The will of Henry Briggs

Abstract

Wills have long been a staple of the family historian but their study in the context of the history of mathematics seems to have received little attention. Yet the historian of mathematics or of family seeks answers to the same questions: what can we learn about the testator's family, his friends, his networks and interests, and the milieu in which he lived and worked? This article presents the will of Henry Briggs. It sheds an interesting light on college life in seventeenth-century Oxford and shows how wide-ranging was Briggs's circle of friends and relatives.

Notes

¹ For the sake of consistency with those given in the will all dates in this article are Old Style; that is, a new year begins on Lady Day, 25 March. It was not until September 1752 that the modern (Gregorian) calendar was adopted in the United Kingdom.

² The National Archives, PROB 11/159, ff 198–199.

³ This pious prolegomenon is typical of wills of the period.

⁴ Briggs seems to have assumed, or perhaps had been assured, that he would be interred in Merton College chapel.

⁵ In the seventeenth century familial relationships were only loosely defined: ‘brother’ and ‘sister, included step, or half, brothers and sisters, ‘son’ included stepson, and ‘cousin’ often implied kinsman, however distant.

⁶ Now Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

⁷ For Gellibrand, see Goodwin 2004.

⁸ For Bainbridge, see Apt 2004.

⁹ Briggs obviously retained to the end his interest in scientific endeavour.

¹⁰ The draning of the Fens.

¹¹ It was a common custom for testators to leave money to buy mourning rings to be worn by those attending the funeral.