Thomas Harriot

Harriot worked between 1560 and 1621 across mathematician, explorer, astronomer, astrologer and writer and 2 further recorded occupations. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Thomas Harriot • Born — c. 1560 • Birthplace — Oxford, England • Died — 2 July 1621 • Place of death — London, England • Fields — Astronomy, mathematics, ethnography • Education — St Mary Hall, Oxford

Born in 1560 in Oxford, England, Thomas Harriot attended St Mary Hall, Oxford. His name appears in the hall's registry dating from 1577. Harriot started to study navigation shortly after receiving a bachelor's degree from Oxford University. The study of navigation that Harriot studied concentrated on the idea of the open seas and how to cross to the New World from the Atlantic Ocean. He used instruments such as the astrolabe and sextants to aid his studies of navigation. After educating himself by incorporating ideals from his astronomic and nautical studies, Harriot taught other captains his navigational techniques in Raleigh. His findings were recorded in the Articon but were later never found.

• Illustration — Title page of A Briefe and True Report of the Newfound Land of Virginia • Illustration — Watercolour by John White of Roanoke Indians After his graduation from Oxford in 1580, Harriot was first hired by Sir Walter Raleigh as a mathematics tutor; he used his knowledge of astronomy/astrology to provide navigational expertise, help design Raleigh's ships, and serve as his accountant. Prior to his expedition with Raleigh, Harriot wrote a treatise on navigation. He made efforts to communicate with Manteo and Wanchese, two Native Americans who had been brought to England. Harriot devised a phonetic alphabet to transcribe their Carolina Algonquian language. Harriot and Manteo spent many days in one another's company; Harriot interrogated Manteo closely about life in the New World and learned much that was to the advantage of the English settlers. He believed that Indigenous peoples were intelligent but had inferior technology. In addition, he perceived Native Americans as having a sense of awe towards European inventions: Many things they sawe with us...as mathematical instruments, sea compasses...[and] spring clocks that seemed to goe of themselves – and many other things we had – were so strange unto them, and so farre exceeded their capacities to comprehend the reason and meanes how they should be made and done, that they thought they were rather the works of gods than men. He made only one expedition, around 1585–86, and spent some time in the New World visiting Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina, expanding his knowledge by improving his understanding of the Carolina Algonquian language. As the only Englishman who had learned Carolina Algonquian prior to the voyage, Harriot was vital to the success of the expedition. His account of the voyage, named A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, was published in 1588 (probably written a year before). The True Report contains an early account of the Native American population encountered by the expedition; it proved very influential upon later English explorers and colonists. He wrote: "Whereby it may be hoped, if means of good government be used, that they may in short time be brought to civility and the embracing of true religion." At the same time, his views of Native Americans' industry and capacity to learn were later largely ignored in favor of the parts of the "True Report" about extractable minerals and resources. As a scientific adviser during the voyage, Harriot was asked by Raleigh to find the most efficient way to stack cannonballs on the deck of the ship. His ensuing theory about the close-packing of spheres shows a striking resemblance to atomism and modern atomic theory, which he was later accused of believing. His correspondence about optics with Johannes Kepler, in which he described some of his ideas, later influenced Kepler's conjecture.

Harriot was employed for many years by Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, with whom he resided at Syon House, which was run by Henry Percy's cousin Thomas Percy. The Duke was surrounded by many scholars and learned men and provided a more stable form of patronage than Raleigh. In 1595 the Duke of Northumberland made property in Durham over to Harriot, moving him up the social ladder into 'the landed gentry'. Not long after the Durham transactions, the Duke gave Harriot the use of one of the houses on the estate at Syon, to work on optics and the law of refraction. Harriot's sponsors began to fall from favor: Raleigh was the first, and Harriot's other patron Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland, was imprisoned in 1605 in connection with the Gunpowder Plot as he was closely connected to one of the conspirators, Thomas Percy. Harriot himself was interrogated and briefly imprisoned but was soon released. Walter Warner, Robert Hues, William Lower, and other scientists were present around the Earl of Northumberland's mansion as they worked for him and assisted in the teaching of the family's children. While this was occurring, Harriot continued his work involving mainly astronomy, and in 1607 Harriot used his notes from the observations of Halley's Comet from Ilfracombe to elaborate on his understanding of its orbit. Soon after, in 1609 and 1610 respectively, Harriot turned his attention towards the physical aspects of the Moon and his observations of the first sightings of sunspots. In early 1609, he bought a "Dutch trunke" (telescope), invented in 1608, and his observations were among the first uses of a telescope for astronomy. Harriot is now credited as the first astronomer to draw an astronomical object after viewing it through a telescope: he drew a map of the Moon on 5 August 1609 [O.S. 26 July 1609], preceding Galileo by several months. By 1613, Harriot had created two maps of the whole Moon, with many identifiable features such as lunar craters depicted in their correct relative positions that were not to be improved upon for several decades. He also observed sunspots in December 1610.

From 1614 Harriot was consulting Théodore de Mayerne, who was among James I's doctors, for an apparent cancer of the left nostril that was gradually eating away the septum and was apparently linked to a cancerous ulcer on his lip. This progressed until 1621, when he was living with a friend named Thomas Buckner on Threadneedle Street. There he died, apparently from skin cancer. It was suspected that Harriot's cancer was due to excessive tobacco consumption. He died on 2 July 1621, three days after writing his will (discovered by Henry Stevens). His executors posthumously published his Artis Analyticae Praxis on algebra in 1631; Nathaniel Torporley was the intended executor of Harriot's wishes, but Walter Warner in the end pulled the book into shape. It may be a compendium of some of his works but does not represent all that he left unpublished (more than 400 sheets of annotated writing). It is not directed in a way that follows the manuscripts and it fails to give the full significance of Harriot's writings. Thomas Harriot was buried in the church of St Christopher le Stocks in Threadneedle Street, near where he died. The church was subsequently damaged in the Great Fire of London, and demolished in 1781 to enable expansion of the Bank of England.

Harriot's 5 August [O.S. 26 July] 1609 drawing of his observation of the Moon has been noted as the first recorded telescopic observation ever made, predating Galileo Galilei's 30 November 1609 observation by almost four months. Galileo's drawings, which were the first such observations to be published, contained greater detail such as identifying previously unknown features including mountains and craters. In a late 1610 drawing Harriot inaccurately drew how far the crescent Moon would be illuminated around its limb, inaccurately drew the position of the craters, and did not draw the relief details that one would see along the Moon's light/dark terminator. Critics, such as Terrie Bloom, accused Harriot of plagiarizing depictions directly from Galileo's works and argued that Harriot's representation of the Moon was an inadequate representation that needed to be improved. However, both descriptions were also deemed valuable due to the scientists focusing on different specific observations. Galileo describes the arrangement in a topographical way while Harriot used cartographical concepts to illustrate his views of the Moon. Harriot used a 6X Dutch telescope for his observations of the Moon. Harriot's recordings and descriptions were very simple with minimal detail causing his sketches to be difficult to analyze by later scientists. Galileo's astronomical observations regarding the Moon were published in his book Sidereus Nuncius in 1610 and Harriot's observations were published in 1784 with some not coming to light until 1965. Harriot's lack of publication is presumed to be connected to the issues with the Ninth Earl of Northumberland and the Gunpowder Plot. Harriot was also known to have read and admired the work of Galileo in Sidereus Nuncius. Harriot continued his observations of the Moon until 1612.

Thomas Harriot is recognized as the first person to observe sunspots in 1610 with the use of a telescope. Harriot observed the sunspot with the use of a telescope in a direct and hazardous way. Even though Harriot observed the Sun directly through his telescope, there were no recorded injuries to his eyes. Harriot's depiction of the sunspots were documented in 199 drawings that provided details about the solar rotation and its acceleration. Like many of Harriot's other notes, depictions of the sunspots were not published. Similar to the early observation of the Moon, Galileo was also known to contribute his observations of sunspots and published his findings in 1613. The specifics as to how Harriot's telescope was set up remains largely unknown. However, it is known that Harriot used different magnifications of telescopes with 10X and 20X power being used most often. Harriot chose to observe the sunspots after sunrise because it made the vertical easier to analyze. According to Harriot's notes there was a total of 690 observations of sunspots recorded. Harriot's findings challenged the idea of the unchanging heavens by explaining the Sun's axial rotation and provided further support for the heliocentric theory.

Around 1620, Harriot's unpublished papers include the early basis of continuous compounding. Harriot uses modern mathematical concepts to explain the process behind continuous compounding. The concept of compounded interest occurs when the more times interest is added within the year assuming the rate stays the same then the final interest will be larger. Based on this observation, Harriot created mathematical equations that included logarithms and series calculations to illustrate his concepts.

* * * • A Brief and True Report online pdf text edition • A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia from American Studies at the University of Virginia. • Annotated Translation of Harriot's Praxis by Ian Bruce

* • Harriot, Thomas • The Englishman who beat Galileo • The Soft Logic of Thomas Harriot • The Thomas Harriot Seminar • Searching for the Lost Colony Blog • The Harriot Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series at East Carolina University • The Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC • Thomas Harriot Quintessential Renaissance Scholar • Account of the Roanoke settlements Retrieved April 2011

Thomas Harriot was born on 1 January 1560 in Oxford. Harriot held the nationality of Kingdom of England. Harriot worked as mathematician, explorer, astronomer and astrologer, and the authority record catalogues a further 3 occupations under the same name, among them writer, linguist and cartographer. Harriot worked in England. Harriot worked in English and Latin. Harriot died on 2 July 1621 in London. Harriot is buried at Nunhead Cemetery.