Mary Somerville

Mary Somerville was a Scottish polymath who lived from 1780 to 1872. A polymath is a person who excels in many different areas of study.

She was a mathematician, an astronomer, and a philosopher. She is famously known as the first person to be called a "scientist." This happened because William Whewell used the term in an 1834 review of her book, *On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences*. While Whewell originally referred to the person as "some ingenious gentleman," his writing helped cement the new word in the English language.

Somerville's early life was shaped by both intellectual curiosity and financial struggle. She was born in Jedburgh to Vice-Admiral Sir William George Fairfax.

Although her father held a high rank, the family lived in genteel poverty. Her mother managed an orchard and kept cows to help support the household. Mary's education was often restricted by the social rules of the time. Many believed women should only learn to read the Bible or perform needlework.

Mary, however, found these limits unjust. She resented the way education was denied to her sex while being given freely to men.

To overcome these barriers, Somerville pursued a rigorous self-directed education. She taught herself Latin to access her father's library. She also studied Greek to read authors like Xenophon and Herodotus in their original forms. While many women were taught only basic writing, Mary studied arithmetic and writing at a school in Edinburgh. She later used books on algebra and geometry to build her mathematical foundation.

She would often rise early to play the piano and stay up late to study Euclid's *Elements*. This intense discipline allowed her to master complex subjects like plane and spherical trigonometry.

Her mathematical career began with solving difficult problems in published journals. She often used the pseudonym "A Lady" to protect her identity.

In 1811, she won a silver medal for solving a diophantine problem. Her work also helped introduce differential calculus to 19th-century Britain. She believed British science had fallen behind the Continent because of a strict reverence for Isaac Newton. She noted that many British scientists were slow to adopt calculus. It was not until 1816, when translations of Sylvestre Lacroix's work appeared, that this deadlock began to break.

As her expertise grew, Somerville expanded into many branches of the physical sciences. She studied astronomy, chemistry, geography, electricity, and magnetism.

She even built a large personal library of scientific texts when she was 33. Her studies included the works of great thinkers like Lagrange and Euler. In 1835, her contributions to astronomy were officially recognized. She and Caroline Herschel became the first female Honorary Members of the Royal Astronomical Society. This was a major milestone for women in the scientific community.

Somerville's personal life also supported her intellectual pursuits. She married Dr. William Somerville in 1812, a man who encouraged her scientific studies.

Together, they moved in influential social circles. She was friends with the famous painter J. M. W. Turner and the writer Walter Scott. Her life was not without hardship, as she faced the loss of her eldest brother and the prejudices of her first husband. However, her inheritance from her first marriage provided the financial freedom she needed to focus entirely on her research.

Today, Mary Somerville's legacy is preserved in many ways. Somerville College at the University of Oxford is named in her honor.

This name reflects the college's values of academic success and liberalism. In 2017, she was featured on the Royal Bank of Scotland's £10 note. Even in her later years, she remained an advocate for social change. Before she reached the age of 86, she became the first person to sign a mass petition to Parliament for women's right to vote. Her life remains a powerful example of how curiosity can overcome social boundaries.