Nathaniel Torporley 1564-1632

Nathaniel TORPORLEY 1564-1632

Biographical Note

Born in Shropshire, father unknown. BA Christ Church, Oxford 1584, MA Brasenose College, Oxford 1591. Between these dates he spent time in France as secretary to the mathematician François Viète. Rector of Salwarpe, Worcestershire 1608-22, of Liddington, Wiltshire 1622, although he resided mainly at Sion College in London throughout this time. Torporley is noted as a mathematician, who designed sundials and calendars as well as publishing a work on spherical trigonometry, Diclides coelometricae, (1602).

Books

Via his nuncupative will, Torporley bequeathed all his mathematical and other books, astronomical instruments, notes, maps and a brass clock to Sion College. This amounted to ca.215 printed books and 8 manuscripts; he also gave a small number of manuscripts in the years shortly before his death.

Sources

• McConnell, Anita, "Torporley, Nathaniel (1564–1632), mathematician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Pearce, E. Sion College and Library, 1913, p.234.