WALLIS, John, a distinguished mathematician, logician, and grammarian, was born on the 23d of November 1616, at Ashford in Kent, of which parish his father was then minister. Having been previously instructed in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, he was in 1632 sent to Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he applied himself with great success to various branches of learning. He afterwards removed to Queen’s College, of which he was chosen fellow. Having been admitted to holy orders, he left the university in 1641 to act as chaplain to Sir William Darley; and in the following year he accepted of a similar appointment from the widow of Sir Horatio Vere. It was about this period that he displayed surprising talents in deciphering the intercepted letters and papers of the royalists. His adherence to the parliamentary party was in 1643 rewarded by the living of St Gabriel, Fenchurch-street. In 1644 he was appointed one of the scribes or secretaries of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster. During the same year he married Susanna Glyde, and thus vacated his fellowship; but the death of his mother had left him in possession[7:21:727] of a handsome fortune. In 1645 he attended those scientific meetings which led to the establishment of the Royal Society. When the Independents obtained the superiority, Wallis adhered to the Solemn League and Covenant. The living of St Gabriel he exchanged for that of St Martin’s, Ironmonger-lane; and, as minister of that church, he in 1648 subscribed the remonstrance against putting the king to death. Notwithstanding this act of opposition, he was in June 1649 appointed Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford. In 1654 he there took the degree of D. D. In 1658 he succeeded Dr Langbaine as keeper of the archives. After the restoration, he was confirmed in both his academical offices, and was named one of the king’s chaplains in ordinary. He complied with the terms of the act of uniformity, a legislative measure unwise, unseasonable, and unfeeling; but he seems always to have retained moderate and rational notions of ecclesiastical polity. “It hath been my endeavour all along,” says this excellent person, “to act by moderate principles, being willing, whatever side was uppermost, to promote any good design for the true interest of religion, of learning, and of the public good.” He died at Oxford on the 28th of October 1703, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. He “was happy in the enjoyment of a vigorous constitution of body, and of a mind which was strong, serene, and calm.” His son John Wallis, who was a barrister, acquired a good estate by his marriage with Elizabeth Harris; and we likewise hear of two daughters, who were both married.

Dr Wallis was eminently distinguished by the superiority of his talents, as well as by the variety, extent, and solidity of his learning. His works are numerous, and relate to a multiplicity of subjects. Of his scientific genius he has left a conspicuous monument in the collection of his “Opera Mathematica.” Oxon. 1697-9, 3 tom. fol. In this collection he did not think it necessary to insert the tracts which he published against Hobbes; because, as he has himself stated, he had no inclination to trample on the ashes of the dead, although it was his duty to expose the fallacious reasoning of that writer when alive. His “Institutio Logicae,” published in 1687, exhibits his proficiency in another department of science. In his “Grammatica Linguae Anglican®” we likewise find many indications of an acute and philosophic intellect. Of this grammar, originally printed in 1653, there are six editions, but the best is that published by Bowyer in 1765. Among various other works, he produced some theological tracts; among which are three dissertations on Melchizedek, Job, and the titles of the Psalms. He was engaged in controversies relative to the doctrine of the Trinity, and to the observance of the Christian Sabbath. In the latter controversy, his antagonist, Thomas Bampfield, a barrister at law, maintained that the Sabbath ought to be observed, not on Sunday, but on Saturday. Nor must the editorial labours of Dr Wallis be overlooked. He published several reliques of the ancient Greek writers on science, and thus established another claim to the regard of his learned contemporaries.

Wallis's Island, a small island near the north-east coast of New Ireland, at the entrance of Gower’s Harbour, called Isle de Marteaux by M. Bougainville, nine miles northwest of Cape St George. There are other islands of this name, discovered by Captain Wallis in 1767, surrounded by a reef of rocks. Long. 177. W. Lat. 13. 18. S.