The Other Newman

Extract

No history of the Christian Church in the 19th century can ignore the tremendous figure of John Henry Newman (1801-1890), striding across the scene from Calvinism through the Oxford Movement to the Cardinal’s hat. Most biographers of John make some brief reference to his brother, Francis William (1805-1897), poking a little fun at his journey through various branches of nonconformity to an austere agnosticism: his eccentric pilgrimage is contrasted with the contrary progress of his brother by William Robbins in The Newman Brothers (London, 1966), and is very sympathetically studied in one section of Basil Willey’s More Nineteenth Century Studies (London, 1956). But in neither of these books is any reference made to his considerable mathematical ability. G. H. Hardy, in his Divergent Series, asserts (p. 22) that Newman was for a time Professor of Mathematics at University College, London; this seems to be a mistake. Mr. T. L. Wren very kindly looked into this matter, and told me that while Newman was Professor of Latin from 1846 to 1863, there is no evidence that he held the chair of mathematics, though of course it is possible that he had occasionally given lectures on mathematics.