For the Reverend of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Christian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening. In 2007, it had an active membership of less than 50,000 and about 800 congregations, the majority of which are concentrated in the United States...

 see Reuben Burrow (reverend)

Reuben Burrow (30 December 1747 – 7 June 1792) was an English mathematician and orientalist. Initially a teacher, he was appointed assistant to Maskelyne

Maskelyne

Maskelyne is the surname of several people:*Nevil Maskelyne , the fifth British Astronomer Royal*Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story-Maskelyne *Nevill Maskelyne Smyth, served in the First World War 1914–18....

, then astronomer-royal, at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and was involved in the Schiehallion experiment

Schiehallion experiment

The Schiehallion experiment was an 18th-century experiment to determine the mean density of the Earth. Funded by a grant from the Royal Society, it was conducted in the summer of 1774 around the Scottish mountain of Schiehallion, Perthshire. The experiment involved measuring the tiny deflection of...

. He later conducted research in India, becoming one of the first members of the Asiatic Society

Asiatic Society

The Asiatic Society was founded by Sir William Jones on January 15, 1784 in a meeting presided over by Sir Robert Chambers, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the Fort William in Calcutta, then capital of the British Raj, to enhance and further the cause of Oriental research. At the time of...

.

Biography

Burrow was born at Hoberley, near Shadwell

Shadwell

Shadwell is an inner-city district situated within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets located on the north bank of the Thames between Wapping to the south and Ratcliff to the east...

, Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. His father, a small farmer, gave him some schooling, occasionally interrupted by labour on the farm. He showed an ability and keenness for mathematics early on, and after some instruction from a schoolmaster named Crooks at Leeds, he obtained a clerkship in the office of a London merchant and reached London in 1765. A year later he became usher in a school of B. Webb, the ‘celebrated writing-master.’ He next set up as schoolmaster on his own account at Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, and, after giving up this place in 1770 to become engineer to a projected expedition to Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, was appointed assistant to Maskelyne

Maskelyne

Maskelyne is the surname of several people:*Nevil Maskelyne , the fifth British Astronomer Royal*Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story-Maskelyne *Nevill Maskelyne Smyth, served in the First World War 1914–18....

, then astronomer-royal, at Greenwich

Greenwich

Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...

. Two years afterwards he married Anne Purvis, daughter of a poulterer in Leadenhall Street

Leadenhall Street

Leadenhall Street is a street in the City of London, formerly part of the A11. It runs east from Cornhill to Aldgate, and west vice-versa. Aldgate Pump is at the junction with Aldgate...

, and started a school at Greenwich.

In 1774, Burrow aided Maskelyne in his observations in the Schiehallion experiment

Schiehallion experiment

The Schiehallion experiment was an 18th-century experiment to determine the mean density of the Earth. Funded by a grant from the Royal Society, it was conducted in the summer of 1774 around the Scottish mountain of Schiehallion, Perthshire. The experiment involved measuring the tiny deflection of...

, for the determination of the Earth's attraction. He complained that his services were insufficiently recognised. Soon afterwards, however, he was appointed ‘mathematical teacher in the drawing-room at the Tower,’ where there was then a training school for artillery officers, afterwards merged in the Woolwich academy. His salary was £

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

100 a year. Here he became editor of the Ladies and Gentlemen's Diary, or Royal Almanack. It was started by Thomas Carnan, in opposition to the Ladies' Diary, published by the Stationers' Company and edited by Charles Hutton

Charles Hutton

Charles Hutton was an English mathematician.Hutton was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was educated in a school at Jesmond, kept by Mr Ivison, a clergyman of the Church of England...

. The company claimed a monopoly of almanacs, but their claim was disallowed by the court of common pleas, on their bringing an action against Carnan, who published the first number of his diary in December 1775. It continued till 1786, the word 'Gentlemen' being dropped after 1780. Part of it was devoted to mathematical problems by Burrow and various contributors.

Burrow quarrelled with his rival, Hutton. He eked out his living by taking private pupils, and did a little work for publishers; but his family was increasing, and in 1782 he accepted an appointment in India, procured by his patron, Colonel Henry Watson

Henry Watson

Henry Watson may refer to:*Henry Winfield Watson , Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania*Henry William Watson , British mathematician*Henry Keith Watson, member of the "L.A...

, for many years chief engineer in Bengal. He claimed indignantly but fruitlessly to be paid for extra work in a survey of the coast from Essex to Sussex with a party of pupils in 1777, and sailed in October 1782 in a fleet commanded by Admiral Howe. Soon after reaching India he wrote an interesting letter to Warren Hastings stating his desire to generate more money in order to conduct further research. He was also interested in ancient geometry, as he has proved by his book on Apollonius

Apollonius of Perga

Apollonius of Perga [Pergaeus] was a Greek geometer and astronomer noted for his writings on conic sections. His innovative methodology and terminology, especially in the field of conics, influenced many later scholars including Ptolemy, Francesco Maurolico, Isaac Newton, and René Descartes...

: A Restitution of the Geometrical Treatise of Apollonius Pergæus on Inclinations (1779), and was curious to investigate the mathematical treatises in ancient Hindu and other Oriental literature. He later published Hindoo Knowledge of the Binomial Theorem. He asked for Hastings's encouragement; and other letters and papers show that he pursued these inquiries, having learnt Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 for the purpose, and collected many Sanskrit and Persian manuscripts. He was appointed mathematical teacher of the engineers' corps, and afterwards had some employment in connection with a proposed trigonometrical survey of Bengal.

Burrow was one of the first members of the Asiatic Society

Asiatic Society

The Asiatic Society was founded by Sir William Jones on January 15, 1784 in a meeting presided over by Sir Robert Chambers, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the Fort William in Calcutta, then capital of the British Raj, to enhance and further the cause of Oriental research. At the time of...

 and contributed to their research. He died at Buxor on 7 June 1792. His wife, with his son and his three daughters, joined him in India in 1790, and returned after his death. The son died as an officer in the service of the East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

. A Short Account of the late Mr. Burrow's Measurement of a Degree of Longitude and another of Latitude near the tropic in Bengal was published posthumously by his friend Dalby in 1796.