Читать книгу William Oughtred - Cajori Florian - Страница 4

In 1606 he married Christ’sgift Caryll, daughter of Caryll, Esq., of Tangley, in an adjoining parish.5 We know very little about Oughtred’s family life. The records at King’s College, Cambridge,6 mention a son, but it is certain that there were more children. A daughter was married to Christopher Brookes. But there is no confirmation of Aubrey’s statements,7 according to which Oughtred had nine sons and four daughters. Reference to the wife and children is sometimes made in the correspondence with Oughtred. In 1616 J. Hales writes, “I pray let me be remembered, though unknown, to Mistress Oughtred.”8

As we shall see later, Oughtred had a great many young men who came to his house and remained there free of charge to receive instruction in mathematics, which was likewise gratuitous. This being the case, certainly great appreciation was due to Mrs. Oughtred, upon whom the burden of hospitality must have fallen. Yet chroniclers are singularly silent in regard to her. Hers was evidently a life of obscurity and service. We greatly doubt the accuracy of the following item handed down by Aubrey; it cannot be a true characterization:

His wife was a penurious woman, and would not allow him to burne candle after supper, by which meanes many a good notion is lost, and many a probleme unsolved; so that Mr. [Thomas] Henshawe, when he was there, bought candle, which was a great comfort to the old man.9