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University of St Andrews, Scotland
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Neile.html
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William Neile was born at Bishopsthrope in the house of his grandfather who was Archbishop of York. He entered Wadham College, Oxford in 1652 where he was taught mathematics by John Wilkins and Seth Ward. In 1657 he became a pupil of law at the Middle Temple in London. He went on to become a member of the privy council of King Charles II.
In 1657 he became the first to find the arc length of an algebraic curve when he rectified the cubical parabola. He communicated his results to Brouncker and Wren at the Gresham College Society, the Society based at Gresham College, London, which a few years later became the Royal Society. Neile's work on this appeared in Wallis's De Cycloide in 1659.
Neile was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1663, one of the first members of this Society. In 1666 he became a member of the Council of the Royal Society. He sent a work on the theory of motion to the Society in 1669.
As well as his mathematical work Neile made astronomical observations using instruments on the roof of his father's house, the 'Hill House' at White Waltham in Berkshire. He died in this house at the age of 32. Thomas Hearne, the English historian and antiquarian who was himself born in White Waltham 8 years after Neile's death, describes him as follows:-
He was a virtuous, sober pious man, and had such a powerful genius to mathematical leaning that had he not been cut off in the prime of his years, in all probability he would have equalled, if not excelled, the celebrated men of that profession. Deep melancholy hastened his end, through his love for a maid of honour, to marry whom he could not obtain his father's consent.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
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| Honours awarded to William Neile (Click below for those honoured in this way) | |
| Fellow of the Royal Society | 1663 |
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