William Trail or Traill

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soc ...

MRIA (23 June 1746 – 3 February 1831) was a Scots-born mathematician, remembered for his mathematical text books. For the majority of his life, he served church duties in Northern Ireland.

Life

Sources are unclear on Trail's parentage. The

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

states he was the son of the Rev. William Trail (1712–1756), minister of St Monance, Fife, and Mary Trail (1731–1756). The Royal Society of Edinburgh states he was the son of the Rev. James Traill. James left Scotland in 1756 to minister in Northern Ireland and in 1765 became

Bishop of Down and Connor The Bishop of Down and Connor is an episcopal title which takes its name from the town of Downpatrick (located in County Down) and the village of Connor (located in County Antrim) in Northern Ireland. The title is still used by the Catholic Chur ...

, dying in 1783. Through his grandmother Agnes Trail, the younger William was related to the mathematician George Lewis Scott and the two were frequent correspondents. In 1759, he entered in Marischal College (

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

) and in 1763 he moved to University of Glasgow where he studied under Robert Simson and graduated M.A. in 1766., page 192 In 1766 he was successful to obtain the chair of mathematics in Marischal College (in competition with

John Playfair John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...

and Robert Hamilton). In 1779 he resigned the professorship, and moved to Northern Ireland as Chancellor of Down and Connor church under his father, the bishop. He remained thereafter in the Church of Ireland, playing his religious duties for the following forty years. In 1783 he was in Edinburgh as one of the joint founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He retired to

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

with his wife around 1821 and died there on 3 February 1831.

Publications

In 1770 he published ''Elements of Algebra for the use of Students in Universities'' which was his most famous opera and became a very popular book. Trail is also well known by a biography of Robert Simson published in 1812; as biography it is not well-regarded, though it does give a lot of first-hand information about Simson and his geometrical studies., page 87

Family

In 1799 he married Lady Frances Charteris (1754-1848) eldest daughter of Francis Wemyss-Charteris and granddaughter of the Duke of Gordon. She was 45 years old when they married and they did not have children. She died in Bath in 1848.

References

Bibliography

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trail, William 1746 births 1831 deaths 18th-century Scottish people 18th-century Scottish mathematicians Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Scottish mathematicians