Thomas Branker (Brancker) (1633–1676) 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 ...

Life

He was born at

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

in August 1633, the son of another Thomas Brancker, a graduate of Exeter College, Oxford, who was in 1626 a schoolmaster near Ilchester, and about 1630 head-master of the Barnstaple High School. The family originally bore the name of Brouncker. Young Brancker matriculated at his father's college 8 November 1652; proceeded B.A. 15 June 1655, and was elected a probationer fellow of Exeter 30 June 1655, and full fellow 10 July 1656. After taking his master's degree (22 April 1658), he took to preaching, but he refused to conform to the ceremonies of the church of England, and was deprived of his fellowship 4 June 1663. He then retired to

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, changed his views, and applied for and obtained episcopal ordination. He became a minister at Whitegate, Cheshire, but his reputation as a mathematician reached William Brereton, 3rd Baron Brereton, who gave him the rectory of Tilston, near Malpas, in 1668. He resigned the benefice after a few months, and became head-master of the grammar school at Macclesfield, where he died in November 1676. He was buried in

Macclesfield Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...

church, and the inscription on his monument states that he was a linguist as well as a mathematician, chemist, and natural philosopher, and that he pursued studies under

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, Alchemy, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the foun ...

. Around 1665 he married Hannah Meyrick and had four daughters and two sons. The youngest son, Benjamin, became a gold and silversmith in Liverpool and was the grandfather of Peter Whitfield Brancker, Mayor of Liverpool (1801).

Works

Branker gained his first knowledge of mathematics and chemistry from Peter Sthael of Strasburg, a chemist and

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism () is a spirituality, spiritual and cultural movement that arose in early modern Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts announcing to the world a new Western esotericism, esoteric order. Rosicruc ...

, 'who before 1660 settled in Oxford as a private tutor, at the suggestion of Robert Boyle, and numbered Ralph Bathurst,

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

, with Branker, Anthony Wood and others among his pupils. Brancker's earliest publication was ''Doctrinæ Sphæricæ Adumbratio unà cum usu Globorum Artificialium'', Oxford, 1662. In 1668 he published a translation of an introduction to algebra from the German of

Johann Rahn Johann Rahn (Latinised form Rhonius) (10 March 1622 – 25 May 1676) was a Swiss mathematician who is credited with the first use of the division sign, ÷ (a repurposed obelus An obelus (plural: obeluses or obeli) is a term in codicology ...

, and added a factor table for odd numbers up to 100,000. The book was licensed 18 May 1665, but the publication was delayed to enable John Pell to add notes and corrections. John Collins also gave Brancker assistance over the book, and praised it in a letter to James Gregory in 1668. The value of the table and translation is acknowledged in an early paper in the ''

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the second journ ...

'' (No. 35, pp. 688–9), and the table and preface were reprinted by Francis Maseres in a volume of mathematical tracts (1795), together with James Bernoulli's ''Doctrine of Permutations'' and other papers. Maseres states that

John Wallis John Wallis (; ; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 Wallis served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court. ...

thought well of Brancker's table, and corrected a few errors in it. A manuscript key to an elaborate

cipher In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

in the possession of J. H. Cooke, F.S.A., is attributed to Branker and is described in the ''Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries'' for 1877.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Branker, Thomas 1633 births 1676 deaths 17th-century English mathematicians Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford