SIR

See also:

• JAMES
• JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
• JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
• JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
• JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
• JAMES, EPISTLE OF
• JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
• JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
• JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
• JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (d. 1827)

JAMES

See also:

• COCKLE
• SIR JAMES COCKLE (1819-1395)

COCKLE (1819-1395)  , English lawyer and mathematician, was born on the 14th of January 1819 . He was the second son of James Cockle, a surgeon, of Great Oakley, Essex . Educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, Cam-bridge, he entered the Middle Temple in 1838, practising as a special pleader in 1845 and being called in 1846 . Joining the midland circuit, he acquired a good practice, and on the recommendation of Chief Justice Sir William Erie he was appointed chief justice of Queensland in 1863 . He received the honour of knighthood in 1869, retired from the bench, and returned to England in 1879 . Cockle is more remembered for his mathematical and scientific investigations than as a lawyer . Like many young mathematicians he attacked the problem of resolving the higher algebraic equations, notwithstanding Abel's proof that a solution by radicles was impossible . In this field Cockle achieved some notable results, amongst which is his reproduction of Sir William R . Hamilton's modification of Abel's theorem . Algebraic forms were a favourite object of his studies, and he discovered and developed the theory of criticoids, or differential invariants; he also made contributions to the theory of differential equations . He displayed a keen interest in scientific societies . From 1863 to 1879 he was president of the Queensland Philosophical Society (now incorporated in the Royal Society of Queensland); on his return to England he became associated with the London Mathematical Society, of which he was president from 1886 to 1888, and the Royal Astronomical Society, serving as a member of the council from 1888 to 1892 .

He died in London on the 27th of January 1895 . A

volume containing his scientific and mathematical researches made during the years 1864–1877 was presented to the British Museum in 1897 by his widow . See the obituary notice by the Rev . R . Harley in Proc . Roy . Soc. vol . 59 .