William Leybourn

William Leybourn (1626—1716) was an English mathematician and land surveyor.

In 1651 Leybourn entered into a business partnership with Robert Leybourn as a printer and seller of books. Leybourn's press would print the second and third editions of The Art of Dialling; by a new, easie, and most speedy way by Samuel Foster after Foster's death, with additions from previously unpublished manuscripts. The business was located in Cripplegate, and Leybourn lived there until the press closed down in 1665, after which he moved to Northcott in Southall, Middlesex.

In 1648, Leybourn wrote Urania Practica with Vincent Wing, the first substantial compendium of astronomy written in the English language. Leybourn's press would print other books of Wing's such as Geodaetes Practicus.

Planometria, or, The Whole Art of Surveying of Land was a pamphlet written in 1650 by Leybourn and published under the pseudonym Oliver Wallinby. Leybourn expanded this into a full book, The Compleat Surveyor which was first published in 1653, by his own press. This was the first book published on the subject that did not contain an extensive argument justifying surveying. The book outlined the various instruments used in surveying, and how they were employed. This book was one of the standard references in the field for the remainder of the 17th century and into the 18th century. The book instructed property surveyors on the construction of property maps, and how to make the appropriate coloured inks for the maps. At this time, the use of private estates maps was starting to become fashionable, to the extent that some very pleased clients would display the coloured maps for their guests to view. The book also contains instructions on mathematical measures. The section on the use of Gunter's chains as a unit of length shows early use of decimals in surveying. Leybourn would later expand and clairify this in his 1657 work Arithmetick, Vulgar, Decimal and Instramental.

In 1669 Leybourn authored The Art of Dialling, a book on the use of sun-dials and astrolabes in determining the position of vessels at sea. The contemporary expansion of the Royal Navy and Merchant Marines created a significant demand for such manuals, and The Art of Dialling was well written, easy to understand and cheaply produced.

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