Abstract
Early in 1709 James Hodgson was appointed master of RMS, and he remained in that position until his death in 1755. The Hodgson era was a time when, against the odds, Christ’s Hospital was able to provide a regular supply of graduates ready for gainful apprenticeship and service in the Royal Navy or the merchant marine. This success was especially evident in the early years of Hodgson’s tenure as a result of his inspirational teaching and strong knowledge of both mathematics and navigation. Somehow, too, Hodgson, Fellow of the Royal Society, always managed to find time to be an able researcher, and he was a regular contributor to the Royal Society’s journal. In the early 1720s he managed to write and have published a massive two-volume textbook, written especially for RMS students, which took account of all aspects of the RMS program. Between 1748 and 1755 an ageing Hodgson was assisted in RMS work by John Robertson, and, in 1755 Robertson succeeded Hodgson as RMS master. This chapter will draw attention to the serious lack of attention given to the Hodgson era by those who have written histories of Christ’s Hospital. It is argued that this has led to a distortion of the history and significance of the influence of RMS in the eighteenth century.
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Ellerton, N.F., Clements, M.A.(. (2017). RMS Comes of Age 1709–1755: The Hodgson Era. In: Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, James Hodgson, and the Beginnings of Secondary School Mathematics. History of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46657-6_6
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