Walter Minto

Background

Walter Minto was born on December 5, 1753, in Cowdenham, County Merse, Scotland. His family was of Spanish origin and had once had rank but his parents were very poor.

Education

Minto was given a sufficiently good schooling and was attending the University of Edinburgh at the age of fifteen. Hume was then teaching there. At the wishes of his parents and friends, he studied theology, living during this time with a Mr. Watson in Perthshire, and occupying his leisure time with writing verse and humorous articles for the magazines.

Career

Minto planned to go to Italy as a pilgrim, begging his way, but Hume recommended him as tutor to two boys, the sons of George Johnstone, formerly the governor of West Florida and member of the British Parliament, and Minto sailed for Italy with the boys. There they established themselves in the home of Giuseppe Slop, a professor of astronomy in the University of Pisa. On March 13, 1781, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus and Minto was in Pisa when the exciting discovery was announced in the papers of Florence. He reported that in May 1781, he and the Italian professor saw the planet "in an excellent reflecting telescope. " Two years later Minto published his treatise, Researches into Some Parts of the Theory of the Planets, containing mathematical formulae dealing with the determination of astronomical magnitudes and also observational data concerning the new planet made by a number of observers. At the time the treatise was written the new planet had not been named Uranus and Minto suggested the name Minerva "because, being a telescopic star, it may be said to denote the modesty of the Goddess of Wisdom. " Following his return to Edinburgh, he became a teacher of mathematics. He had considerable correspondence with the philosophers of England, wrote several papers on astronomy, and collaborated with D. S. Erskine, Earl of Buchan, in An Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of John Napier of Merchiston, supporting Napier's claim as the inventor of logarithms. Having warmly supported the cause of American independence, in 1786, he sailed for America and soon afterward became the principal of Erasmus Hall at Flatbush, Long Island. In 1787, he was called to the College of New Jersey to succeed Ashbel Green as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. His fellow countryman, Dr. John Witherspoon, was president of the college and Minto had heard favorably of the institution. He was given a salary of £200 per year, including room and board in Nassau Hall. His inaugural oration, "On the Progress and Importance of the Mathematical Sciences, " presented on the evening before the annual commencement in 1788, was subsequently published. Shortly after his arrival, President Witherspoon wrote to the Earl of Buchan expressing his approval of Minto. He died in October 1796, at the age of forty-two, and was buried in the Princeton cemetery.

Achievements

• Walter Minto was one of Princeton's earliest teachers of mathematics, and perhaps the first deserving the designation "mathematician. " He was a treasurer of the college and wrote his textbook of mathematics, which was in manuscript at the time of his death.

Works

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  • An Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of John Napier, of Merchiston;

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Connections

Minto was married to Mary Skelton of Princeton. They had no children.

Wife:

Mary Skelton