Savilian Professor of Geometry - Appointment

Appointment

Savile's first choice for the professorship of geometry was Edmund Gunter, Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College, London. It was reported that Gunter demonstrated the use of his sector and quadrant, but Savile regarded this as "showing of tricks" rather than geometry, and instead appointed Henry Briggs, the Gresham Professor of Geometry, in 1619. Briggs took up the chair in 1620 at an annual salary of £150 (approximately £24,000 in present day terms) and thus became the first person to hold the first two mathematical chairs established in Britain.

Savile reserved to himself the right to appoint the professors during his lifetime. After his death, he provided that vacancies should be filled by a majority of a group of "most distinguished persons": the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Chancellor of the university, the Bishop of London, the Secretary of State, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer and the Dean of the Court of Arches. The Vice-Chancellor of the university was to inform the electors of any vacancy, and could be summoned to advise them. The appointment could either be made straight away, or delayed for some months to see whether "any eminent mathematician can be allured" from abroad.

As part of reforms of the university in the 19th century, the University of Oxford commissioners laid down new statutes for the chair in 1881. The professor was to "lecture and give instruction in pure and analytical Geometry", and was to be a Fellow of New College. The electors for the professorship were to be the Warden of New College (or a person nominated by the college in his place), the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, the President of the Royal Society, the Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford, the Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a person nominated by the university council and one other nominated by New College. Edward Titchmarsh (professor from 1931 to 1963) said when applying that he was not prepared to lecture on geometry, and the requirement was removed from the duties of the professor to enable his appointment, although the title of the chair was not changed. Changes to the university's internal legislation in the 20th and early 21st centuries abolished specific statutes for the duties of, and rules for appointment to, individual chairs such as the Savilian professorships. The University Council is now empowered to make appropriate arrangements for appointments and conditions of service, with the college to which any professorship is allocated (New College in the case of the Savilian chairs) to have two representatives on the board of electors.