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VII. — Memoir of the Rev, John Lawson, B.D,) Rector of 

 Swanscombe^ Kent, 



By T. T. Wilkinson, F.R.A.S., &c. 



IRead February Vh, 1854.] 



The Rev. John Lawson was one of the most distinguished 

 geometers of the last century. From a very early period of 

 his studies he appears to have devoted considerable attention 

 to pure geometry, and after the death of Professor Thomas 

 Simpson, he took the lead in promoting the study of geo- 

 metrical constructions and the ancient geometrical analysis. 

 His taste in these matters was formed upon the models left 

 us by Pappus and the restorers of the works of the ancient 

 Greek geometers, many of whose writings he afterwards 

 rendered accessible to English students, and his numerous 

 geometrical opuscula in the different mathematical periodicals 

 to which he contributed, may be referred to as proofs of the 

 success which attended his efforts to resuscitate the correct 

 forms of the ancient Greek geometry. 



Mr. Lawson was the eldest son of the Rev. Thomas 

 Lawson, vicar of Kirkby, in the county of Lincoln. He was 

 educated at the Boston Grammar School under the care of 

 Mr. Robinson, and was admitted a Sizar at Sidney Sussex 

 College, Cambridge, on the 5th December, 1741. He 

 obtained his B.A. degree in 1745, and was elected a Fellow 

 of his college December 3rd, 1747. In 1749 he proceeded 

 in due course to the M.A. degree, and was admitted B.D. 



