Medway and Portsmouth, as well as Harwich (Pepys, Diary, ed. 1854, iii. 90). In May 1667 he was employed at Plymouth (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667, pp. 128, 136, 187). In 1673 and 1675 he was making surveys about Dublin. An interesting document was exhibited at the Royal Irish Academy in 1861, and privately printed by Charles Haliday of Dublin, entitled ‘Observations explanatory of a plan and estimate for a citadel at Dublin, designed by Sir Bernard de Gomme, Engineer-General in the year 1673, with his Map,’ &c. A reference to Gomme's ‘design of building a fort-royal on the strand near Ringsend,’ in the neighbourhood of Dublin, occurs in the report of the elder Sir Jonas Moore, surveyor-general of ordnance, drawn up in 1675 and printed in ‘Letters written by Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland,’ &c., 4to, London, 1770 (p. 167). On the death of Sir Jonas Moore the younger in July 1682, Gomme was appointed surveyor-general of ordnance (Chamberlayne, Angliæ Notitia, ed. 1684, pt. ii. p. 219). He died on 23 Nov. 1685, and was buried on the 30th of that month in the chapel of the Tower of London (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 252). By his will dated 4 and proved at London on 27 Nov. 1685 (P. C. C. 134, Cann) he left liberal legacies to the Dutch Church in London and to Christ's Hospital. He mentions his manor of Wadnall, or Waddenhall, in Waltham and Petham in Kent. He married, first, Katherine van Deniza, widow of Adrian (?) Beverland, by whom he had a daughter, Anna, married to John Riches. Their daughter was Catherine Bovey [q. v.] The ‘son’ of Gomme mentioned as living in December 1665 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, p. 95) was probably his stepson, Adrian Beverland, to whom he bequeathed 2,000l. Gomme married secondly, by license dated 15 Oct. 1667, Catherine Lucas of Bevis Marks, a widow of fifty ({sc|Chester}}, London Marriage Licences, ed. Foster, col. 562), who died a few weeks before him, and was buried in the Tower chapel 19 Oct. 1685. A miniature portrait in oil of Gomme is prefixed to a collection of plans (executed probably for him) illustrating the campaigns of the Prince of Orange between 1625 and 1645, preserved at the British Museum in George III's library, No. cii. 21.
[Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660–7; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 221–2, 252, 3rd ser. iv. 338–339, 6th ser. v. 246–7, 332–3, 391.]
GOMPERTZ, BENJAMIN (1779–1865), mathematician and actuary, descended from the distinguished Jewish family of Gompertz of Emmerich, was born on 5 March 1779, in London, where his father and grandfather had been successful diamond merchants. Debarred, as a Jew, from a university education, he studied without guidance from an early age, and when a mere lad was familiar with the writings of Newton, Maclaurin, and Emerson. As early as 1798 he was a prominent contributor to the ‘Gentleman's Mathematical Companion,’ and for a long period carried off the annual prizes of that magazine for the best solutions of prize problems. In compliance with his father's wish, he entered the Stock Exchange, but continued his private studies. He became a member of the Old Mathematical Society of Spitalfields, and served as its president when it was merged in the Astronomical Society. From 1806 he was a frequent contributor to the ‘Transactions’ of the Royal Society; but his early tracts on imaginary quantities and porisms (1817–18), which first established his reputation as a mathematician, were declined by the society, and were printed and published at his own expense. In 1819 he was elected a F.R.S., and in 1832 became a member of the council. The foundation of the Astronomical Society in 1820 opened to Gompertz a fresh field of activity. He was elected a member of the council in 1821, and for ten years actively participated in its work, contributing valuable papers on the theory of astronomical instruments, the aberration of light, the differential sextant, the convertible pendulum, and other subjects. With Francis Baily [q. v.] he began in 1822 the construction of tables for the mean places of the fixed stars; the work was left uncompleted, because, in the midst of their calculations, Baily and Gompertz found themselves anticipated by the publication of the ‘Fundamenta Astronomiæ’ of Bessel. Their labours, however, resulted in the complete catalogue of stars of the Royal Astronomical Society. Gompertz may be regarded as the last of the old English school of mathematicians. So great was his reverence for Newton that he adhered to the almost obsolete language of fluxions throughout his life, and ably defended the fluxional against what he called ‘the furtive’ notation (Phil. Trans. 1862, pt. i. p. 513).
It was as an actuary that Gompertz's most lasting work was performed. On the death of an only son he retired from the Stock Exchange, and absorbed himself in mathematics. When the Guardian Insurance Office was established in 1821, he was a candidate for the actuaryship, but the directors objected to him on the score of his religion. His brother-in-law, Sir Moses Montefiore—he married
