, Rector of Skreene, Co Sligo, was the younger brother of Sir Malby Crofton, 2nd Baronet of Longford House. He was also the cousin of Lord Edward Crofton,

Baron Crofton Baron Crofton is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1797 (as Baroness Crofton) for Dame Anne Crofton. She was the widow of Sir Edward Crofton, 2nd Baronet, of the Mote, who had represented Roscommon in the Irish House of Common ...

of the Mote. Despite being born into an

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

family, Crofton joined to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the 1850s in part due to an interest in Cardinal John Henry Newman. This led to his resignation at

Queen's College, Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

and transference to various Catholic colleges. He married twice: firstly on 31 August 1857 Julia Agnes Cecilia, daughter of J B Kernan (died 1902) and secondly Katherine, daughter of Holland Taylor of Manchester.

Career

He was Professor of Mathematics at the

Royal Military Academy, Woolwich The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of S ...

and Professor of Natural Philosophy at

Queen's University of Ireland The Queen's University of Ireland was established formally by Royal Charter on 3 September 1850, as the degree-awarding university of the ''Queen's Colleges'' of Belfast, Cork, and Galway that were established in 1845 "to afford a university e ...

. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

in June, 1868.http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27crofton%27%29

References

External links

MacTutor biography of Crofton
* 1826 births 1915 deaths Irish mathematicians Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Fellows of the Royal Society {{UK-mathematician-stub