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The Fifth Edition, corrected and enlarged by M. Fryer. Octavo. V, (1), 352 pages plus three folded plates. Original Hardcover / Full contemporary leather with gilt lettering on original, red spinelabel. Upper hinge with small defect. Binding rubbed but overall in very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Interior bright and clean ! From the library of Daniel Conner (Connerville / Manch House), with his Exlibris / Bookplate to pastedown. William Ludlam (1717 1788) was an English clergyman and mathematician. Born at Leicester, he was elder son of the physician Richard Ludlam (1680 1728), who practised there; Thomas Ludlam, the clergyman, was his youngest brother. (His son was also called Thomas Ludlam, see below.) His mother was Anne, daughter of William Drury of Nottingham. His uncle, Sir George Ludlam, was chamberlain of the city of London, and died in 1726. One of his sisters became stepmother of Joseph Cradock, and one of his first cousins, Isabella, daughter of John Ludlam, married Gerrard Andrewes, and was mother of Gerrard Andrewes the dean of Canterbury. Ludlam, after attending Leicester grammar school, became scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, and was elected to a fellowship in 1744. He matriculated in 1734 and graduated B.A. 1738, M.A. 1742, and B.D. 1749. In 1749 he was instituted to the vicarage of Norton-by-Galby in Leicestershire, on the nomination of Bernard Whalley. From 1754 to 1757 he was junior dean of his college, and from 1767 to 1769 he was Linacre lecturer in physic. In 1760 Ludlam unsuccessfully contested the Lucasian chair of mathematics with Edward Waring. This was despite the negative campaigning of William Samuel Powell, who attacked Waring's work. In 1765 Ludlam was one of "three gentlemen skilled in mechanics" appointed to report to the Board of Longitude on the merits of John Harrison's watch; His report is given in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1765, pt. i. p. 412. He enjoyed a reputation at the time for his skill in practical mechanics and astronomy, as well as for his mathematical lectures. In 1768, having accepted from his college the rectory of Cockfield in Suffolk, thereby vacating his fellowship, Ludlam removed to Leicester, where he spent the remaining twenty years of his life. At first he lived with his brother Thomas in Wigston's Hospital, but in 1772 he married. He appears in the Life of Thomas Robinson (1749 1813) by Edward Thomas Vaughan, who was then vicar of St. Mary's, Leicester. Ludlam died on 16 March 1788, and was commemorated in a tablet on the south wall of St. Mary's. The Gentleman's Magazine (1788, pt. i. p. 461) reported the sale by auction of his instruments and models. Ludlam may have contributed in early life to the Monthly Review, but most of his writings were in his time at Leicester. His Rudiments of Mathematics (1785) became a standard Cambridge text-book, passed through several editions, and was still in vogue in 1815. His Essay on Newton's Second Law of Motion (1780), suggesting an explicit statement of the physical independence of forces, was rejected by the Royal Society.[citation needed] Other publications were: Astronomical Observations made in St. John's College, 1767 and 1768, with an Account of Several Astronomical Instruments, 1769. Two Mathematical Essays; the first on Ultimate Ratios, the second on the Power of the Wedge, 1770. Directions for the Use of Hadley's Quadrant, with Remarks on the Construction of that Instrument, 1771. The Theory of Hadley's Quadrant, or Rules for the Construction and Use of that Instrument demonstrated, 1771. An Introduction to and Notes on Mr. Bird's Method of Dividing Astronomical Instruments, 1786. Mathematical Essays on (i.) Properties of the Cycloid, (ii.) Def. i.; Cor. i. Prop. x.; Cor. i. Prop. xiii. of Book I. of Newton's Principia, 1787. Ludlam contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine in 1772 (pt. i. p. 562) "A Short Account of Church Organs", and in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Socie. Seller Inventory # 110114AB
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