William Neile

William Neile, also written Neil, was an English mathematician and founder member of the Royal Society, born at Bishopsthorpe on 7 December 1637, the eldest son of Sir Paul Neile, and dying on 24 August 1670. His major mathematical work, the rectification of the semicubical parabola, was done at nineteen and published by John Wallis in De Cycloide in 1659. By determining arc lengths on a curve given algebraically, he extended a basic concept of differential geometry to algebraic curves in Cartesian geometry, a major advance toward the infinitesimal calculus. He entered Wadham College, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner in 1652 and was taught by John Wilkins and Seth Ward. In 1657 he became a student at the Middle Temple and communicated his discovery to William Brouncker, Christopher Wren and others connected with Gresham College. In 1673 Wallis asserted that Huygens, who claimed to have influenced Heuraet, was slighting the priority of Neile.