QCNTBR, EDMUND. 



QURWOOD, JOHN. 



to hu portrait*, are nine ' LOTCS of the Gods,' ftr Titian. The date 

 of bis death i not known. 



IKK. I DMUND. was born in the county of Hertford, bat 

 inrtirl originally from OunUr'i Town, in Brecknockshire. He 

 rdacmtrd on the royal foundation at Westminster School, and 

 Md thence to Christohuroh College, Oxford, in the year 1699, 

 being then eighteen yean of age, where he took the degree* in Art*. 

 ICaUiematios were the prerailing studio* of his youth, and about the 

 year 1600 he iurented the Motor, and wrote the description and use 

 of it in Latin, many copies of which were taken in writing, but none 

 of them printed. After this be took orders, became a preacher, in 

 1614 was admitted to read the Sentences, and proceeded to the degree 

 of Bachelor in Divinity. But his genius still leading him chiefly to 

 mathematical pursuit*, when Mr. Williams resigned the professorship 

 of astronomy in Graham College, he was chosen to succeed him on 

 the 6th of March 1619. He died on the 10th of December 1026, 

 about the forty-fifth year of his age. (Ward, ' Lirea of the Gresham 

 Professors.') 

 The works of Gunter are as follows : 



1. 'Canon Triangulorum,' 8vo, London, 1620, and 4 to, 1628. A 

 table of logarithmic sines, Ac., to seven decimal places, the first of the 

 kind which were published on Briggs's system of logarithms. 



2. 'Of the Sector, Cross- staff, and other Instruments' (first pub- 

 lished in 1624). The invention of the sector, which now forms a part 

 of every case of drawing instruments, is due to Gunter, and its uses 

 ate described by him in three books. The cross-staff is not the sur- 

 veying instrument now known by that name, but an instrument for 

 taking angles, consisting of one straight line moving at right angles to 



another, with sights at their extremities. 



3. 'The Description and Use of his Majesty's Dials in Whitehall 

 Garden,' 4to, London, 1624. Theee dials (destroyed in 1697) were 

 constructed by Gunter. 



The first two of these works went through five editions, the fourth 

 of which, purporting to be examined and enlarged by W. L. (William 

 Leybourn), contains improvements in the sector by Samuel Foster, ic. 

 The fifth, which is a reprint of the fourth, was published in 1078, and 

 (with a new title-page only) in 1680. 



Clutter's writings (the 'Canon Trinngulorum ' excepted) consist 

 almoit entirely of a description of graphical methods of constructing 

 problems in trigonometry, navigation, &c. He was the first who laid 

 down a logarithmic scale upon wood, and used it for the purposes of 

 the draughtsman. This scale is still used, and goes by his name. The 

 common chain used by surveyors also goes by his name. The first 

 observation of the variation of the compass is due to Gunter. 

 Ward infers this from a letter of Dr. Wallis to Sir Hans Sloane, 

 attributing the observation to a Gresham professor about 1625, which 

 could be no other than Gunter. Other writers mention the same 

 discovery, but without stating their authority. The following is the 

 account of Gunter himself ('On the Cross-staff,' book ii. cb. 6), in 

 which the enunciation of the variation is an appendage to an 

 example of the method of taking angles by the cross-staff, as 

 follows : " So that if the magnetical azimuth A Z M shall be 84 7', 

 and the sun's azimuth A Z N 72 52', then must N Z M, the difference 

 between the two meridians, give the variation to be 11 15', as 

 Mr. Borough heretofore found it by bis observations st Limehouse in 

 the year 1580. But if the magnetical azimuth A Z M shall be 79 7', 

 and the sun's azimuth A Z N 72 52', then shall the variation N Z M 

 be only 6* 15', as I have sometimes found it of late. Hereupon I 

 inquired after the place where Mr. Borough observed, and went to 

 Limehouse with some of my friends, and took with us a quadrant of 

 three-foot aemidiameter, and two needles, the one above six inches and 

 the other ten inches long, where I made the semidiameter of my hori- 

 zontal plane A Z 12 inches ; and towards night, the 18th of June 1622, 

 I made observation in various parts of the ground, and found an 

 followeth." Eight observations are then given, the results of which 

 are from 5 40' to 6 18', with a mean of 5 68'. 



Onnter is said to have been the first who introduced the words 

 cosine, cotangent, Ac., in place of sine of the complement, &c. In 

 the preface of the ' Canon,' he speaks of the " sine of the complement, 

 which in one word may be called the cosine," as if ho were intro- 

 ducing a new word. There is also the testimony of Briggs (' Arith. 

 Log.,' cap. 13) that Gunter suggested to him the use of the arithmetical 

 complement. Whatever in short could be done by a well-informed and 

 ready-witted person to make the new theory of logarithms more imme- 

 diately available in practice to those who were not skilful mathemati- 

 cians was done by Gunter. 



GUK.NEY, JOSEPH JOHN, was born August 2, 1788, at Earlham 

 Hall, near Norwich, the country residence of his father, John Gurney, 

 who wss a member of the Society of Friends, and one of the part- 

 ners of the Norwich bank. He was the tenth child of eleven children 

 left by Mrs. Gurney at her death, Elizabeth Qurney being the third. 

 [FRY, MRS. ELIZABETH]. Joseph Gurney completed his education 

 at Oxford under a private tutor, without becoming a member of the 

 university, of which however he enjoyed many of the advantages. 

 He acquired the Hebrew and Syriao languages, as well as Greek and 

 Latin, mathematics, and a Urge amount of general knowledge. After 

 the death of bis brother John in 1814, he assumed hi* brother'* 

 Christian name in addition to his own. Joseph John Uurney in 1818 



a recognised Minister of the Society of Friends, and his 

 preaching is described as having been very impressive. He accom- 

 panied Mrs. Fry in her journey to Scotland in 1818, and to Ireland in 

 1S27, to inquire into the state of the prisons, and of the results of 

 this last journey he wrote a Keport addressed to the Marquis Welles- 

 ley, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, which was afterwards published. 

 In 1837 he visited the United States of America and the Canada*, and 

 was absent about three yean. The journal of his travels was printed, 

 but only for private circulation. In 1841 he made a journey to 

 Holland, Belgium, and Germany, accompanied by Mrs. Fry, and in 

 1842-43-44, another journey to France and Switzerland, in the earlier 

 part of which he was again accompanied by Mr*. Fry. The object 

 of these journeys was to introduce improvements in prison-discipline, 

 and also to induce the French government to abolish slavery in the 

 French colonies, for which purposes he had an interview with Louis- 

 Philippe, and much communication with M. Guizot. 



Joseph John Gurney was the author of several works, religious and 

 moral. His ' Observations on the Distinguishing Views and Practices 

 of the Society of Friends ' has been several time* reprinted, as have 

 also his ' Essays on the Evidences, Doctrines, and Practical Operation 

 of Christianity,' a work intended for Christians generally. All his 

 works are ably and judiciously written. He took an active part in 

 many benevolent societies, such as those for the abolition of slavery, 

 for the repeal of the laws inflicting capital punishments, in peace- 

 societies, temperance-societies, the British and Foreign Bible Society, 

 and others. His donations to charitable institutions and for the relief 

 of public distress were numerous and princely. His private gifts were 

 only bounded by his judgment as to what was appropriate in each par- 

 ticular case. He died on the 4th of January 1847, at Karlham Hull. 



(Atemoirt of Joteph John Gurney, with Selectwia from hit Journal 

 and Correipondcnct, edited by Joseph Sevan Bmithwaitt, 2 vole. 8vo.) 



GURWOOD, JOHN, an officer whose name will always be honour- 

 ably associated with that of the Duke of Wellington, must have been 

 born in 1791, as it is incidentally mentioned that he ceased to be a 

 ward of chancery and came of age in 1812. He entered the army as 

 an ensign in the 62nd regiment in 1808, and served during the war 

 in the Peninsula, where he was distinguished for his accurate know- 

 ledge of the French and Spanish languages. He first emerged into 

 notice as Lieutenant Uurwood, by volunteering to lead the forlorn 

 hope at the storming of Ciudad Kodrigo, on the 19th of January 

 1812. Circumstances afterwards led him to print a minute account 

 of all the transactions in which he was personally concerned on that 

 night in a pamphlet, which is one of the most curious and instructive 

 contributions in existence to the history of the Peninsular War, con- 

 taining a number of details which are eminently characteristic and 

 suggestive. When he knew that his offer had been accepted, " I kept 

 on eating," he tells us, " principally bread, but I carefully controlled 

 my thirst, knowing how insatiable it becomes under nervous excite- 

 ment. On the concerted signal for the assault three guns from 

 the batteries my heart beat double quick, and I applied my mouth 

 to the calabash of Jack Joues, from which I swallowed a gulp of 

 ' aguardiente.' On arriving at the top of the breach, I saw a musket 

 levelled not far from my head, and a Frenchman in the act of pulling 

 the trigger. I bobbed my head in time, but was wounded and 

 stunned by the fire. I found myself at the bottom of the breach ; I 

 cannot tell bow long I was there, but on putting my hand to the back 

 of my head, where I felt that I had been wounded, I found that the 

 skull was not fractured." Recovering from his trance, " we again set 

 up a shout, scrambled up the breach, and gained the rampart of the 

 bastion." Here his attention was attracted by seeing one of his men, 

 Pat Lowe, in the act of bayoneting a French officer who resisted being 

 plundered, and he saved the Frenchman by knocking down the Irish- 

 man. HU prisoner guided him to a tower, where he found the French 

 governor of the place, and some other officers, who hod shut them- 

 selves up from the now victorious English soldiers. He summoned 

 them to surrender, and the door was unbarred ; but Pat Lowe, who 

 had rejoined him, called out, " Dear Mr. Gurwood, they will murder 

 you ! " and as he entered ho was seized round the neck, and fully 

 expected a sword in his body ; but his alarm ceased on finding himself 

 kissed by the person who hod seized him, who added that he was the 

 governor, General Ban-id, and that he yielded himself his prisoner. 

 Uurwood carried him to Lord Wellington, whom he found in the 

 ramparts, who said to him, "Did you take him?" and, on his replying 

 in the affirmative, handed to him the governor's sword, which had just 

 been surrendered, with the observation, " Take it, you are the proper 

 person to wear it" He wore it ever after, and by special privilege 



when every other officer in the English army wore a regulation sword. 

 From this time ho became a noted officer ; but though ne served with 

 distinction during the rest of the Peninsular war, and at Waterloo, 

 where he received a severe wound, the rank of colonel was the highest 

 that he attained, and he did not become full colonel till 1841. In 

 1830 he was placed on the unattached list, and shortly afterwards 

 became private secretary to the Duke of Wellington. This appoint- 

 ment led to a very remarkable publication. In 1834 he commenced 

 the issue of ' The Despatches of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, 

 K.G., during his various campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, 

 Spain, the Low Countries, and France, from 1799 to 1818, com- 

 piled from official and authentic documents, by Lieutenant-Colonel 



