Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Whitworth, William Allen
WHITWORTH, WILLIAM ALLEN (1840–1905), mathematical and religious writer, born at Bank House, Runcorn, on 1 Feb. 1840, was the eldest son in the family of four sons and two daughters of William Whitworth, at one time schoolmaster at Runcorn and incumbent of Little Leigh, Cheshire, and of Widnes, Lancashire. His mother was Susanna, daughter of George Coyne of Kilbeggan, co. Westmeath, and first cousin to Joseph Stirling Coyne [q. v.]
After education at Sandicroft School, Northwich (1851–7), Whitworth proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, in October 1858, and in 1861 was elected a scholar. In 1862 he graduated B.A. as 16th wrangler, proceeding M.A. in 1865; he was fellow of his college from 1867 to 1884. He was successively chief mathematical master at Portarlington School and Rossall School and professor of mathematics at Queen's College, Liverpool (1862–4).
From early youth Whitworth showed a mathematical promise and originality to which his place in the tripos scarcely did justice. While an undergraduate he was principal editor with Charles Taylor and others of the ‘Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin Messenger of Mathematics,’ started at Cambridge in November 1861. The publication was continued as ‘The Messenger of Mathematics’; Whitworth remained one of the editors till 1880, and was a frequent contributor. His earliest article on ‘The Equiangular Spiral, its Chief Properties proved Geometrically’ (i. 5–13), was translated into French in the ‘Nouvelles Annales de Mathématiques’ (1869). An important treatise on ‘Trilinear Co-ordinates and other Methods of Modern Analytical Geometry of Two Dimensions’ was issued at Cambridge in 1866. Whitworth's best-known mathematical work, entitled ‘Choice and Chance, an Elementary Treatise on Permutations, Combinations and Probability’ (Cambridge, 1867), was elaborated from lectures delivered to ladies at Queen's College, Liverpool, in 1866. A model of clear and simple exposition, it presents a very ample collection of problems on probability and kindred subjects, solutions to which were provided in ‘DCC Exercises’ (1897). Numerous additions to the problems were made in subsequent editions (5th edit. 1901).
Meanwhile Whitworth was ordained deacon in 1865 and priest in 1866, and won a high repute in a clerical career. He was curate at St. Anne's, Birkenhead (1865), and of St. Luke's, Liverpool (1866–70), and perpetual curate of Christ Church, Liverpool (1870–5). His success with parochial missions in Liverpool led to preferments in London. He was vicar of St. John the Evangelist, Hammersmith (1875–86), and vicar of All Saints', Margaret Street, Marylebone, from November 1886 till his death. He also held from 1885 the sinecure college living of Aberdaron with Llanfaebrhys in the diocese of Bangor (1885), and was from 1891 to 1892 commissary of the South African diocese of Blomfontein. Whitworth was select preacher at Cambridge in 1872, 1878, 1884, 1894, and 1900, Hulsean lecturer there (1903–4), and was made a prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1900.
Whitworth, who had been brought up as an evangelical, was influenced at Cambridge by the scholarship of Lightfoot and Westcott, and he studied later the German rationalising school of theology. As a preacher he showed critical insight and learning. His sympathies lay mainly with the high church party, and in 1875 he joined the English Church Union. In the ritual controversy of 1898–9 he showed moderation, and differed from the union in its opposition to the archbishops' condemnation of the use of incense. He contended that the obsolete canon law should not be allowed ‘to supersede the canonical utterance of the living voice of the Church of England.’ His ecclesiastical position may be deduced from his publications: ‘Quam Dilecta,’ a description of All Saints' Church, Margaret St., 1891; ‘The Real Presence, with Other Essays,’ 1893, and ‘Worship in the Christian Church,’ 1899. Two volumes of sermons were published posthumously: ‘Christian Thought on Present Day Questions’ (1906) and ‘The Sanctuary of God’ (1908). He also published ‘The Churchman's Almanac for Eight Centuries,’ a mathematical calculation of the date of every Sunday (1882).
Whitworth died on 12 March 1905 at Fitzroy House Nursing Home after a serious operation (28 February) and was buried at Brookwood in ground belonging to St. Alban's, Holborn. There is a slab to his memory in the floor of All Saints' Church, Margaret Street. He married on 10 June 1885 Sarah Louisa, only daughter of Timms Hervey Elwes, and had issue four sons, all graduates of Trinity College, Cambridge.
[Guardian, 15 and 22 March 1905; Church Times, 17 March 1905; The Times, 13 March 1905; Eagle, June 1905, xxvi. 396–9; information from brother, Mr. G. C. Whitworth, and Professor W. H. H. Hudson.]