Jonathan Cape FRS (1793 – 9 September 1868) was a mathematician and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

clergyman.

Life

Cape was born in 1793 in Uldale, Cumberland (now

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

), the eldest son of the Rev. Joseph Cape (d. 1830). He was admitted to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, in 1812 as a

sizar At Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is an Undergraduate education, undergraduate who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in retur ...

, graduating with a BA in 1816 (5th Wrangler) and MA in 1821. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...

in 1816 by the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

(acting for the

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), and priest by the Bishop of Salisbury in 1818. He was appointed Assistant Professor at the

Royal Naval Academy The Royal Naval Academy was a facility established in 1733 in HMNB Portsmouth, Portsmouth Dockyard to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardise ...

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(a post which he held with the

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are ass ...

of St George's, Portsea) in 1816, before being appointed in 1822 Senior Professor of Mathematics at

Addiscombe College The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East Indi ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, Surrey. He held this post until the closure of the College in 1861. Vibart's detailed history of Addiscombe contains anecdotal material about Cape, commenting that he was "the most remarkable member of the staff of the College during the whole course of its existence ... He was Addiscombe ... from its commencement until its end 40 years later".Vibart: ''Addiscombe, its heroes and men of note'' (1894) Cape was noted for his dry, sarcastic wit, and for his strong Northumbrian accent, as well as being "an excellent teacher and disciplinarian, with a keen sense of humour". He was appointed Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1852 for his mathematical publications. He retired on a very substantial pension, and died – a convivial bachelor – at Croydon on 9 September 1868 aged 75, leaving £12,000.

Notes and references

Publications

*''Mathematical tables'' ... (Croydon,1838; 3rd edition London, 1860). *''A course of mathematics principally designed for the use of students in the East India Company's seminary at Addiscombe''. (London, 1850). 2 volumes.

References

* * Boase, F., 1892/1965: ''Modern English Biography'', volume 1, p 539 * Venn, J.A., 1940/2001: ''Alumni Cantabrigiensis''. Part Two, volume 1, p 507 * Vibart, H.M., 1894: ''Addiscombe, its heroes and men of note'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Cape, Jonathan 1793 births 1868 deaths English mathematicians People from Cumberland Burials in Surrey Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 19th-century English Anglican priests