William Ludlam

William Ludlam (1717–1788) was an English clergyman and mathematician.

Born at Leicester, he was elder son of the physician Richard Ludlam (1680–1728), who practised there; Thomas Ludlam, the clergyman, was his youngest brother. (His son was also called Thomas Ludlam, see below.) His mother was Anne, daughter of William Drury of Nottingham. His uncle, Sir George Ludlam, was chamberlain of the city of London, and died in 1726. One of his sisters became stepmother of Joseph Cradock, and one of his first cousins, Isabella, daughter of John Ludlam, married Gerrard Andrewes, and was mother of Gerrard Andrewes the dean of Canterbury.

Ludlam, after attending Leicester grammar school, became scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, and was elected to a fellowship in 1744. He matriculated in 1734 and graduated B.A. 1738, M.A. 1742, and B.D. 1749. In 1749 he was instituted to the vicarage of Norton-by-Galby in Leicestershire, on the nomination of Bernard Whalley. From 1754 to 1757 he was junior dean of his college, and from 1767 to 1769 he was Linacre lecturer in physic.

In 1760 Ludlam unsuccessfully contested the Lucasian chair of mathematics with Edward Waring. This was despite the negative campaigning of William Samuel Powell, who attacked Waring's work. In 1765 Ludlam was one of "three gentlemen skilled in mechanics" appointed to report to the Board of Longitude on the merits of John Harrison's watch; His report is given in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1765, pt. i. p. 412. He enjoyed a reputation at the time for his skill in practical mechanics and astronomy, as well as for his mathematical lectures.

In 1768, having accepted from his college the rectory of Cockfield in Suffolk, thereby vacating his fellowship, Ludlam removed to Leicester, where he spent the remaining twenty years of his life. At first he lived with his brother Thomas in Wigston's Hospital, but in 1772 he married. He appears in the Life of Thomas Robinson (1749–1813) by Edward Thomas Vaughan, who was then vicar of St. Mary's, Leicester.

...
Wikipedia