Colson, John

         - The fifth Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, is a relative unknown in the history of the field.

         - Before Colson came to Cambridge, he had been the master at a mathematical school at Rochester. He was first educated at Christ Church Oxford, but never graduated.

1713 - He was elected to the Royal Society. In the later years of his life he was also the rector of Lokington in Yorkshire.

1728 - He moved to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he received his M.A., when he was forty-eight years old.

1736 - He published an English version of Newton's  Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series originally written in Latin.

         - He also published the English edition of  Geometrica Analytica by Newton.

1739 - He was elected to the Lucasian Chair in May.

1760 - Died at 80 years of age.

1761 - An edition of Newton's Arithmetica universalis was published in Latin with Colson's commentary, also in Latin.

1801 - Colson showed himself to be ahead of his times by his translation of  Analyitical Institutions written originally in Italian by Donna Maria Agnesi, a professor of mathematics and philosophy at the University of Bolgna.

         - It was published forty one years after his death.