Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/454

 had passed, did so, and Neper then shew'd him a rude draft that he called "Canon mirabilis Logarithmorum,"' which, with some alterations, appeared in 1614. There seems, however, to be no foundation in fact for this oft-repeated story. It is a remarkable circumstance, not generally known, that Napier himself informed Tycho Brahe of his discovery twenty years before it was made public.

His son,, M.D., became a fellow of the College of Physicians, and physician to James I and to his successor Charles I, both before and subsequently to his accession to the throne. He died in January 1614-5, and was buried in the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Craig attended James I in his last illness, and gave great offence at court by giving free expression to his opinion that his royal patient had been poisoned.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss) ii. 491; Fasti, i. 310; Sloane MS. 2149. p. 83; Mark Napier's Memoirs of John Napier, pp. 361-6; Munk's Coll. of Phys. (1873). i. 118, 170; Burnet's Own Time (1823), i. 20 ; Gardiner's Hist. of England, v. 312.]  CRAIG, JOHN (d. 1731), mathematician, said to have been a Scotsman who settled in Cambridge, was a distinguished mathematician and a friend of Newton. He wrote several papers in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ and published two mathematical treatises, ‘Methodus Figurarum … Quadraturas determinandi,’ 1685, and ‘Tractatus … de Figurarum Curvilinearum Quadraturis et locis Geometricis,’ 1693. These writings were of some importance in the development of the theory of fluxions, and involved him in a controversy with James Bernoulli. In 1699 he published his curious tract, ‘Theologiæ Christianæ Principia Mathematica.’ He applies the theory of probabilities to show how the evidence is gradually weakened by transmission through successive hands. He argues that in 1699 the evidence in favour of the truth of the gospel narrative was equal to that represented by the statement of twenty-eight contemporary disciples; but that in the year 3144 it will diminish to zero. He infers that the second coming (at which period it is doubtful whether faith will be found on the earth) must take place not later than the last epoch. He afterwards calculates the ratio of the happiness promised in another world to that obtainable in this, and proves it to be infinite. In spite of his vagaries Craig was in 1708 collated by his countryman Bishop Burnet to the prebend of Durnford in the cathedral of Salisbury, which in 1726 he exchanged for the prebend of Gillingham Major. This had been held from 1698 to 1720 by a William Craig, who may probably have been a connection. He is said to have been ‘an inoffensive, virtuous man,’ and he showed his simplicity by living in London in his later years in hopes of being noticed for his mathematical abilities. The hope was disappointed, and he died in London 11 Oct. 1731. Besides the above he published ‘De Calculo Fluentium libri duo,’ 1718.

[Hutchins's Dorsetshire, iii. 218, 220, iv. 420; General Biographical Dictionary, 1761; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 665, 668, 669; Hutton's Math. Dict.; Montucla's Histoire, iii. 127–8, 130; De Morgan's Budget of Paradoxes, pp. 77–8.]  CRAIG, LEWIS,  (1569–1622), judge, eldest son of Sir Thomas Craig [q. v.] of Riccarton, by Helen, daughter of Heriot of Traboun, born in 1569, was educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.A. in 1597. He studied the civil law at Poitiers, was admitted advocate at the Scotch bar in 1600. knighted and appointed an ordinary lord of session in 1604-5. He died in 1622.

[Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice.]  CRAIG, ROBERT (1730–1823), political writer, born in 1730, was the second son of James Craig, professor of law in the university of Edinburgh. He was admitted to the Scotch bar in 1754, and about 1756 he was appointed one of the judges of the Edinburgh commissary court. This office he resigned in 1791. For many years he and his elder brother Thomas lived together, neither ever marrying. On his brother's death in 1814 he succeeded to the estate of Riccarton, being the last male heir in the descent of Sir Thomas Craig the feudal lawyer [q. v.] He was a whig in politics. In 1795 he published anonymously ‘An Inquiry into the justice and necessity of the present War with France.’ This pamphlet is a vindication of the right of nations to remodel their institutions without external interference. He died in Edinburgh on 13 Feb. 1823 in his ninety-third year.

[Scots Mag. xii. 647; Anderson's Scottish Nation, i. 687.]  CRAIG, THOMAS (1538–1608), Scottish feudalist, was the eldest son of William Craig of Craigfintray in Aberdeenshire, according to Mr. Tytler, or of William Craig, a citizen of Edinburgh, descended from the Craigfintray family, according to his earlier biographer and relative, Burnet. He was sent by his father at the early age of fourteen to St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews, where he received his education in