Lord Napier, in 1614, published at Edinburgh his Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio. . . . . It presently fell into the hands of Mr. Briggs, then geometry-reader at Gresham College in London: and that gentleman, forming a design to perfect Lord Napier’s plan, consulted Oughtred upon it; who probably wrote his Treatise of Trigonometry about the same time, since it is evidently formed upon the plan of Lord Napier’s Canon.[4] It will be shown later that Oughtred is very probably the author of an “Appendix” which appeared in the 1618 edition of Edward Wright’s translation into English of John Napier’s Descriptio. This “Appendix” relates to logarithms and is an able document, containing several points of historical interest. Mr. Arthur Hutchinson of Pembroke College informs me that in the university library at Cambridge there is a copy of Napier’s Constructio (1619) bound up with a copy of Kepler’s Chilias logarithmorum (1624), that at the beginning of the Constructio is a blank leaf, and before this occurs the title-page only of Napier’s Descriptio (1619), at the top of which appears Oughtred’s autograph. The history of this interesting signature is unknown. HIS WIFE In 1606 he married Christ’sgift Caryll, daughter of Caryll, Esq., of Tangley, in an adjoining parish.[5] We know very little about Oughtred’s family life. The records at King’s College, Cambridge,[6] mention a son, but it is certain that there were more children. A daughter was married to Christopher Brookes. But there is no confirmation of Aubrey’s statements,[7] according to which Oughtred had nine sons and four daughters. Reference to the wife and children is sometimes made in the correspondence with Oughtred. In 1616 J. Hales writes, “I pray let me be remembered, though unknown, to Mistress Oughtred.”[8] As we shall see later, Oughtred had a great many young men who came to his house and remained there free of charge to receive instruction in mathematics, which was likewise gratuitous. This being the case, certainly great appreciation was due to Mrs. Oughtred, upon whom the burden of hospitality must have fallen. Yet chroniclers are singularly silent in regard to her. Hers was evidently a life of obscurity and service. We greatly doubt the accuracy of the following item handed down by Aubrey; it cannot be a true characterization: His wife was a penurious woman, and would not allow him to burne candle after supper, by which meanes many a good notion is lost, and many a probleme unsolved; so that Mr. [Thomas] Henshawe, when he was there, bought candle, which was a great comfort to the old man.[9] IN DANGER OF SEQUESTRATION Oughtred spent his years in “unremitted attention to his favourite study,” sometimes, it has been whispered, to the neglect of his rectorial duties. Says Aubrey: