Jack, Richard

(d. 1759), mathematician and military engineer

by W. Johnson

© Oxford University Press 2004 All rights reserved

Jack, Richard (d. 1759), mathematician and military engineer, was born in Scotland, and was living at Broad Garth, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1737 and in Edinburgh in 1739. In the Caledonian Mercury for 6 November 1739 and 26 September 1743 he advertised himself as giving a course on natural philosophy as well as a complete system of astronomy and geography, in which he would 'demonstrate both in Mathematics and Experiments'. During the Jacobite rising of 1745 Jack was engaged in protecting Edinburgh. In September 1746 he is known to have been in London, helping Henry Baker with astronomical work.

Jack gained a certain notoriety in 1746 as the only witness among forty persons who gave evidence against General Sir John Cope concerning his conduct and behaviour at the battle of Prestonpans during the Jacobite rising. Sir John's army was defeated after only a very short engagement against a gathering of poorly armed Scottish highlanders, and he had rapidly retired from the battlefield to Berwick Castle with a few hundred men. He was examined by a military court in 1746, the British public at large seeing him to have grossly mismanaged his command, if not reacted with cowardice. The court of inquiry found no one ready to give evidence against Sir John, save Richard Jack. He had been serving with the king's troop as a fortifications engineer and was able to give a clear account of the battle, the nature of which was quite contrary to that of Sir John and his witnesses. Benjamin Robins was put up to write a lengthy introduction to the report of the court members, though he was not named as its author. When the report was laid before the king it resulted in Sir John's being totally exonerated. The report, if not the whole court martial, seems to have been a whitewash.

Jack again advertised his lectures on natural and experimental philosophy in the Daily Advertiser in 1751 and 1754. He advertised his gunnery (with board and lodging) for young men, and on 1 December 1757 his teaching of fortification. He also announced courses in which he used a 'large model of a regular fortress' to 'discuss matters of outworks'. He served as an assistant engineer with the British expedition to Guadeloupe, which fell in May 1759, shortly before his death. Jack was noted for his co-operation with George Adams (1704-1773) in constructing a new type of refracting telescope. He was also mentioned in connection with the design of a sea quadrant made and sold by Adams: patent no. 656, 1750, was signed and sealed between them.

Jack published at least three books: the first was The Elements of Conic Sections in Three Books (1742). The subject of this work was frequently and profoundly addressed by the well-known contemporary Scot Robert Simson, and by Jack himself in a substantial article that appeared in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1771). Jack's book demonstrated the principal properties of the parabola, the ellipse, and the hyperbola. On this and his other title-pages he asserted himself to be a teacher of mathematics. His second book, entitled The mathematical principles of the theory of the existence of God, geometrically demonstrated in three books (1747), was dedicated to Hugh, third earl of Marchmont. In the course of the dedication Jack referred to his gaining the protection of the earl from his native countrymen, by whom he was driven out of Scotland after the rebellion. Jack's third work was Euclid's Data Restored to their True and Genuine Order ... Agreeable to Pappus Alexandrinus (1756); it was dedicated to James Dawkins of Laverstoke in recognition of Dawkins's then widely acclaimed Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec (1753). In his advertisement in the Caledonian Mercury in 1743 Jack stated his intention to publish his Elements of Arithmetic, in which 'will be laid down the Doctrine of Proportion', adding 'This Scheme is quite new, having no Precedent that he knows of', but the book does not appear to have been published.

Jack died in Castle Street, Oxford Market, London, on 8 May 1759, leaving a widow, Elizabeth, and a son, also called Richard. A sale of his goods and books by auction took place in February the following year.

W. JOHNSON

Sources  
W. Johnson, 'Benjamin Robins's two essays: Sir John Cope's arraignment and Lord Anson's "A voyage around the world"', International Journal of Impact Engineering, 11 (1991), 121-34
W. Johnson, 'Richard Jack, minor mid-18th century mathematician: writings and background', International Journal of Impact Engineering, 12 (1992), 123-40
W. Johnson, 'Richard Jack and Henry Baker, FRS, in the late summer of 1746', Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 47 (1993), 225-31
W. Johnson, 'Richard Jack, assistant engineer in the expedition to Guadeloupe, 1758/9: facts and hypotheses', International Journal of Impact Engineering, 15 (1994), 91-6
R. V. Wallis and P. J. Wallis, Biobibliography of British mathematics and its applications: part II, 1701-1760 (1992)


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