| Whewell
was born in 1794, the eldest child of a master-carpenter in Lancaster. The
headmaster of his local grammar school, a parish priest, recognized Whewell’s
intellectual abilities and persuaded his father to allow him to attend the
Haversham Grammar School in Westmoreland, some twelve miles to the north,
where he would be able to qualify for a closed exhibition to Trinity College,
Cambridge. In the 19th century and earlier, these "closed exhibitions" or
scholarships were set aside for the children of working class parents, to
allow for some social mobility. Whewell studied at Haversham Grammar for
two years, and received private coaching in mathematics. Although he did
win the exhibition it did not provide full resources for a boy of his family’s
means to attend Cambridge; so money had to be raised in a public subscription
to supplement the scholarship money.
He thus came up to
Trinity in 1812 as a "sub-sizar" (scholarship student). In 1814 he won
the Chancellor’s prize for his epic poem "Boadicea," thus following in
the footsteps of his mother, who had published poems in the local papers.
Yet he did not neglect the mathematical side of his training; in 1816
he proved his mathematical prowess by placing as both second Wrangler
and second Smith’s Prize man. The following year he won a college fellowship.
He was elected to the Royal Society in 1820, and ordained a priest (as
required for Trinity Fellows) in 1825. He took up the Chair in Mineralogy
in 1828, and resigned it in 1832. In 1838 Whewell became Professor of
Moral Philosophy. Almost immediately after his marriage to Cordelia Marshall
on 12 October 1841, he was named Master of Trinity College upon the recommendation
of the Prime Minister Robert Peel. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University
in 1842 and again in 1855. In 1848 he played a large role in establishing
the Natural and Moral Sciences Triposes at the University. His first wife
died in 1855, and he remarried Lady Affleck, the sister of his friend
Robert Ellis; Lady Affleck died in 1865. Whewell left no descendents when
he died, after being thrown from his horse, on 6 March 1866.
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