Biography of John Napier (1550-1617)

John Napier (John Napier frequently signed his name "Jhone Neper, Fear of Merchiston", but later on we can find his name also as Napeir, Nepair, Nepeir, Napare, Naper, Naipper, etc.) was born in 1550 in Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, as a first child of Sir Archibald Napier, 7th Laird of Merchiston. In 1549 when was only 15 years old, Archibald Napier married Janet Bothwell, a daughter of member of Parliament Francis Bothwell and sister of the Bishop of Orkney and the next year was born his heir John. Archibald Napier was a justice-depute and was knighted in 1565. In 1582 he was appointed Master of the Mint in Scotland, with the sole charge of superintending the mines and minerals within the realm, and this office he held till his death in 1608. The family also owned estates at Lennox and at Menteith and a residence at Gartness. It seems clear that Sir Archibald was a wealthy man. Napier inherited from him an estate sufficient to live well on.

As was the practice for members of nobility, Napier did not enter school until he was 13. He was educated at St Andrews University, entering the university in 1563 at the age of 13. His mother arranged for him to live in St Salvator's College and special arrangements were made for the Principal of the University, John Rutherford, to take care of him personally. Napier studied Latin and mathematics and his name appears on the matriculation roll of St Salvator's College for 1563. Shortly after Napier matriculated his mother died. Later on in 1572 Sir Archibald married a cousin, Elizabeth Mowbray, by whom he had three sons. We know that Napier spent some time at St Andrews University and he wrote himself many years later that it was in St Andrews that he first became passionately interested in theology. Actually little is known about John Napier's early years. One of the few scraps of information that we have is from a letter from the Bishop of Orkney, John's uncle, to Archibald Napier written when John was eleven years old:
I pray you, schir, to send your son Jhone to the schuyllis; oyer to France or Flandaris; for he can leyr na guid at hame, nor get na proffeitt in this maist perullous worlde ...
(Let's translate to english the old Scots that the Bishop of Orkney actually wrote):
I pray you, sir, to send your son John to school; over to France or Flanders; for he cannot learn well at home nor get profit in this most perilous world—that he may be saved in it;—that he may seek honor and profit as I do not doubt that he will...

Absolutely no evidence exists in which european country he studied (University of Paris is highly likely and it is also probable that he spent some time in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands), but when he returned home in 1571 to present at his father's second marriage, he was a scholar competent in Greek. It the same 1571 Napier himself began to make arrangements for his own marriage which took place next year. In 1572 he married Elizabeth Stirling, daughter of Sir James Stirling, 4th Laird of Keir and of Cadder, and most of the estates of the Napier family were made over to John Napier and a castle was planned for the estate at Gartness. When the castle was completed in 1574, Napier and his wife took up residence there. Napier devoted himself to running his estates. This task he took very seriously and, being a great genius as an inventor, he applied his skills to these tasks. He approached agriculture in a scientific way and he experimented with:
... improving and maturing of all sorts of field land with common salts, whereby the same may bring forth in more abundance, both of grass and corn of all sorts, and far cheaper than by the common way of dunging used heretofore in Scotland.
About the end of the year 1579 Elizabeth died, leaving him one son, Archibald (who in 1627 was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Napier), and one daughter, Jane. A few years afterwards Napier married again, his second wife being Agnes, daughter of Sir James Chisholm of Cromlix, who survived him. By her he had five sons and five daughters. On the death of his father in 1608, Napier and his family moved into Merchiston Castle, where he lived the rest of his life.

Napier's father had been deeply interested and involved in religious matters, and Napier himself was no different. Because of his inherited wealth, he needed no professional position. He kept himself very busy by being involved with the political and religious controversies of his time. For the most part, religion and politics in Scotland at this time pitted Catholics against Protestants. Napier was anti-Catholic, as evidenced by his 1593 book against Catholicism and the papacy entitled A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John. This work suggested that the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation was none other than the reigning pope, and urged James VI, the Scottish King, to “purge his house, family and court of all Papists, Atheists and Newtrals.” This attack was so popular that it was translated into several languages and saw many editions. Napier always felt that if he attained any fame at all in his life, it would be because of that book.

After the publication of the Plaine Discovery, Napier seems to have occupied himself with the invention of secret instruments of war. There is a document, dated the 7th of June 1596 and signed by Napier, giving a list of his inventions for the defence of the country against the anticipated invasion by Philip of Spain. The document is entitled "Secrett Inventionis, proffitabill and necessary in theis dayes for defence of this Iland, and withstanding of strangers, enemies of God's truth and religion," and the inventions consist of:
  a mirror for burning the enemies' ships at any distance;
  a piece of artillery destroying everything round an arc of a circle;
  a round metal chariot, so constructed that its occupants could move it rapidly and easily, while firing out through small holes in it.
It has been asserted that the piece of artillery was actually tried upon a plain in Scotland with complete success, a number of sheep and cattle being destroyed :-)

Besides the abovementioned book, Napier wrote three other books: Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis descriptio, Ejusque uses, in utraque Trigonometria; ut etiam in omni Logistica Mathematica, Amplissimi, Facillimi, expeditissimi explicatio. Authore ac Inventore Ioanne Nepero, Barone Merchistonii, &c., Scoto. Edinburgi, ex ofjicina Andreae Hart Bibliopolae (in 1614, a translation into English by Edward Wright was published in 1616); Rabdologiae, seu Numerationis per virgulas Libei duo: Cum Appendice de expeditissimo Multiplicationis promptuario. Quibus accessit & Arithmeticae Localis Liber unus. Authore & Inventore Ioanne Nepero, Barone Merchistonii, &c., Scoto. Edinburgi, Excudebat Andreas Hart (published posthumously in 1617) and Mirifici logarithmorum canonis constructio (written before the Descriptio, but published posthumously in 1619 by his second son by second marriage, Robert). In this treatise (which was written before Napier had invented the name logarithm) logarithms are called artificial numbers.

As a person of high energy and curiosity, Napier paid much attention to his landholdings and tried to improve the workings of his estate. Around the Edinburgh area, he became widely known as Marvelous Merchiston for the many ingenious mechanisms he built to improve his crops and cattle. He experimented with fertilizers to enrich his land, invented an apparatus to remove water from flooded coal pits, and bat devices to better survey and measure land.

Napier had a great interest in astronomy, which led to his contribution to mathematics—logarithms and Napier's bones. He was not just a star gazer; he was involved in research that required lengthy and time consuming calculations of very large numbers. Once the idea came to him that there might be a better and simpler way to perform large number calculations, Napier focused on the issue and spent twenty years perfecting his idea.

It would be surprising if a man of such great an intellect as Napier did not appear rather strange to his contemporaries and, given the superstitious age in which he lived, strange stories began to circulate. Like Johan Kepler and all his contemporaries Napier believed in astrology, and he certainly also had some faith in the power of magic, for there is extant a deed written in his own handwriting containing a contract between himself and Robert Logan of Restalrig, a turbulent baron of desperate character, by which Napier undertakes to serche and sik out, and be al craft and ingyne that he dow, to tempt, trye, and find out some buried treasure supposed to be hidden in Logan's fortress at Fastcastle, in consideration of receiving one-third part of the treasure found by his aid."

Napier first described the decimal point, enabling calculations to be made without the use of complex fractions. He discovered what eventually would be called "Pascal's Triangle" and placed it in common use long before Pascal was even born.

Napier died on the 4th of April 1617, and was buried in the old church of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh.