John Pell

John Pell (1 March 1611 – 12 December 1685) was an English mathematician. He was born at Southwick in Sussex. He was educated at Steyning Grammar School, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of thirteen. During his university career he became an accomplished linguist, and even before he took his B.A. degree (in 1629) corresponded with Henry Briggs and other mathematicians. In 1630 he was teaching in the short-lived Chichester Academy, set up by Samuel Hartlib. Shortly afterwards he married Ithamaria Reginald (also rendered variously as Ithamara or Ithumaria, with the surname Reginolles), sister of Bathsua Makin. Pell spent much of the 1630s working under Hartlib's influence, on a variety of topics in the area of pedagogy,...