The life and mathematics of George Campbell, F. R. S (Q1181727)

The author announces some new facts about the Scottish mathematician George Campbell who lived at a time when Scottish mathematics was dominated by Colin Maclaurin and James Stirling. In spite of the fact that George Campbell was a Fellow of the Royal Society, being elected in 1730, until recently he was known only for a single paper (1728) containing the first proof of ``Newton's rule'' for detecting complex roots of equations, and for a priority dispute with Maclaurin, who had written two papers (1726; 1729) on the same subject, cf. \textit{R. V. } and \textit{P. J. Wallis}, Biobibliography of British mathematics and its applications. Part II: 1701-1760 (1986; Zbl 0603.01011). This paper discusses a previously overlooked mathematical publication Campbell, G. 1733. The number of impossible roots in any equation reduced to the Cartesian rule for finding the number of positive and negative roots. Article XI, pp. 96-98 in Reid and Gray, 1733, and two newly discovered primary sources --- a volume of lecture notes, dated 1723, and a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, dated 1754. In addition, genealogical information from Campbell's will provide a basis for some reasonably well-grounded conjectures regarding his parents and his family connections.