PEL 
514 
enumerate, Mr. Pell’s reputation for mathematical know¬ 
ledge was fo well eftablilhed, that he was confidered to be 
deferving of a profelfor’s chair in that fcience. When, 
therefore, a vacancy took place in one at Amfterdam in 
1639, intereft was made to procure Mr. Pell the appoint¬ 
ment. The vacancy was not, however, filled up before 
the latter end of the year 1643, when Mr. Pell was cho- 
fen to it. Of the eftimation in which he was held in Hol¬ 
land, a good opinion may be formed from what was faid 
of him by his colleague, Gerard John Vofiius, who ftyles 
him “a perfon of various erudition, and a moil acute ma¬ 
thematician and he greatly applauds his ledlures upon 
Diophantus. 
In 1644, Mr. Pell publifhed at Amfterdam, in two 
pages, a refutationof Longomontanus’spretended quadra¬ 
ture of the circle, which obtained for him a high degree 
of credit among the moft learned mathematicians in Eu¬ 
rope. Two years afterwards, Mr. Pell was called to the 
difplay of his talents on a new fcene; for the prince of 
Orange, having founded a Scholia illujlris at Breda, in¬ 
vited him to be profeflor of philofophy and mathematics 
in the new inftitution, with an annual falary of a thoufand 
guilders. This offer he accepted, and he filled the ma¬ 
thematical chair at Breda with the fame reputation and 
f’uccefs which attended him at Amfterdam, having, among 
his pupils, feveral who were afterwards diftinguifhed as 
eminent algebraifts. The death of the prince of Orange, 
in 1650, deprived him of his patron j and, the war which 
broke out between the Englifh and Dutch in 1652 ren¬ 
dering it neceffary for him to withdraw from the territo¬ 
ries of the ftates, he returned to his native country. In 
1654, Cromwell appointed him agent to the Proteftant 
cantons in Swifferland; which chara£ter he retained till 
the year 1658, when he returned to England a fhort time 
before the death of Cromwell. 
While he was abroad he is faid to have privately ren¬ 
dered no little fervice to the interefts of king Charles II. 
and of the church of England. Be that as it may, it is 
certain that after the reftoration he was encouraged to 
enter into holy orders ; and, having been ordained deacon 
and prieft in 1661, he was immediately inftituted to the 
reftory of Fobbing in Efl'ex, with the chapel of Battlefden 
annexed, on the prefentation of the king. During the 
month of December in the fame year, he brought into the 
upper houfe of convocation the Calendar, reformed by 
him, with the affiftance of Sancroft, afterwards archbifhop 
of Canterbury. In 1663, he was prefented by Dr. Shel¬ 
don, then bilhop of London, to the redtory of Laingdon 
in Efl'ex; and about the fame time he was created D. D. 
Scarcely had he been honoured with this degree, when his 
patron was tranflated to the archbiftiopric of Canterbury, 
and made him one of his domeftic chaplains. Such an 
appointment is generally confidered to be a ltep to higher 
preferment; but Pell was fo intent on his ftudies, that he 
neglected his own intereft; and was indeed fo imprudent 
with refpeft to the management of his worldly affairs, that 
he would have difgraced the ftation of a dignitary. An¬ 
thony Wood fays, that “ he was a lhiftlefs man, and his 
tenants and relatfons dealt fo unkindly with him, that 
they cozened him of the profits of his parfonages, and 
kept him fo indigent, that he wanted neceffaries, and 
even paper and ink, to his dying day.” 
In the mean time he diftinguilhed himfelfin the Royal 
Society, of which he was elefted a fellow in 1663. In the 
following year he publifhed “ an Exercitation concerning 
Eafter,” 4to. and in 1665 he made great alterations and 
additions to Rhonius’s Algebra, which appeared in the 
Englifh verfion of that work, printed in 1668, under the 
title of, “ An Introduction to Algebra ; tranflated out of 
the High Dutch into Englifh by Thomas Branker, much 
altered and augmented by D. P.” See. 4to. After this, 
he drew up “ A Table of ten thoufand Square Numbers, 
namely, of all the Square Numbers between o and a hun¬ 
dred million, and of their Sides,” See. which were printed 
in 1672, folio. Dr. Pell alfo invented the method of rang- 
P E L 
ing the feveral fteps of an algebraical calculus in a proper 
order, in fo many diftinCt lines, with the number affixed to 
each ftep, and a fhort defeription or procefs in the line. 
He was likewife the inventor of the character -j- for divi- 
fion, for involution, tw for evolution, and v for ergo, 
or therefore. But, in the midft of the inceffant applica¬ 
tion to his ftudies, owing to the negleCl of his affairs, his 
embarraffments increafed, and he contracted debts, which 
proved the occafion of his being thrown more than once 
into the King’s-Bench prifon. Being at length reduced 
to great indigence, Dr. Whiftler, then cenfor and regif- 
trar to the College of Phyficians, invited him to his houfe, 
in 1682, where he continued till, the ill ftate of his health 
requiring particular attendance, he was removed, at firft 
to the houfe of a grandchild, and afterwards to that of 
the reader of the church of St. Giles’s in the Fields, where 
he died in 1685, when in the 74th year of his age. 
Befides the labours already noticed by us, in chronolo¬ 
gical order, Dr. Pell wrote a Demonftration of the Second 
and Tenth Books of Euclid, and alfo of Archimedes’s 
Arenarius, and the greateft part of Diophantus’s Six Books 
of Arithmetic. Of the latter author he fpent fome time 
in preparing a new edition, in which he intended to have 
corrected the tranflation, and introduced new illuftrations. 
Some of our author’s manuferipts were left by him at 
Brereton in Chelhire, where he had refided for fome 
time, it being the feat of lord Brereton, who had been 
one of his pupils at Breda. A great many others came 
into the poffeflion of Dr. Bufby, which Mr. Hook was di¬ 
rected to endeavour to obtain for the Royal Society. 
They continued, however, mixed with the papers and 
pamphlets of that gentleman, in four large boxes, till the 
year 1755, when Dr. Birch, fecretary to the Royal Society, 
procured them for that body from Dr. Bulby’s truftees. 
The collection contains not only Dr. Pell’s mathematical 
papers, letters to him, and copies of thofe fent by him, 
but alfo feveral manuferipts of Mr. Walter Warner, an 
eminent philofopher and mathematician in the reigns of 
James I. and Charles I. Wood's Fajli Oxon. vol. i. 
Hutton's Math. Di6t. 
PEL'LA, in ancient geography, a town of Macedonia, 
near the fea, on the confines of Emathia. This city be¬ 
came the capital of the kingdom when Edeffa was anni¬ 
hilated, according to Ptolemy; and owed its grandeur 
to Philip, who had been educated there, and to his fon 
Alexander, who was born in this place. Livy defcribds 
it as fituated on an eminence furrounded by marfhes, in 
the midft of which was a fortrefs, appearing like an ifland, 
and at a diftance feeming to be joined to the city ; it was, 
however, feparated from it by a river, which ran between 
their walls, and over which there was a bridge of commu¬ 
nication. This river was called Ludias, Loedias, and 
Lydius. 
M. de Pouqueville, a French traveller, vifited very re¬ 
cently the fite of Pella. This ancient capital of the kings 
of Macedon, he informs us, does not announce itfelf, in 
its defolation, to the eye of the ftranger, as at Athens 
and Corinth, by the difplay of the remains of its ancient 
fplendour. The pofition of Pella is known only from 
its correfpondence with the deferiptions of its fite, pre- 
ferved in hiftory. Thus it is deferibed by Livy, in the 
conclufion of his forty-fourth book: “The conful M. 
Aimilius Paulus, proceeding from Pydna, after the utter 
difeomfiture of Perfeus of Macedon, arrived with his army 
on the fecond day at Pella. Encamping about a mile 
from the city, he there remained fome days, examining 
the pofition on every fide, and acknowledging that not 
without good reafon had the royal refidence been there 
placed. Pella was feated on an eminence doping down 
to the fouth-weft, and furrounded by marlhes of impaffa- 
ble depth in fummer as well as in winter, produced by 
feveral ftagnant lakes. Within the marlh itfelf, on the 
fide next to the city, appeared, like an ifland, the caftle, 
or citadel, erefted on a mound, a work of vaft labour, 
which fuftained the fortifications, while it refilled all in¬ 
jury 
