Background
Theophilus Grew is first heard of in 1732, when he published at Annapolis, Maryland, The Maryland Almanack for the Year of oar Lord God, 1733, Student in the Mathematics.
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Theophilus Grew
Edit ProfileEducation
At its first Commencement, May 17, 1757, the college conferred upon him the honorary degree of M. A. in recognition of his scientific attainments.
Career
During the next quarter-century Grew became well known throughout the southern and middle colonies for his astronomical calculations.
His school-announcements indicate that he was giving instruction in “Arithmetick, Merchants Accompts, Algebra, Geometry, Surveying, Gauging, Trigonometry, Navigation, Astronomy, and all other Parts of the Mathematicks” in Philadelphia as early as 1734.
In 1740 he accepted a call to the headmastership of “The Public School of Kent County, in Maryland. ” Two years later he returned to Philadelphia and again opened a school for the teaching of mathematics. During the next eight years he was frequently called into consultation by various city and colonial land-surveys. His expert advice was sought at the hearings of the long boundary contest between Maryland and Pennsylvania. He was one of the commissioners appointed to represent Pennsylvania at the joint meeting of November 1750 at New Castle, Delawere.
On December 17, 1750, he was appointed first professor of mathematics at the College and Academy of Philadelphia. Apparently, in 1753, the trustees permitted him to carry on a private-venture evening school at the same time, in partnership with Horace Jones, his assistant at the college.
His skill in mathematics made him a valued member of Benjamin Franklin’s coterie.
He died in Philadelphia.
Achievements
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Grew was famous as the first professor of mathematics at the College and Academy of Philadelphia. His almanacs, published in New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, and Williamsburg, Virginia, enjoyed a wide circulation. In addition he published in the newspapers the solutions of many mathematical problems relating to navigation and surveying.
Membership
He was a member of Benjamin Franklin’s coterie.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Provost William Smith, in his “Account of the College and Academy, ” published in the American Magazine for October 1758, refers to him as having “so long been an approved teacher of Mathematics and Astronomy in this city, that I need say nothing to make him better known than he is already. ”
Connections
According to the records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, he married Elizabeth Cosins in 1735, Frances Bowen in 1739, and Rebecca Richards in 1747.
