... worked in early life with his father, who was a bricklayer. When about twelve years of age, being one day employed by the Rev Warnes, he was observed sitting on one of the staves of the ladder reading a book, instead of carrying his hod of mortar. Mr Warnes asked the boy if he was fond of reading; and on the child's answering in the affirmative, he fetched him a book, and told him, when he had read it, he would lend him another. Mr Warnes found the boy so anxious to learn, that he took him from his father's business, and put him to school, at Mr Tilney's, of Harleston, where, after a few years, he became an usher.

In 1768 Vince's early competence in mathematics allowed him to propose one, and answer ten, of the serious mathematical problems regularly set in the 'Ladies' Diary'. With financial help from Dr Samuel Cooper of Great Yarmouth, he briefly attended St Paul's School, London ...

The communication of motion from impact is well known to constitute a considerable part of that branch of natural philosophy called mechanics; and as all our enquiries therein are directed, either to assist us in those operations which add to the conveniences of life, or to explain, for the satisfaction of the mind, those changes which we daily see arise from the effects of bodies on each other, it might naturally have been expected that the attention of philosophers would have been engaged, first in the investigation of such cases as most frequently occur from the accidental action of one body on another, before they had proceeded to others less obvious. A little consideration will convince any one how seldom it happens, in the collision of two bodies, that their centres of gravity and point of contact lie in the line of direction of the striking body, yet few writers on mechanics have extended their enquiries any further than this simple case. It must however be acknowledged, that the action of bodies on each other, in directions not passing through their centre of gravity, affords a subject at least curious in speculation; for my own part, I have little doubt but that it might be rendered extremely useful to the practical mechanic.

The utility of finding fluents by continuation was manifest to Sir Isaac Newton, who first proposed it; and since his time some of the most eminent mathematicians have employed much of their attention upon it. The method which I have investigated and exemplified in this Paper, I offer as being entirely new; and at the same time it not only exhibits, at once, the general law up to the required fluent, but also appears, from some of the instances here given, to be more extensive and convenient in its application than any method hitherto offered. The general resolution of the given fluxion into a series of fluxions of the same kind, where the index of the unknown quantity without the vinculum keeps decreasing or increasing either by the index under or by half the index, has not, that I know of, before been given; which furnishes us at once not only with a very easy method of continuing fluents, but also points out a very simple method of investigating the fluent of the given fluxion without continuation.

... Vince was presented in 1784 to the rectory of Kirby Bedon, Norfolk, which he occupied for two years before handing over to a curate and moving to the vicarage of South Creak, Norfolk, in 1786. He was presented to the prebend of Melton Ross with Scamblesby, Lincolnshire, in 1803, and in 1809 to the archdeaconry of Bedford.

Samuel Vince, of Caius College, B.A. 1775, of Sidney, M.A. 1778, became sequestrator of the vicarage of Milton in 1789. He did not reside in the parish, but walked over from Cambridge every Sunday morning, to perform his weekly duty. ... His native county was Norfolk, and he was remarkable, as well for his very simple manners, as for his strong provincial dialect.

Mr Vince, originally of Caius-College but then, if I rightly recollect, of Sydney. He still lives in Cambridge; and it must be a strained panegyric indeed that exceeds his deserts, either as an accomplished mathematician, or an amiable man. This gentleman, I believe, has been rewarded with no preferment adequate to his reasonable pretensions.

"Helluones" means "bookworms" in Latin. Vince is studying a mathematical section of a book with running title similar to 'Principia naturalia'. Other academic publications scattered about the study include 'Meditationes algebraicae', 'Vince on the infinite series', and 'Problemata'. On the back wall are a diagram of "Halley's scheme: transit of Venus" and a chart of "An analysis of Mr Locke's politics [?] ideas". A pendulum clock gives the time as 9.15 (presumably pm, as it is dark). On the floor, his emaciated cat attempts to solve mathematical conundrums in the 'Ladies' Diary'.

He discovered, when a very boy, such an aptitude for figures, such acuteness and skill in the combination of numbers, that he was soon recommended to the notice of the clergyman, who, fortunately for my friend, was a man of learning himself, and a zealous encourager of it in others. He assisted in the education of the youth, liberally and effectually, and in due time procured his admission at college. His progress was uniform and auspicious. He distinguished himself far above his fellows, by his mathematical attainments and philosophical pursuits, and received in due time the reward of his diligence and his merits. He enjoyed the highest honours in the power of the university to bestow; he assisted the studies of many of the most eminent men who have adorned, first the seat of Alma Mater, and afterwards, their country; he has enriched the branch of learning which he so successfully cultivated, with some of the most valuable publications of modern times; and he yet lives, and long may he live, with professional dignity and honourable ease. A word ought to be said of his patron, for I also, in some degree, experienced his kindness.