
Reverend Bartholomew Price (181829 December 1898) was an English
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
, clergyman and
educator
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
.
Life
Bartholomew Price was born at
Coln St Denis,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
, on 14 May 1818, the son of the Revd W. Price, Rector of that parish. He went up to
Pembroke College, Oxford and took first-class hours in the Final Honours School of Mathematics in 1840. In 1842 he won the university mathematical scholarship and in 1844 was ordained and was elected Fellow and Tutor in Mathematics at Pembroke College. He at once took a leading position in the mathematical teaching of the university, and published treatises on the ''Differential calculus'' in 1848 and the ''Infinitesimal calculus'' (4 vols.) in 1852–1860. This latter work included the
differential and
integral calculus, the
calculus of variations
The calculus of variations (or variational calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in Function (mathematics), functions
and functional (mathematics), functionals, to find maxima and minima of f ...
, the
theory of attractions, and
analytical mechanics.
In 1853 he was appointed
Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, a position he held until June 1898. His chief public activity at Oxford was in connection with the
Hebdomadal Council, and with the
Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, of which he was for many years secretary. He was also a curator of the
Bodleian Library, an honorary fellow of
The Queen's College, a governor of
Winchester College
Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...
and a visitor of
Greenwich Observatory.
On 20 August 1857 at Littleham near Exmouth in Devon, Bartholomew Price married Amy Eliza Cole, the eldest daughter of William Cole Cole, Esq.
icof Highfield, Exmouth. The marriage was conducted by the Revd Francis Jeune, the Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. The couple moved into 11
St Giles' Street, where their seven children were born between 1858 and 1870. They moved out in 1891.
In 1891 Price was elected
Master of Pembroke College, which dignity carried with it a canonry of
Gloucester Cathedral.
In 1889 he was one of the shareholders in Silver's factory in
Silvertown,
East London, an immensely profitable rubber company. That year saw a major strike by Silver's workers for higher pay but after 12 weeks the strikers were forced back to work by hunger. Bartholomew Price was the shareholder who moved the motion of thanks in the Managing Director at the shareholders meeting in February 1890.
He was on the governing body of
Abingdon School from c.1887 until his death in December 1898.
The Revd Bartholomew Price died in Oxford on 28 December 1898 and was buried in
Holywell Cemetery,
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
. His grave marker reads: “BARTHOLOMEW PRICE D.D., F.R.S. / FOR 45 YEARS SEDLEIAN PROFESSOR OF NATURAL / PHILOSOPHY – MASTER OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, / CANON OF GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL / BORN AT COLN ST DENIS, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 14 MAY 1818 / DIED AT OXFORD, 28 DEC. 1893 / AND HIS BELOVED WIFE AMY ELIZA, DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM COLE COLE OF EXMOUTH, BORN 19 SEPTEMBER 1835, DIED 14 OCTOBER 1909.”
Nowadays, Professor Price is best remembered as one of the teachers of
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...
. There is a reference to his nickname of 'the bat' in the
Mad Hatter's song "
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat", a parody of "
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in ''
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...
''. A clock designed by
Henry Wilson is dedicated to Price in Gloucester Cathedral.
Writings
An essay on the relation of the several parts of a mathematical science to the fundamental idea therein contained(1849)
A Treatise on Infinitesimal Calculus v. 1: Differential calculus(1857)
A Treatise on Infinitesimal Calculus v. 2. Integral calculus and calculus of variationsA Treatise on Infinitesimal Calculus v. 3. Statics attractions, dynamics of material particleA Treatise on Infinitesimal Calculus v. 4: The dynamics of material systems(1862)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Bartholomew
1818 births
1898 deaths
People from Cotswold District
19th-century English mathematicians
Fellows of the Royal Society
Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford
Fellows of Pembroke College, Oxford
Masters of Pembroke College, Oxford
Sedleian Professors of Natural Philosophy
Lewis Carroll
Governors of Abingdon School
Burials at Holywell Cemetery