| Authorised form of name | Hellins; John (? 1749 - 1827) |
| Dates | ? 1749 - 1827 |
| Date of birth | ? 1749 |
| Place of death | Potterspury, Northamptonshire |
| Date of death | 05 April 1827 |
| Occupation | Clergyman |
| Research field | Mathematics |
| Astronomy |
| Activity | Education:
Trinity College, Cambridge. BD (1800)
Career:
Apprenticed to a cooper; worked as a cooper (until age 20); taught himself mathematics; master of a small school, Bishop's Tawton; Assistant, Royal Observatory, Greenwich under Nevil Maskelyne (1773-1776); took Holy Orders; Curate of Constantine, Cornwall (1779-1783); Curate, Greens Norton, Northamptonshire (1783-1790); Vicar of Potterspury, Northamptonshire (1790-1827); founded a school (now named after him), Potterspury (1817)
|
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 22/12/1796 |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Copley Medal 1799 |
| Relationships | Son of a labourer of Ashreigney, near Chulmleigh, Devon |
| Sources | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB
References:
M Croarken, 'Astronomical labourers: Maskelyne's assistants at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1765 - 1811' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 285 - 298 |
| Royal Society code | NA3019 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| MM/7/94 | 'An extract from a letter of the Rev Mr John Hellins, formerly Assistant to Mr (now Dr) Maskelyne, the Astronomer-Royal at Greenwich Observatory, to Francis Maseres, Esq' | c.1792 |
| L&P/7/261 | Paper, 'New method of finding the equal roots of an equation by division' by John Hellins | 9 February 1782 |
| L&P/7/148 | Paper, 'A theorum for computing logarithms' by John Hellins | 13 May 1780 |
| L&P/10/83 | Paper, 'Dr Halley's quadature of the circle improved' by John Hellins | 30 April 1794 |
| L&P/12/35 | Paper, 'Of the rectification of the conic sections' by John Hellins | 19 March 1802 |
| L&P/10/139 | Paper, 'Hyperbolic logarithm of 10' by John Hellins | 24 June 1795 |
| EC/1796/17 | Hellins, John: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| L&P/11/10 | Letter, 'Account of a thunderstorm on the 4 April 1796' from John Hellins to Nevil Maskelyne | 1796 |
| L&P/11/48 | Letter, 'A new method of computing the value of a slowly converging series of which all the terms are affirmative' from John Hellins to Nevil Maskelyne | 1798 |
| L&P/11/69 | Letter, 'An improved solution of a problem in physical astronomy...also an appendix containing an easy method of obtaining the sums of many slowly converging series which arise in taking the fluents of binomial surds' from John Hellins to Nevil Maskelyne | 17 April 1797 |
| L&P/11/109 | Letter, 'Second appendix to the paper on improved solution of a problem in Physical Astronomy' from John Hellins to Nevil Maskelyne | 27 September 1799 |
| PT/5/7 | Paper, 'On the rectification of the hyperbola by means of two ellipses; proving that method to be circuitous, and such as requires much more calculation than is requisite by an appropriate theorem: in which process a new theorem for the rectification of that curve is discovered' by Rev John Hellins | [1811] |