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Thomas Harriot Facts & Worksheets

Thomas Harriot was an English mathematician, astronomer, ethnographer, and translator. He was the first astronomer to use the telescope.

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Thomas Harriot was an English mathematician, astronomer, ethnographer, and translator. He was the first astronomer to use the telescope. The illustration of his observation of the moon was considered the first telescopic observation. He also introduced the symbols of multiplication, greater than, and less than, after his work was published posthumously.

See the fact file below for more information on the Thomas Harriot or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Thomas Harriot worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

PERSONAL FACTS

  • Thomas Harriot was born in 1560 in Oxfordshire, England, and was said to be a commoner’s son. His will, three days before his death, mentioned a sister and a nephew.
  • There are few to no records about Harriot’s youth. His name appears in St. Mary Hall, Oxford, from 1577, proving he attended said school, probably with the other students from the plebian class.
  • Harriot befriended Richard Hakluyt and Thomas Allen, both lecturers at Oxford. He graduated from the university in 1580 and moved to London.
  • He was the only one out of three in his class to receive a bachelor’s degree.
  • There is no written information on what Harriot did in his first few years in London, but in 1853, Hakluyt mentioned in his written dedication to an English explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh, that Harriot was the explorer’s employee.

WORKING FOR SIR RALEIGH AND THE DUKE

  • Harriot worked for Raleigh as a navigational instructor and gave lectures to Raleigh’s seamen who would participate in his expeditions. He also served Raleigh as a mathematics tutor.
  • He also served as an accountant, obtaining funds for the expeditions and keeping the accounts. Additionally, Harriot was involved in designing Raleigh’s ships, constructing the vessels, and selecting the seamen.
  • As part of the New World expedition survey, Harriot learned the Carolina Algonquian language from two Native Americans named Wanchese and Manteo. He also learned the conditions of the New World to prepare the European settlers. On April 9, 1585, Harriot was part of the voyage to Virginia.
  • While sailing, he made observations of a solar eclipse that occurred on April 19. This study allowed modern scientists to compute the exact position of the ship on that day.
  • Harriot was very interested in the New World inhabitants’ language, customs, and even eating habits. He documented his time in the New World. He became more fluent in the Algonquian language. He even brought to England the habit of smoking in pipes which he learned from the natives. He published A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia in 1588.
  • In the same year, he returned to Raleigh and worked on his employer’s Lismore Estate. He carried out surveys on the estate for nine years, working out the acreage of leased lots.

CHALLENGES IN LIFE

  • In 1590, allegations of atheism against Sir Raleigh surfaced because of the school he was involved with, a Jesuit priest called “The School of Atheism”.
  • At the time, being a free thinker could increase one’s chance of being accused of Atheism and going to prison.
  • Harriot’s affiliation with the school and Raleigh and his atomistic views meant that he would also be accused as his employee.
  • Harriot needed to distance himself from Raleigh and found employment with Henry Percy, the Duke of Northumberland. The Duke had similar atomistic views as Harriot as he surrounded himself with scientific scholars.
  • In 1595, the Duke settled on Syon, an estate in Durham, England. Harriot became a member of the “landed gentry”, which improved his social standing.
  • Later, Percy gave Harriot the use of one of the Syon estate houses, which the latter used as his residence and scientific laboratory.
  • During King James I’s reign, Raleigh was charged with treason and was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1603. He asked Harriot to obtain evidence on his behalf.
  • Harriot was then accused of being an evil influence. His attempts to help Raleigh were viewed as using Christian principles for convenience as he was considered an atheist. It only damaged Raleigh’s chances.
  • Guy Fawkes’ group, including Thomas Percy, his patron’s nephew, was involved in the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
  • Harriot was accused of being involved and was detained at the Gatehouse.
  • When no evidence supported the accusations against Harriot, he was released by the end of 1605. Henry Percy joined Raleigh in the Tower of London until 1621.

HARRIOT’S STUDIES

  • Aside from his work with Raleigh in his exploration of the New World, Harriot conducted several studies although they were not published during his lifetime. Historians learned about some of his scientific works through his correspondence with other scientists.
  • Harriot performed experiments with ballistics on behalf of his former employer, Raleigh. The latter was interested in aiming ships’ cannons accurately. In 1607, he correctly concluded that the shape of a cannonball’s flight is a parabola as air resistance and gravity influence its motion.
  • In 1601, he corresponded his discovery about the sine law of light refraction to Johannes Kepler. He did not publish his work. In 1621, Willebrord Snell discovered the same principles, called it the Snell Law, and it was published by Descartes in 1637.
  • Harriot was the first to study and draw a map of the moon using a telescope in 1609. He was also the first to observe sunspots, making almost 200 observations between December 1610 and January 1614. He utilized this observation to calculate the rate at which the sun spins on its axis.
  • On September 17, 1607, He observed a comet from Ilfracombe that would be later known as Halley’s comet. Although Kepler had discovered the comet six days earlier, it was the calculations by Harriot and his friend, William Lower, that would be used years later to compute its orbit.
  • Harriot transformed algebra. Nobody would have known, as it was one of his unpublished works.
  • Ten years after his death, it was finally published and titled Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas (“Application of Analytical Art to Solving Algebraic Equations”). The editor introduced the signs for (*) multiplication, (>) greater than, and (<) less than.
  • However, the editor left out significant sections of his work, including Harriot’s solutions of equations that yielded negative and complex roots.

WILL AND DEATH

  • Harriot suffered a cancerous ulcer on his lip which spread to his nose for six years. His excessive consumption of tobacco was suspected to be the cause of his cancer.
  • On July 2, 1621, he died while living with a friend named Thomas Buckner on Threadneedle Street. Three days before he died, he wrote his will instructing his executor, Nathaniel Toporley, to publish his book Artis Analyticae Praxis on algebra. It was Walter Warner who ended up fulfilling his last wish.
  • He also mentioned his sister in his will, to whom he left fifty pounds for his nephew. Harriot was never married and had no children.
  • He was buried in the chancel of St. Christopher le Stocks, which is now occupied by the Bank of England after a devastating fire wiped the place in 1666.
  • A commemorative plaque in the Bank of England of London states that Harriot “cultivated all the sciences and excelled in all”. He was also called in the plaque as “A most studious searcher after truth and a most devout worshiper of the Triune of God” after having been accused of atheism during his lifetime.

Thomas Harriot Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Thomas Harriot across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Thomas Harriot worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Thomas Harriot who was an English mathematician, astronomer, ethnographer, and translator. He was the first astronomer to use the telescope. The illustration of his observation of the moon was considered the first telescopic observation. He also introduced the symbols of multiplication, greater than, and less than, after his work was published posthumously.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Thomas Harriot Facts
  • Harriot’s Bio
  • Thomas and Friends
  • Their Reaction
  • Missing Words
  • Being an Employee
  • Unpublished Studies
  • Harriot’s Inquiry
  • Four Troubles
  • Studies and Theories
  • Celebrating Harriot

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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