Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/460

 WHEWELL, WILLIAM (1794–1866), master of Trinity College, Cambridge, born in Brock Street, Lancaster, on 24 May 1794, was eldest of the seven children of John Whewell, master-carpenter, by his wife Elizabeth (Bennison). Of William's three brothers, two died in infancy, while the third lived just long enough (1803–1812) to show promise. He had three sisters: Elizabeth, who died unmarried in 1821; Martha, who married the Rev. James Statter, and died in 1863, when her brother privately printed some of her verses, with a prefatory notice; and Ann, who married William Newton and died in 1879. William was sent very young to the ‘Blue School’ in Lancaster. Joseph Rowley, master of the grammar school, happening to talk to William, was struck by his abilities, and offered to teach him freely at the grammar school. The father, who had intended to apprentice his son to himself, consented after some hesitation. Richard Owen the naturalist was sent to the same school at the age of six (1810), and gave his recollections of Whewell to Mrs. Stair Douglas (Life of Whewell, p. 3). According to this account, Whewell, a ‘tall, ungainly youth,’ was humiliated by being sent to Owen to learn the meaning of the mysterious word ‘viz.’ The two formed, says Owen, a lasting friendship from that time. Whewell, however, made so rapid a bound upwards that his schoolfellows had to take forcible measures to prevent him from raising the standard of lessons. A sense of fair play prevented more than two together from attempting to ‘wallop’ him into decent idleness, and the fate of the first pair did not encourage a second assault. The dates suggest some inaccuracy. In 1809, before Owen came to the school, Whewell had been examined by a Mr. Hudson, tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, who prophesied that he would be among the first six wranglers. He consequently moved in 1810 to the grammar school at Heversham, where there was an exhibition to Trinity, worth about 50l. a year. No parishioner of Heversham having applied, Whewell obtained the exhibition in 1811 on condition of passing two years at the school. After going to Cambridge in 1811 to be entered, he returned to spend another year at Heversham. He also took charge of the school during a vacancy of the mastership. He had some lessons from John Gough (1757–1825) [q. v.] of Kendal, the famous blind mathematician, reading ‘conic sections, fluxions, and mechanics.’ In October 1812 he went up to Cambridge. His health, which had been delicate, became strong. He set to work vigorously at the studies and amusements of the place. He made friends with John Frederick William Herschel, the senior wrangler of 1813, and other young men of academical distinction. He did well in college examinations, won a ‘declamation prize’ in 1813 by an essay upon Brutus and Cæsar, and in 1814 won the chancellor's English medal by a poem upon Boadicea. His friends expected him to be senior wrangler in 1816, but he was beaten by Edward Jacob [see under ]. At that time the candidates were first arranged in brackets, the order within each bracket being decided by a further examination. Jacob was placed by himself in the first and Whewell by himself in the second bracket. Jacob was also first, and Whewell second, Smith's prizeman. Legends were long current in Cambridge as to this defeat; Whewell, it was said, had been thrown off his guard by Jacob's apparent idleness. Whewell, from his letters, seems to have taken the result in good part, complaining only that he could not write fast enough in the examination. He was president of the Union Society in 1817, and in the chair at a famous debate in March of that year when the vice-chancellor sent the proctors to disperse the meeting. Whewell vainly desired the strangers to withdraw while their message was under consideration. He and Connop Thirlwall [q. v.] were permitted to appeal to the vice-chancellor in person, but the debates were for the time suppressed.

Whewell's mother died in 1807, and his father in July 1816. He was now able to support himself by taking private pupils, and for several years took reading parties for the long vacation. Two of his closest friends, Herschel and Richard Jones (1790–1855) [q. v.] the economist, left Cambridge, to his great regret; but he had become strongly attached to the place. Among other friends were Babbage, Richard Sheepshanks [q. v.] the astronomer, and Hugh James Rose [q. v.] With Rose he kept up a long correspondence. Kenelm Henry Digby [q. v.] was a private pupil, and, though differing very widely in tastes, spoke in strong terms of his tutor's generosity and friendliness (, p. 36). He was elected to a fellowship at his college on 1 Oct. 1817, and appointed assistant tutor in 1818. In 1823 he became tutor of one of the ‘sides,’ having a colleague for the first year. The number of sides was increased at the time of his appointment from two to three. One of the other tutors was George Peacock (1791–1858) [q. v.], afterwards dean of Ely. Among the lecturers during his tutorship were Julius Charles Hare [q. v.], whom he induced to return to 