in Connecticut not later than the early 19th century ^ by the for- 

 bears of Mr. Newton C. Brainard of Hartford, Connecticut. If 

 records relating to Willis as a resident of the New England colonies 

 can be recovered, it may then be possible to establish whether he 

 worked in the Colonies as a mathematical practitioner in the 17th 

 century. His name is included on a tentative basis. 



The Need for Instruments 



The production and use of scientific instruments in the American 

 Colonies reflected colonial development in education and in terri- 

 torial and economic expansion, and closely paralleled the same 

 development in England, where the first mathematical practi- 

 tioners were the teachers of navigational and commercial arith- 

 metic and the surveyors employed in the redistribution of land 

 following the dissolution of the monasteries. i\s the communities 

 became established and the settlers gained a foothold on the soil, 

 their attention naturally turned to improving their lot by expanding 

 the land under cultivation and by trading their products for other 

 needs. The growth of the communities became increasingly rapid 

 from the end of the 17th century, and the land expansion closely 

 paralleled the development of trade. The educational institutions 

 placed greater emphasis on the sciences as their curriculums 

 developed. Particularly there was a greater preoccupation with 

 the sciences on the part of the layman because of the need for 

 knowledge of surveying and navigation. 



The colonial school curriculum was accordingly designed from 

 the practical point of view to emphasize practical mathematics, and 

 there was an increasing demand for instruction in all aspects of the 

 subject. One of the earliest advertisements of this nature appeared 

 in The Boston Gazette in March 1719. In the issue of February 19 

 to March 7 the advertisement stated that: 



This day Mr. Samuel Grainger opens his school at the House formerly 

 Sir Charles Hobby's, where will be taught Grammar Writing after a free and 

 easy manner in all the usual Hands, Arithmetick in a concise and Practical 

 Method, Merchants Accompts, and the Mathematicks. 



He hopes that more thinking People will in no wise be discouraged from 

 sending their children thither, on the account of the reports newly reviv'd, 

 because these dancing Phaenomena's were never seen nor heard of in School 

 Hours. 



^ T/ie Chronicle (Early American Industries Association), March 1936, vol. 1, 

 no. 16, p. 8; and personal correspondence with Mr. William L. Warren, Connecti- 

 cut Historical Society. 



