University of Virginia Library

CHARLES BONNYCASTLE

Bonnycastle is an apt name for an habitation,
but its appropriateness for one of the
University's Residence Houses stems from
the surname of one of the original Professors,
Charles Bonnycastle. He was born in
England in 1792, the son of a distinguished
Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military
Academy at Woolwich. Two of John
Bonnycastle's sons achieved notable careers
in the New World. The elder of the two,
Sir Richard Bonnycastle, was a military
engineer in Canada. The younger, Charles,
received his training at Woolwich, and he
was holding a government appointment
when Francis Walker Gilmer, Jefferson's
agent in England to secure a Faculty for
the University of Virginia, persuaded him
to cast his lot with the newly fledged institution.
The voyage to the United States,
which Bonnycastle made with Robley
Dunglison, who was to be Professor of
Medicine, and Thomas Hewitt Key, to be
Professor of Mathematics, was a hazardous

initiation. The ship "Competitor" in which
they sailed was "an old log", and the voyage
was stormy, requiring three and a half
months. In fact, because of the delay, the
first session of the University of Virginia
could not begin until 7 March 1825.

Bonnycastle was at first, from 1825 to
1827, Professor of Natural Philosophy. But
when Key returned to England in 1827,
he was transferred to the professorship of
Mathematics, and he held that chair until
his death in 1840. By his effective teaching,
by his familiarity with current English
progress in his subject, and by his authorship
of mathematical textbooks (he was
the compiler of treatises on Algebra, on
Inductive Geometry, and on Mensuration)
he proved to be a manifest example of the
success of Jefferson's design of choosing
members of the original Faculty from
abroad. It is said that Bonnycastle possessed
the most original mind of any teacher of
Mathematics in the United States in his
time.

He had been a bachelor on arrival, but

he married a Virginia maiden, Ann Mason
Tutt of Loudoun County, "of great charm
and beauty." They lived on the Lawn in
Pavilion VIII (now the President's office)
and had three children. He relieved the
rather bleak appearance of the original
pavilions by planting in his garden an
arbor covered with roses and honeysuckle
vines for his children. He was notable for
his powers of concentration. Perhaps it was
for this characteristic, added to an extreme
degree of shyness, that he was described
as being taciturn. An article which appeared
after his death in the Southern
Literary Messenger pictured him as "sitting
in the midst of his playful children
perfectly unconscious of their bewitching
gambols. But their easy confidence and
familiarity proved that there was no austerity
in his nature." Death came to him on
31 October 1840 while he was only in his
forty-eighth year. He lies buried in the
University Cemetery.