John Wallis
1616–1703
Junior scribe; later Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford and founding fellow of the Royal Society.
Holds the Westminster position on all 35 attributes.
Biography
A 27-year-old Cambridge-trained minister when he was appointed an Assembly scribe, Wallis is now remembered chiefly as one of the founders of modern mathematics. He published the *Arithmetica Infinitorum* (1656), invented the infinity symbol ∞, contributed to the early calculus, and was Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford from 1649 to his death. He cracked royalist ciphers for Parliament during the Civil Wars and remained a churchman of moderate Reformed convictions.
Principal works
- Arithmetica Infinitorum (1656)
- Truth Tried (1643)
Scribe
The scribes kept the Assembly's official minutes and recorded its votes. Henry Roborough and Adoniram Byfield served throughout; the minutes in their hand are the principal surviving record of the debates that produced the Standards.
Ontology placement
· 0 overrides of 35
Cite this divine
Study Reformed, “John Wallis” (Divine), Westminster Standards Atlas, version 79a5f9880ac1, https://studyreformed.com/atlas/cite/persona/john-wallis/.
Ontology version 79a5f9880ac1 — the state of the Atlas you are reading, so a citation stays checkable when the ontology is revised.