John Wallis

John Wallis was an English mathematician, cryptographer and clergyman who became one of the leading scientific figures of the seventeenth century. Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford for more than half a century, he made important contributions to algebra, infinitesimal methods and the notation of mathematics, and his work helped prepare the ground for the later development of calculus.

Wallis supported Parliament during the Civil Wars and became a highly effective cryptanalyst, work he continued after the Restoration despite the change of regime. As Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford he made important contributions to algebra, infinitesimal methods and mathematical notation and was one of the founding members of the Royal Society. His long career linked seventeenth-century mathematics with government intelligence and university politics.

In Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost, When Robert Grove, a fellow of New College, dies and the servant Sarah Blundy is accused of poisoning him, four men record sharply conflicting accounts of the case: the Venetian physician Marco da Cola, the Royalist son Jack Prestcott, the mathematician and cryptographer John Wallis, and the Oxford antiquary Anthony Wood.