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‘An Able Mathematician’: Christopher Maire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Geoffrey Holt S.J.
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Extract

Christopher Maire who was thus described by Alban Butler was the son of Christopher of Hartbushes near Hartlepool, County Durham, of a younger branch of the Maires of Hardwick likewise not far from Hartlepool. Christopher senior had married Frances Ingleby of Lawkland in Yorkshire and they had ten children—eight sons and two daughters. The daughters, Mary Euphrasia and Catherine Eugenia entered the convent of English Poor Clares at Dunkirk. Of the eight sons six were to become priests—two, Henry and William seculars, and four, Christopher, James, Peter and Thomas, Jesuits. The other two, George and John remained laymen and George married. Two sons of George and his wife Mary (Hussey) were also to become Jesuits—Edward and George.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 497 - 502
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 See the Revd. Butler, Alban, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints… (London 1813) vol. 12 (November) page 320 Google Scholar. For details about the family see Holt, St. Omers and Bruges Colleges, 1593–1773, A Biographical Dictionary (C.R.S. 69); Holt, The English Jesuits 1650–1829, A Biographical Dictionary (C.R.S. 70); Forster, , The Maire Family of County Durham’, Recusant History, 10 pp. 338 Google Scholar ff; Vincent Smith, W., ‘Hardwick Hall and Hartbushes’, Northern Catholic History, 13 pp. 13–18 Google Scholar; Anstruther, G., The Seminary Priests, 4, p. 183 Google Scholar; Foley, H., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (1877–83), 5, pp. 653–4.Google Scholar

2 Forster, , Recusant History 10, p. 339.Google Scholar

3 C.R.S. 69 p. 169.

4 C.R.S. 70 p. 186; Letter Book of Lewis Sabran ed. Holt, (C.R.S. 62) p. 17.

5 C.R.S. 62 p. 17.

6 C.R.S. 62 pp. 20, 71, 254.

7 The Seventh Douai Diarv Ed. E. H. Burton and E. Nolan (C.R.S. 28) pp. 74,98, 134; Anstruther 4, p. 183.

8 C.R.S. 62 pp. 59, 62, 71. 254.

9 Catals.

10 Oxford English Dictionary.

11 Somm. 5, cols. 363–4.

12 Ushaw Collection Mss vol. 1 no. 45. I am grateful to Dr. J. T. Rhodes of the Ushaw Library for providing me with a photocopy of this letter. Thomas Maire S.J. was at Gateshead from c.1730 till c.1736. George, Jemmy and Peter were Christopher Maire’s younger brothers. ‘Cosen’ John may be the John Maire mentioned on p. 340 in ‘The Maire Family of County Durham’ (Recusant History 10)

13 Somm. 2 col. 1229, and 5 col. 364.

14 Catais; Somm. 5 col. 364.

15 ‘Notes and Fragments’ (in Jesuit Province Archives—JPA) ff. 179, 183–5.

16 Somm. 5, cols. 363–1

17 Somm. 5 cols. 363–1.

18 Philosophical Transactions 1749–50 vol. 46 pp. 321–3. –consulted by courtesy of the Librarian of the Royal Astronomical Society).

19 Somm. 5, cols. 363–4.

20 Catals; ‘Notes and Fragments’ ff. 188v, 189.

21 Pastor, L. v., The History of the Popes vol. 35 (1949)Google Scholar (trans. E. F. Peeler) pp. 44–5, 191; A Theory of Natural Philosophy put forward and Explained by Roger Joseph Boscovich (Chicago 1922) from the text of the Venetian edition 1763, in the introduction by Branislav Petronivic p. vii.

22 See Hamilton, Vincent ‘The Thirtieth Meridian’ in The Venerabile vol. 12 pp. 129 ffGoogle Scholar; Keegan, F. E. ‘Roger Joseph Boscovich’ in The Month vol. 206, pp. 349–50.Google Scholar

23 I am grateful to Mr. Michael Walsh the Librarian at Heythrop College, London for making it possible for me to study this book. The map ‘gives tables of the bearings of every outstanding city in the Papal States’ and the work includes three large maps (Hamilton 136).

24 Oliver, G., Collections Illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English and Irish Members S.J. (1838) p. 123.Google Scholar

25 Notes and Fragments, f. 128.

26 Quoted by Oliver in Collections… p. 123.

27 Catals.

28 ‘Thorpe—Plowden Letters’ (JPA) vol. 1 f. 308.

29 Catholic Encyclopedia 2, p. 693; Introduction to A Theory of Natural Philosophy… p. viii.

30 E. B. Newton to C. Plowden. ‘Letters 1773–1804’ (JPA) f. 137.

31 Surtees, , History of Durham, vol. 1 p. 52 Google Scholar (quoted in Foley, , Records… 5, p. 654 Google Scholar; Kirk, J., Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century, p. 154.Google Scholar

32 Butler, A., the Lives of the Fathers… vol. 12 (November) p. 320nGoogle Scholar.

33 Gillow, J., Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics 4 p. 393 Google Scholar; Hamilton, , ‘The Thirtieth Meridian’ in The Venerabile 12 p. 136nGoogle Scholar.

34 ‘Letters of non-Jesuits 1766–1857’ (JPA) ff. 1–2.

35 Somm. 1 col. 1836; Keegan, F., The Month vol. 206 p. 348.Google Scholar

36 An outline of Christopher Maire’s life and work is given in Poggendorff, J. C., Handworterbuch zur Geschichte der Exacten Wissenschaften, M-Z col. 18.

37 I am grateful to the Reverend F. J. Turner, S.J. Librarian and Archivist at Stonyhurst, for providing me with a copy of the Latin text.