Sir John Wilson (6 August 1741,
Applethwaite,
Westmorland
Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland''R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref>) is an area of North West England which was Historic counties of England, historically a county. People of the area ...
– 18 October 1793,
Kendal
Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Westmorland and Furness, England. It lies within the River Kent's dale, from which its name is derived, just outside the boundary of t ...
, Westmorland)
[ Robinson (2003), p. 50] was an
English mathematician and judge.
Wilson's theorem
In algebra and number theory, Wilson's theorem states that a natural number ''n'' > 1 is a prime number if and only if the product of all the positive integers less than ''n'' is one less than a multiple of ''n''. That is (using the notations of ...
is named after him.
Wilson attended school in
Staveley, Cumbria
Staveley () is a village in the Westmorland and Furness Unitary Authority, in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Westmorland, it is situated northwest of Kendal where the River Kent is joined by its tributary ...
before going up to
Peterhouse
Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
in 1757,
where he was a student of
Edward Waring. He was
Senior Wrangler
The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain".
Specifically, it is the person who achiev ...
in 1761.
He was later knighted, and became a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1782. He was
Judge of Common Pleas from 1786 until his death in 1793.
See also
*
Wilson prime
In number theory, a Wilson prime is a prime number p such that p^2 divides (p-1)!+1, where "!" denotes the factorial function; compare this with Wilson's theorem, which states that every prime p divides (p-1)!+1. Both are named for 18th-century ...
Notes
References
* C. M. Neale (1907) ''The Senior Wranglers of the University of Cambridge''. Availabl
online* Robinson, Derek John Scott. ''An introduction to abstract algebra''. 2003. Walter de Gruyter.
1741 births
1793 deaths
18th-century English mathematicians
Number theorists
Fellows of the Royal Society
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Justices of the common pleas
Senior Wranglers
People from Cumberland
People from Westmorland
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