Life

Donn was born at Bideford

Bideford

Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, where his father and brother Abraham (1718–1746) kept a school. Until 1768 he was a ‘teacher of the mathematics and natural philosophy on the Newtonian principles’ in his native town.

In 1768 he was elected librarian of the Bristol Library, and had fruitless plans converting it into a mathematical academy. As his official duties were light, he started an academy at Bristol on his own account, in the park, near St. Michael's Church; and in the year of his election published his Young Shopkeeper's &c. Companion, which was specially compiled for that academy. In addition to his school he gave a course of fourteen lectures in experimental philosophy to subscribers at one guinea each. These lectures he continued to deliver when he left Bristol for Kingston

Kingston, Devon

Kingston is civil parish and small scattered village in the South Hams, Devon, England. It is three miles south west of Modbury, and about a mile from the mouth of the River Erme at Wonwell. See the entry for Erme Mouth. In 2001 the population of the parish was 399. It has a small village hall -...

 near Taunton

Taunton

Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....

; but then he delivered them in the Christmas or midsummer vacation. He would travel thirty miles for twenty subscribers, or fifty miles for thirty subscribers. By 1775 he was settled at Kingston.

Towards the end of his life he was appointed master of mechanics to the king, on the death of Anthony Shepherd

Anthony Shepherd

Anthony Shepherd was a British astronomer. He was the Plumian Professor at the University of Cambridge between 1760 and 1796. He published astronomical tables, and was a friend of Captain Cook, who named the Shepherd Islands after him....

. He died in June 1798. Donn mentions in his Mathematical Tables, 1789, that he has added a final e to his name; but on the title-page the name is spelt Donn.

Works

From 1749 to 1756 he contributed to the Gentleman's Diary

Gentleman's Diary

Gentleman's Diary or The Mathematical Repository was a an almanac published at the end of the 18th century in England, including mathematical problems....

, then edited by John Badder and Thomas Peat, but ceased to contribute after 1756, when Peat became sole editor. His contributions were accounts of eclipse

Eclipse

An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer...

s observed at Bideford, and answers to most of the mathematical questions in it of the period.

Donn published in 1765 a map of Devonshire, from a survey he took himself, for which he received a premium of £100 from the Society of Arts. He published further maps. and produced mathematical instruments, a list of which is in Mathematical Tables, 1789.

His works are:

• ‘A New Introduction to the Mathematics; being Essays on Vulgar and Decimal Arithmetic,’ 1758, 2nd edit., called ‘Mathematical Essays, or a New Introduction,’ &c. 1764.
• ‘The Geometrician, containing Essays on Plane Geometry and Trigonometry,’ 1759; 2nd edit. 1775; another, called 2nd edit., 1778.
• ‘The Accountant, containing Essays on Bookkeeping by Single and Double Entry,’ 1759; 2nd edit. 1775.
• ‘Essay on the Doctrine and Application of Circulating or Infinite Decimals,’ 1759; 2nd edit, 1775.
• ‘The Schoolmaster's Repository, or Pupil's Exercise.’ Intended as a supplement to the ‘Mathematical Essays,’ 1764.
• ‘Epitome of Natural and Experimental Philosophy,’ 1771.
• ‘The Young Shopkeeper's, Steward's, and Factor's Companion,’ 1768; 2nd edit. 1773.
• ‘The British Mariner's Assistant, containing forty tables adapted to the several purposes of Trigonometry and Navigation, to which is added an Essay on Logarithms and Navigation Epitomized,’ 1774.
• ‘Mathematical Tables, or Tables of Logarithms,’ 1789.