Joseph Raphson, F. R. S

Abstract

Three hundred years ago, in 1690, a mathematical book was published in London that ensured its author a certain degree of immortality: his name will now always be associated with that of Isaac Newton. The book, being the first account of the so-called Newton-Raphson method in the fully developed form which survives to the present day, was entitled ‘Analysis Aequationum UNIVERSALIS, SEU Ad AEQUATIONES ALGEBRAICAS Resolvendas METHODUS Generalis, et Expedita, Ex nova Infinitarum serierum Doctrina, DEDUCTA AC DEMONSTRATA’. This article tells as much as we have been able to discover about the enigmatic author of the book. BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS Very little is known about the life of Joseph Raphson; of the few statements made about him in the literature, even fewer can now be verified from original sources. The details that follow can still be found in surviving contemporary documents, but unfortunately we have to start rather late in his life, with his election to the Royal Society. Mr Joseph Raphson was proposed for Fellowship of the Royal Society at the meeting of Wednesday, 27 November 1689, by the renowned Edmond Halley. The Society’s Journal Book (1) reads: Dr Stanley, Mr Ralfson, and Mr Moult were proposed candidates at this meeting, and approved,...