John Hymers

John Hymers (20 July 1803 – 7 April 1887) was an English mathematician and cleric, and, together with his brother Robert, founder of Hymers College, Hull.

Life Hymers was born 20 July 1803 at Ormesby in Yorkshire; his father was a farmer, and his mother was daughter of John Parrington, rector of Skelton in Cleveland. After attending school at Witton-le-Wear, Durham, and Sedbergh School, he gained a sizarship at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1822. Graduating B.A. in 1826 as second wrangler, he was elected fellow in 1827.

Hymers was for some years successful with private pupils, and became assistant tutor of his college in 1829, tutor in 1832, senior fellow in 1838, president in 1848. He was moderator in the mathematical tripos 1833–4, and Lady Margaret preacher in 1841. He proceeded to BD in 1836 and DD in 1841, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society 31 May 1838. Hymers College opened a few years later, in 1893.

Works Hymers's books, with one exception, were mathematical, and were influenced by the mathematics of continental Europe. The major ones were:

Treatise on the Analytical Geometry of Three Dimensions, and of Curves of Double Curvature, 1830. Integral Calculus which in the second edition (1835) introduced the subject of elliptic functions. Treatise on Conic Sections and the Theory of Plane Curves, introducing the new Method of Abridged Notation, 1837, which became a standard text-book. Theory of Equations, 1837; third edition, 1858. Differential Equations and the Calculus of Finite Differences, Cambridge, 1839. Treatise on Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, 1847.

Hymers issued a revised edition of Watkin Maddy's Treatise on Astronomy. He also reprinted John Fisher's funeral sermon on Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, and founder of St John's College, Cambridge and Christ's College, Cambridge, with notes to illustrate "her munificent patronage of religion and learning", and published catalogues of the Lady Margaret professors and preachers at Cambridge and Oxford.