John West (mathematician)

John West (1756-1817) was a mathematician and priest from Scotland.

John West
Frontpage of Treatises (1838)
Born(1756-04-10)10 April 1756
Logie, Fife, Scotland
Died17 October 1817(1817-10-17) (aged 61)
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsUniversity of St Andrews
InfluencesNicolas Vilant
InfluencedJames Ivory
John Leslie

Life and work

Fourth child of Samuel West and Margaret Mein, his father died in 1766. West matriculated in the University of Saint Andrews in 1769 thanks to financial help of the presbytery clerk Dr. Adamson.[1] He, like his brothers, studied mathematics under professor Nicolas Vilant.[2]

He was assistant of professor Vilant, who had poor health, but lacking of prospects in his native land, he emigrated to Jamaica,[3] in 1784, the same year that Elements of Mathematics and A System of Shorthand were published.[4]

In Jamaica, West was initially teacher in the Manning’s Free School at Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland Parish.[5]

In 1790 he was appointed rector of Saint Thomas in Morant Bay, where he died in 1817.

During his life in Jamaica he never left his mathematical studies, despite his academic isolation.[6]

Before his death, he sent the manuscript of Mathematical Treatises to his old student John Leslie, who published it in 1838.

gollark: It looks simpler than your diagram, although I suppose that covers all school stuff while I'm only talking about my specific school and there are other options like vocational training of some kind.
gollark: My school has some convoluted thing where for A-level (high school, ish), as well as the regular 3 A-levels, you *also* have to do two of these three options:- EPQ i.e. a big independent-research-y project- a bunch of 3-month nonexamined "carousel" courses about random stuff like sign language and cooking and photography- a "complementary studies" course, which is *either* a nonexamined random thing or something like one AS-level*or* a fourth A-level.
gollark: Hmm, that's quite a lot longer than "high school" here.
gollark: The only vaguely practical class my school offers at "high school" age (16-18, right?) is "cooking", as part of the complementary studies carousel thing, which I'm not actually doing.
gollark: I see.

References
  1. Craik, page 32.
  2. Craik, pages 33-34.
  3. Mann & Craik, page 80.
  4. Craik, page 40.
  5. Craik, page 41.
  6. Mann & Craik, page 90.

Bibliography
  • Craik, Alex D.D. (1998). "Geometry, Analysis, and the Baptism of Slaves: John West in Scotland and Jamaica". Historia Mathematica. 25 (1): 29–74. doi:10.1006/hmat.1997.2174. ISSN 0315-0860.
  • Mann, A.J.S.; Craik, A.D.D. (2011). "Scotland. Land of opportunity but few rewards". In Raymond Flood; Adrian Rice; Robin Wilson (eds.). Mathematics in Victorian Britain. Oxford University Press. pp. 77–102. ISBN 978-0-19-960139-4.
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