by Iain Pears
John THURLOE (1616–68). Lawyer, secretary to the Cromwellian Council of State in 1652; thereafter organised Cromwell’s espionage system. Escaped all punishment on the Restoration and lived in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, until moving back to London shortly before his death. Hid all his state papers, which were discovered embedded in a plaster ceiling and published in 1742.
John WALLIS (1616–1703). Professor of Geometry, Oxford University, founder member of the Royal Society and the greatest English mathematician before Newton. A great xenophobe, who carried on lengthy and vitriolic disputes in print with (among others) Hobbes, Pascal, Descartes, Fermat. Cryptographer for Parliament, 1643–60, for Charles II, James II and William III. Published Arithmetica Infinitorum (1655), Mathesis Universalis (1657), Treatise of Algebra (1685). Complete Sermons published 1791, Essay on the Art of Decyphering (1737).
Anthony WOOD (1632–95). Antiquary and historian, author of Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxonienses (1674) and Athenae Oxonienses (1691). A bachelor who lived a hermit-like existence and gained a reputation for unsociability and rancour in his later years, although until the 1660s he had a wide range of friends and acquaintances. Chiefly known through his diaries and papers, which were not published until this century.
Michael WOODWARD (1599–1675). Warden of New College, Oxford, 1658–75; rector of Ash in Surrey and ‘a man of few scholarly attainments and fewer political or religious sentiments’. But tireless in restoring the college’s finances after the disastrous loss of revenues during the Civil War.
Sir Christopher WREN (1632–1723). Professor of Astronomy, Oxford University, Surveyor of the King’s Works and architect. Classed by Newton as Wallis’s equal as a geometer, worked on spherical trigonometry, produced a measured map of the moon, was a founder member of the Royal Society and performed important anatomical work with Lower and others of the Oxford circle. Mainly known for design of St Paul’s Cathedral, various London churches and Hampton Court Palace. His first building was the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.
With thanks to: Michael Benjamin, Cathy Crawford, Margaret Hunt, Karma Nabulsi, Lyndal Roper, Nick Stargardt, Felicity Bryan, Liz Cowen, Eric Christiansen, Dan Franklin, Anne Freedgood, Olwen Hufton, Maggie Pelling, Charles Webster and (most important of all) Ruth Harris.
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Copyright © Iain Pears 1997
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First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd in 1997
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