Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/377

H Church of England are considered and answered,’ 4to, London, 1697.



HELLINS, JOHN (d. 1827), mathematician and astronomer, was son of a labourer at Ashreyney, near Chumleigh, Devonshire, and after being bound as a parish apprentice to a cooper at Chumleigh, worked at that trade till he was about twenty years of age. Having meanwhile taught himself elementary mathematics, he became master of a small school at Bishop's Tawton, and made the acquaintance of [q. v.], vicar of St. Hilary and Gwinear, Cornwall, through whose influence (, History of Cornwall, v. 107) he was appointed an assistant in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich under Dr. Maskelyne. While so employed Hellins studied Latin and Greek and qualified himself for holy orders. He was curate of Constantine in Cornwall (1779–83) and afterwards of Greens Norton, near Towcester, and in 1790 was presented to the vicarage of Potterspury in Northamptonshire. Admitted fellow of the Royal Society in 1796, he gained the Copley medal in 1798 by his ‘improved solution of a problem in physical astronomy, by which swiftly converging series are obtained which are useful in computing the perturbations of the motions of the Earth, Mars, and Venus by their mutual attractions.’ Other important papers by Hellins, which appeared in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’ were ‘Two Theorems for computing Logarithms,’ 1780; ‘New Method of finding the Equal Roots of an Equation by Division,’ 1782; ‘Dr. Halley's Method of computing the Quadrature of the Circle improved,’ 1794; ‘Of Rectification,’ &c., 1802.

In 1787 Hellins revised Fenning's ‘Young Algebraist's Companion,’ and in 1788 issued ‘Mathematical Essays containing new Improvements and Discoveries,’ London, 4to; and in 1791 wrote two of the tracts in Maseres' ‘Scriptores Logarithmici.’ From 1795 to 1814 he wrote a series of mathematical articles in the ‘British Critic,’ e.g. on Wales's ‘Method of finding the Longitude,’ vi. 413; Agnesi's ‘Analytical Institutions,’ xxiii. 143, xxiv. 653, xxv. 141; Keith's ‘Trigonometry,’ xxxi. 489; Baily's ‘Doctrine of Interest and Annuities,’ xxxviii. 622, xliii. 502. In 1800 Hellins graduated B.D. at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1806, when Windham, the minister of war, was projecting his new military system, Hellins furnished all the calculations and tables on which it was based. Hellins died in March 1827, and was buried 9 April. On 10 Nov. 1794 he married Miss Anne Brock of North Tawton, Devonshire, and by her he left one son.



HELLOWES, EDWARD (fl. 1574–1600), translator, may have belonged to the family of Hallowes of Dethick and afterwards of Glapwell, Derbyshire (cf. Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 485). He dedicated his earliest translation to Sir Henry Lee, master of the leash in Queen Elizabeth's household, who may perhaps be identical with Sir Henry Leigh of Egginton, high sheriff of Derbyshire in 1612. Hellowes certainly served as groom of the leash under Sir Henry Lee or Leigh as early as 1574 (see title-page of No. 1 below). Resigning that office in January 1597, he became groom of the chamber in the royal household, and on 27 Jan. 1599–1600 received a pension of 12s. a day for life (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1595–7 p. 353, 1598–1601 p. 387). He translated three works from the Spanish of Guevara, and all were published in London by Ralph Newberrie. Their titles run:
 * 1) ‘Familiar Epistles of Sir Anthonie of Gueuara,’ 1574, 1577, and 1584; dedicated to Sir Henry Lee.
 * 2) ‘A Chronicle conteyning the liues of tenne Emperoures of Rome,’ 1577; dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. 3. ‘A Booke of the Inuention of the Arte of Navigation,’ 1578; dedicated to Lord Charles Howard of Effingham.



HELMES, THOMAS (d. 1616), catholic priest. [See .]

HELMORE, THOMAS (1811–1890), writer on music and composer, born at Kidderminster on 7 May 1811, son of a dissenting minister, was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford (B.A. 1840, M.A. 1845). He served for two years as curate in the parish of St. Michael, Lichfield, and in 1840 was appointed to a priest-vicar's stall in Lichfield Cathedral. In 1842 he became vice-principal, and in 1846 precentor of St. Mark's College, Chelsea. In the latter year he succeeded William Hawes as master of the choristers of the Chapel Royal, St. James's, of which in 1847 he was admitted one of the priests-in-ordinary. He was presented by the crown in 1872 to the rectory of Beverstone, Gloucestershire, but he resigned it immediately after his appointment. In 1877 he received a retiring pension from the National Society, after thirty-five years' service as clerical precentor of St. Mark's College, Chelsea. He died at his residence in St. George's Square, London, on 6 July 1890. 