Henry Billingsley's 1570 translation of Euclid's Geometry, the first from Greek into English, with a lengthy opening essay by Dr John Dee, was a classic of its time and a landmark in mathematical publishing.
20 Facts About Henry Billingsley
1.
2.
Henry Billingsley was listed in 1617 as a deceased member of the Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries.
3.
Henry Billingsley entered St John's College, Cambridge with a foundation scholarship in 1551.
4.
Henry Billingsley is said to have developed an interest in mathematics at the University of Oxford under David Whytehead, who left England in 1553.
5.
Henry Billingsley did not take his degree but was apprenticed to a London merchant.
6.
Henry Billingsley became a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers by patrimony in 1560, and married his first wife, Elizabeth Bourn, in 1562.
7.
Henry Billingsley was on the commission to reform the liturgy, but refused a benefice, preferring to travel about wherever he felt needed.
8.
Indeed, in his Euclid, Henry Billingsley stated that he had completed, ready for the press, an English translation of the De Sphericis of Theodosius, although that is not known to have survived.
9.
Henry Billingsley dedicated his edition to Cuthbert Tunstall, the Catholic humanist bishop of Durham who held office almost uninterruptedly from 1530 until 1559, when he was deposed for refusing to support the appointment of Matthew Parker.
10.
Henry Billingsley purchased Penhow Castle in 1581 for his son Henry, who was then establishing himself in Monmouthshire.
11.
Henry Billingsley was chosen for Parliament for the City of London in that year, but did not sit.
12.
In 1587 Sir Henry Billingsley obtained, and his son took up, a grant of nearly 12,000 acres in County Limerick as an undertaker in the Plantation of Munster.
13.
Bridget Henry Billingsley died in 1588, and Henry Billingsley married to Katherine, daughter of Sir John Killigrew of Arwenack, Cornwall, and widow of a London gentleman.
14.
At the reorganization of the Customs, Henry Billingsley became one of Elizabeth's four customs collectors in 1589, taking Thomas Smythe's former office as Customer but not his responsibilities as Farmer: he was chief Customer for the Port of London in 1590.
15.
Henry Billingsley was elected President of St Thomas' Hospital in 1594.
16.
At that time, with his son Henry Billingsley, he raised a fine upon Siston Court, Gloucestershire, which became his son's family seat.
17.
Dame Elizabeth Billingsley died in 1603, and Sir Henry made his fifth and last marriage to Susan Tracy.
18.
The king granted all mining rights to his own lessee in 1609, who was thoroughly obstructed: a Survey conducted by John Norden in 1615 showed that large amounts of coal were being extracted annually, and listed Sir Henry Billingsley as holding 810 acres there, the third largest private claim.
19.
Sir Henry Billingsley was buried at the close of 1606 beside his first wife, Elizabeth, at the church of St Katherine Coleman in Aldgate.
20.
Henry Billingsley married five times and had at least ten children.