William Spence and logarithms

William Spence died in 1815 at the age of just 37.  Born in Greenock in 1777 he became an accomplished mathematician.  He was so well regarded that a subscription was raised to mark his life with a memorial in the Mid Kirk of Greenock.  There it can still be seen today, more than 200 years after his death. 

Picture source - Watt Institution

William Spence was the son of Greenockian Ninian Spence (1727-1797), coppersmith, who had married Sarah Townsend in 1766.  William was born in July 1777.  His father owned several properties in Greenock – their home in Hamilton Street, a tenement later the site of Gourock Ropeworks Stores facing Shaw and Cross Shore Streets (Spence’s Land) and another tenement at the head of William Street later the site of the British Linen Company and Provident Bank.  In 1793 Ninian Spence was the Town Treasurer.  William’s grandfather, John Spence, also a coppersmith was married to Jean Rowan (he married three times).  Ninian was their son.

 Aged just four, William Spence sent to the English School in the Royal Close and later to the Grammar School.  He also received lessons in arithmetic and writing in another school in the same building.  That’s where he met his lifelong friends, John Galt and James Park.  At the age of twelve he was interested in science, constructing brass cannons, making gunpowder and fulminating powder (explosive powder) to the extent of conducting experiments in the home and gaining the admiration of his young schoolfriends Galt and Park.  In his biography of Spence, Galt would later write – “His manners also were no less peculiar and his staidness was so remarkable, even before he became a mathematician, that about the age of fourteen he obtained from his companions the title of the Philosopher; and this title, although certainly not intended as a mark of respect, was undoubtedly bestowed from a sentiment of that kind mingled with something in ridicule of his constitutional gravity.”

After receiving his education, Spence was sent to Glasgow and placed in the offices of a friend of his father a Mr Struthers who as well as conducting business, was interested in mathematics.  He passed that interest on to Spence.  He occasionally returned to visit Greenock but at that point he had outgrown his former schoolmates.  Galt writes - “By this time we had put off the carelessness of schoolboys and began to pay some attention to dress; but our friend was moving altogether in a different sphere.  His apparel was of the gravest hue and the most formal cut, and worn with a degree of negligence that might well have become a much older philosopher.”

 

He remained working with Struthers until 1797.  His father had died, and he returned to live with his mother in Greenock.  Once back in the town he joined the literary society. Spence was also interested in music, composing and playing the flute.  He and his brother John (an accountant) became subscribers to the Greenock Library which he presented with an autographed  copy of his essay “Logarithmic Transcendents”.  He also presented several books to the “Foreign Library” (foreign language library, Greenock) in 1808.

In 1805 he, along with Park, travelled throughout England and visited Galt who was living in London at the time.  In 1814 he again travelled to London and married Sarah Gardner at St Pancras Church, London on 12 September.  They returned to Scotland and he died in a hotel in Glasgow where they were staying for the night on 20 May 1815.

The following obituary appeared in the Greenock Advertiser – “in the 37th year of his age, a loss which the scientific world has reason to lament, and which will long be felt by a circle of friends in England as well as in Scotland, who knew and admired his genius, and to whom he was endeared by his many private virtues and amiable qualities.  Of his profound mathematical researches he had given some proof in a paper read a few years ago before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and which he afterwards printed in a more enlarged form for the use of his scientific friends and particularly of the few eminent mathematicians In Britain and on the Continent who alone were capable of estimating the value of his labours.  At the time of his death he had another work in the press of still greater promise, and he has left behind him a large collection of manuscripts which prove the zeal with which he had cultivated the science of mathematics, the boundaries of which he is understood to have materially extended.”

Unfortunately Spence died intestate and without issue.  In 1817 his widow presented to the Greenock Library “the whole of the mathematical collection of her late husband for the purpose of founding a Mathematical Library for the use of the students of the town of Greenock, agreeably to her husband’s wishes and intentions expressed to herself”.  It was known as “The Spence Library” and contained about 200 volumes. 

In the New Parish Church (now known as Wellpark Mid Kirk) is a marble tablet.  The inscription reads – “In memory of William Spence, Esq.  His friends and fellow citizens have subscribed this tribute to his worth.  His mathematical works form a more lasting memorial of his talents.  He was born at Greenock on 31st July 1777 and died May the 28th 1815.”  This was the church in which he worshipped when he was in Greenock along with this sister and wife.

In 1819 his mathematical essays were edited by John FrederickWilliam Herschel (1792-1871).  Galt wrote a biography of Spence for this publication.  The portrait of Spence which can be seen at the top of this post, was presented to the Greenock Library by David Agnew who also donated a likeness of John Galt.