Queer Places:
Killearn House, Killearn, Glasgow G63, UK
Eton College, Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead SL4 6DW
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
Roshven Burial Ground
Roshven, Highland, Scotland
Bailie
Hugh Blackburn (2 July 1823, Craigflower, Torryburn, Fife – 9 October 1909,
Roshven, Inverness-shire) was a Scottish mathematician. A lifelong friend of
William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), and the husband of illustrator Jemima
Blackburn, he was professor of mathematics at the University of Glasgow from
1849 to 1879. He succeeded Thomson's father James in the Chair of Mathematics.
Hugh Blackburn was brought up at Killearn House, Stirlingshire, the seventh of eight children of the wealthy Glasgow merchant John Blackburn and Rebecca Leslie Gillies, the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister, and a relative of Colin Maclaurin.[1] His elder brother was the judge Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn. His father, John, became wealthy off sugar and slavery in Jamaica, becoming a merchant on his return to Glasgow. In the 1830s, when the British government emancipated the slaves, John received compensation for the ownership of over 550 slaves.[2] Hugh was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Eton before entering Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840.[3] There he met Thomson, who entered in the same year; he was also a member of the Cambridge Apostles. During this time he invented the Blackburn pendulum.[4] In the Mathematical Tripos examinations of 1845 he graduated fifth wrangler, while Thomson graduated second wrangler. He entered the Inner Temple in 1847, but was never called to the Bar; his name was withdrawn in 1849, the year in which he became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Glasgow.[3] He married Jemima Wedderburn (cousin of James Clerk Maxwell), the daughter of James Wedderburn, Solicitor-General for Scotland.[3]
My published books:
