Isaac Barrow

Isaac Barrow 1630-77, English mathematician and theologian. His method of finding tangents prefigured the differential calculus developed by Isaac Newton. He was professor of mathematics at Cambridge from 1663 to 1669 and was succeeded by Newton. Barrow became master of Trinity College in 1672 and vice chancellor of Cambridge in 1675. His theological works were edited by Alexander Napier (1859) and his mathematical works by William Whewell (1860).

Barrow, Isaac (1630–77). Scholar. Barrow was born in London and sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow. His royalist sympathies led him to spend 1655–9 abroad but at the Restoration he rose rapidly. In 1660 he was elected to the chair of Greek at Cambridge and in 1663 became the first professor of mathematics at Cambridge, resigning in 1669 to make room for Newton. In 1673 he was elected master of Trinity, where he began building the great Wren library. Barrow's reputation was largely as a mathematician and as a preacher: his sermons, though extremely long, were regarded as models of lucidity. His attack upon the doctrine of papal supremacy, published posthumously, was also highly regarded.

J. A. Cannon