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<title>Robert Hues</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
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<category>Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford</category>
<section id="48452" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
Robert Hues (1553 – 24 May 1632) was an English mathematician and geographer. He graduated from St. Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1578 and may have travelled to Continental Europe thereafter. Hues became interested in geography and mathematics, and made observations of the variations of the compass off the coast of Newfoundland. He either went there on a fishing trip, or joined a 1585 voyage to Virginia arranged by Walter Raleigh and led by Richard Grenville which passed Newfoundland on the return journey to England. Between 1586 and 1588, Hues travelled with Thomas Cavendish on a circumnavigation of the globe, taking the opportunity to measure latitudes. In 1589, Hues went on the Earl of Cumberland's raiding expedition to the Azores to capture Spanish galleons. Beginning in August 1591, Hues travelled with Cavendish again, intending to complete another circumnavigation of the globe. They were accompanied by John Davis. During the voyage, Hues made astronomical observations while in the South Atlantic, and also observed the variation of the compass there and at the Equator. In 1592, Cavendish died on the journey, and Hues returned to England with Davis in 1593.
In 1594, Hues published his discoveries in the Latin work Tractatus de globis et eorum usu (Treatise on Globes and their Use) which was written to explain the use of the terrestrial and celestial globes that had been made and published by Emery Molyneux in late 1592 or early 1593, and to encourage English sailors to use practical astronomical navigation. Hues' work subsequently went into at least 12 other printings in Dutch, English, French and Latin.
Hues continued to have dealings with Raleigh in the 1590s, and later became a servant of Thomas Grey, the 15th and last Baron Grey de Wilton. While Grey was imprisoned in the Tower of London for participating in the Bye Plot, Hues stayed with him. Following Grey's death in 1614, Hues attended upon Henry Percy, the 9th Earl of Norerland, when he was confined in the Tower; one source states that Hues, Thomas Harriot and Walter Warner were Norerland's constant companions and known as his "Three Magi", although this is disputed. Hues tutored Norerland's sons Algernon Percy, who subsequently became the 10th Earl of Norerland, at Oxford; and later Algernon's younger brother Henry in 1622–1623. In later years, Hues lived in Oxford where he was a fellow of the University, and discussed mathematics and related subjects with like-minded friends. He died on 24 May 1632 in the city and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral.

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<section id="48453" fatherid="0" title="Early years and education" lv="" priority="2" level="1">
Robert Hues was born in 1553 at Little Hereford (, )Clements R. Markham, "Introduction", in . in Herefordshire, England. In 1571, at the age of 18 years, he entered Brasenose College, University of Oxford... English antiquarian Anthony à Wood (1632–1695) wrote that when Hues arrived at Oxford he was "only a poor scholar or servitor ... he continued for some time a very sober and serious servant ... but being sensible of the loss of time which he sustained there by constant attendance, he transferred himself to St Mary's Hall".. At Oxford, a servitor was an undergraduate student who worked as a servant for fellows of the University in exchange for free accommodation and some meals, and exemption from paying fees for lectures. Hues graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree on 12 July 1578,, vols. 1–2. Hues is listed under the name "Hughes". having shown marked skill in Greek. He later gave advice to the dramatist and poet George Chapman for his 1616 English translation of Homer,. and Chapman referred to him as his "learned and valuable friend".: see Markham, "Introduction", Tratatus de globis, p. xxxv. According to another source, Chapman called Hues "another  learned, honest, and entirely loved friend of mine": see . See also . According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, there is unsubstantiated evidence that after completing his degree Hues was held in the Tower of London, though no reason is given for this, then went abroad after his release. It is possible he travelled to Continental Europe.Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, p. xxxv.
Hues was a friend of the geographer Richard Hakluyt, who was then regent master of Christ Church. In the 1580s, Hakluyt introduced him to Walter Raleigh and explorers and navigators whom Raleigh knew. In addition, it is likely that Hues came to know astronomer and mathematician Thomas Harriot and Walter Warner at Thomas Allen's lectures in mathematics. The four men were later associated with Henry Percy, the 9th Earl of Norerland,According to Kargon, "it was probably through Percy (although the reverse is possible)" that Harriot came to know Hues: . who was known as the "Wizard Earl" for his interest in scientific and alchemical experiments and his library.. See also

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<section id="48454" fatherid="0" title="Career" lv="" priority="-3" level="1">
Hues became interested in geography and mathematics – an undated source indicates that he disputed accepted values of variations of the compass after making observations off the Newfoundland coast. He either went there on a fishing trip, or may have joined a 1585 voyage to Virginia arranged by Raleigh and led by Richard Grenville, which passed Newfoundland on the return journey to England. Hues perhaps become acquainted with the sailor Thomas Cavendish at this time, as both of them were taught by Harriot at Raleigh's school of navigation. An anonymous 17th-century manuscript states that Hues circumnavigated the world with Cavendish between 1586 and 1588 "purposely for taking the true Latitude of places";MS Rawl. B 158, Bodleian Library, Oxford. he may have been the "NH" who wrote a brief account of the voyage that was published by Hakluyt in his 1589 work The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation.. In the year that book appeared, Hues was with Edward W on the Earl of Cumberland's raiding expedition to the Azores to capture Spanish galleons.
Beginning in August 1591, Hues joined Cavendish on another attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Sailing on the Leicester, they were accompanied by the explorer John Davis on the Desire. Cavendish and Davis agreed that they would part company once they had cleared the Strait of Magellan between Chile and Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, as Davis intended to sail to America to search for the Northwest Passage. The expedition was ultimately unsuccessful, although Davis did discover the Falkland Islands.. In the meantime, delayed in small harbours in the Strait with crew members dying from the cold, illness and starvation, Cavendish turned back eastwards to return to England. He was plagued by mutinous crew, and natives and Portuguese who attacked his sailors seeking food and water on shore. Increasingly depressed, Cavendish died in 1592 somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, possibly having committed suicide..
During the voyage, Hues made astronomical observations of the Southern Cross and other stars of the Southern Hemisphere while in the South Atlantic, and also observed the variation of the compass there and at the Equator. He returned to England with Davis in 1593,Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, p. xxxvi. and published his discoveries in the work Tractatus de globis et eorum usu (Treatise on Globes and their Use, 1594), (in Latin). which he dedicated to Raleigh. The book was written to explain the use of the terrestrial and celestial globes that had been made and published by Emery Molyneux in late 1592 or early 1593.. Apparently, the book was also intended to encourage English sailors to use practical astronomical navigation, although Lesley Cormack has observed that the fact it was written in Latin suggests that it was aimed at scholarly readers on the Continent.. In 1595, William Sanderson, a London merchant who had largely financed the globes' construction, presented a small globe together with Hues' "Latin booke that teacheth the use of my great globes"; . to Robert Cecil, a statesman who was spymaster and minister to Elizabeth I and James I. Hues' work subsequently went into at least 12 other printings in Dutch (1597, 1613 and 1622), English (1638 and 1659), French (1618) and Latin (1611, 1613, 1617, 1627, 1659 and 1663).Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, pp. xxxviii–xl. In his book An Accidence or The Path-way to Experience: Necessary for all Young Sea-men (1626),. Original in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery (now The Huntington Library) in San Marino, California. Accidence is the branch of grammar that deals with the accidents or inflections of words. The term came to mean a book about the rudiments of grammar, and was extended to the rudiments or first principles of any subject: see . John Smith, who founded the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, Virginia, listed Hues' book among the works that a young seaman should study..
Tractatus de globis begins with a letter by Hues dedicated to Raleigh that recalled geographical discoveries made by Englishmen during Elizabeth I's reign. However, he felt that his countrymen would have surpassed the Spaniards and Portuguese if they had a complete knowledge of astronomy and geometry, which were essential to successful navigation.Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, p. xli. In the preface of the book, Hues rehearsed arguments that proved the earth is a sphere, and refuted opposing theories.Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, pp. xli–xlii. The treatise was divided into five parts. The first part described elements common to Molyneux's terrestrial and celestial globes, including the circles and lines inscribed on them, zones and climates, and the use of each globe's wooden horizon circle and brass meridian.Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, pp. xlii–xliii. The second part described planets, fixed stars and constellations; while the third part described the lands and seas shown on the terrestrial globe, and discussed the length of the circumference of the earth and of a degree of a great circle.Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, p. xlii. Part 4, which Hues considered the most important part of the work, explained how the globes enabled seamen to determine the sun's position, latitude, course and distance, amplitudes and azimuths, and time and declination.Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, pp. xlii and xlvi. The final part of the work contained a treatise inspired by Harriot on rhumb lines.. In the work, Hues also published for the first time the six fundamental navigational propositions involved in solving what was later termed the "nautical triangle" used for plane sailing. Difference of latitude and departure (or longitude) are two sides of the triangle forming a  angle, the distance travelled is the hypotenuse, and the angle between difference of latitude and distance is the course. If any two elements are known, the other two can be determined by plotting or calculation using tables of sines, tangents and secants..
In the 1590s, Hues continued to have dealings with Raleigh – he was one of the executors of Raleigh's will – and he may have been the "Hewes" who dined with Norerland regularly in 1591. He later became a servant of Thomas Grey, the 15th and last Baron Grey de Wilton (1575–1614). For participating in the Bye Plot, a conspiracy by Roman Catholic priest William Watson to kidnap James I and force him to repeal anti-Catholic legislation, Grey was attainted and forfeited his title in 1603. The following year, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Grey was given consent for Hues to stay in the Tower with him. Between 1605 and 1621, Norerland was also confined in the Tower; he was suspected of involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 because his relative Thomas Percy was among the conspirators.
In 1616, following Grey's death, Hues began to be "attendant upon th'aforesaid Earle of Norerland for matters of learning",. and was paid a yearly sum of £40 to support his research until Norerland's death in 1632. Wood stated that Harriot, Hues and Warner were Norerland's "constant companions, and were usually called the Earl of Norerland's Three Magi. They had a table at the Earl's charge, and the Earl himself did constantly converse with them, and with Sir Walter Raleigh, then in the Tower".: see . See also . Together with the scientist Nathanael Toporley and the mathematician Thomas Allen, the men kept abreast of developments in astronomy, mathematics, physiology and the physical sciences, and made important contributions in these areas.Kargon, "The Wizard Earl and the New Science" in Atomism in England, pp. 5–17 at 16. According to the letter writer John Chamberlain, Norerland refused a pardon offered to him in 1617, preferring to remain with Harriot, Hues and Warner.: see Kargon, "The Wizard Earl and the New Science" in Atomism in England, pp. 5–17 at 16. However, the fact that these companions of Norerland were his "Three Magi" studying with him in the Tower of London has been regarded as a romanticization by the antiquarian John Aubrey and disputed for lack of evidence., critiqued by Shirley, Thomas Harriot, pp. 364–365. See . Hues was tutor to Norerland's sons: first Algernon Percy, who subsequently became the 10th Earl of Norerland, at Oxford where he matriculated at Christ Church in 1617; and later Algernon's younger brother Henry in 1622–1623. Hues lived at Christ Church at this time, but may have occasionally attended upon Norerland at Petworth House in Petworth, West Sussex, and at Syon House in London after the latter's release from the Tower in 1622. Hues sometimes met Walter Warner in London, and they are known to have discussed the reflection of bodies.

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<section id="48455" fatherid="0" title="Later life" lv="" priority="-4" level="1">
In later years, Hues lived in Oxford where he discussed mathematics and allied subjects with like-minded friends.Feingold says that Hues became "a type of private tutor to Oxford men": . Cormack states he was a fellow at the University. Under the terms of the will of Thomas Harriot, who died on 2 July 1621, Hues and Warner were given the responsibility of helping Harriot's executor Nathaniel Torporley to prepare Harriot's mathematical papers for publication. Hues was also required to help price Harriot's books and other possessions for sale to the Bodleian Library.
Hues, who did not marry, died on 24 May 1632 in Stone House, St. Aldate's (opposite the Blue Boar in central Oxford).In Historia et antiquitates universitatis Oxoniensis (History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, 1674), vol. 2, p. 361, notice of Hues' death was given under St. Mary Hall as follows: "Oxonii in parochiâ Sancti Aldati, inque Domicilio speciatim lapides, e regione insignis Afri cærulei, fatis concessit, et in ecclesiâ Ædis Christi Cathedrali humatus fuit an: dom:  sic: " (In Oxford in the parish of St. Aldate, that is, in the dwelling of stone, from the region of the blue African sign (?), he yielded to the Fates, and was buried in the church of Christ Church Cathedral in the year of our Lord 1532 sic: 1632). , was a Latin translation by Richard Peers and Richard Reeve under the direction of Dr. John Fell of an English manuscript by Anthony à Wood which the University purchased in 1670. The manuscript itself was later published as . See Markham, "Introduction", Tractatus de globis, p. xxxvii, n. 1. This was the house of John Smith, M.A., the son of a cook at Christ Church named J. Smith. In his will, Hues made many small bequests to his friends, including a sum of £20 to his "kinswoman" Mary Holly (of whom nothing is known), and 20 nobles to each of her three sisters. He was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, and a monumental brass to him was placed in Christ Church with the following inscription:

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<section id="48456" fatherid="0" title="Works" lv="" priority="5" level="1">
The Hakluyt Society's reprint of the English version was itself published as:
*.
The following works also are, or appear to be, versions of Tractatus de globis et eorum usu, though they are not mentioned by Markham:

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<section id="48461" fatherid="48459" title="Books" lv="" priority="-2" level="2">
Category:1553 births
Category:1632 deaths
Category:English geographers
Category:English mathematicians
Category:Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford
Category:Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
Category:Academics of the University of Oxford
Category:16th-century English people
Category:17th-century English people
Category:Burials at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

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