Editing George Boole (section)

== Early life ==
{{multiple image
 | header            = Boole's House and School in [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]]
 | image1            = 3 Pottergate - geograph.org.uk - 657140.jpg
 | caption1          = House and School at 3 Pottergate
 | image2            = BoolePlacque.jpg
 | caption2          = Plaque from the house
}}

Boole was born in 1815 in [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], [[Lincolnshire]], England, the son of John Boole Snr (1779–1848), a shoemaker<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lincolnboolefoundation.org/john-boole/ |title=John Boole |publisher=Lincoln Boole Foundation |access-date=6 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308133149/http://www.lincolnboolefoundation.org/john-boole/ |archive-date=8 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and Mary Ann Joyce.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://georgeboole.com/boole/life/family/ |title=George Boole's Family Tree |access-date=2021-04-12 |archive-date=24 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224173738/https://georgeboole.com/boole/life/family/ |url-status=live}}</ref> He had a primary school education, and received lessons from his father, but due to a serious decline in business, he had little further formal and academic teaching.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Math and mathematicians: the history of math discoveries around the world |first=Leonard C. |last=Bruno |date=2003 |orig-year=1999 |publisher=UXL |editor-last=Baker |editor-first=Lawrence W. |isbn=0-7876-3813-7 |location=Detroit, Mich. |page=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/49 49] |oclc=41497065 |url=https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun |url-access=registration}}</ref> William Brooke, a bookseller in Lincoln, may have helped him with Latin, which he may also have learned at the school of Thomas Bainbridge. He was self-taught in modern languages.<ref name=Hill149>Hill, p. 149; [https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA149 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317034644/https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA149 |date=17 March 2016 }}.</ref> In fact, when a local newspaper printed his translation of a Latin poem, a scholar accused him of plagiarism under the pretence that he was not capable of such achievements.{{sfn|Bruno|2003|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mathmathematicia00brun/page/49 49]–50 }} At age 16, Boole became the breadwinner for his parents and three younger siblings, taking up a junior teaching position in [[Doncaster]] at Heigham's School.<ref name=Rhees1954>[[Rush Rhees|Rhees, Rush]]. (1954) "George Boole as Student and Teacher. By Some of His Friends and Pupils", ''Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences''. Vol. 57. Royal Irish Academy</ref> He taught briefly in [[Liverpool]].<ref name=MacTutor>{{MacTutor Biography|id=Boole}}</ref>

[[File:Greyfriars, Lincoln - geograph.org.uk - 106215.jpg|thumb|Greyfriars, Lincoln, which housed the Mechanic's Institute]]
Boole participated in the [[Lincoln Mechanics' Institute]], in the [[Greyfriars, Lincoln]], which was founded in 1833.<ref name=Hill149 /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Society for the History of Astronomy, ''Lincolnshire''. |url=http://www.freewebs.com/sochistastro/lincolnshire.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301151123/http://www.freewebs.com/sochistastro/lincolnshire.htm |archive-date=1 March 2017 |access-date=2 September 2019 |website=}}</ref> [[Edward Bromhead]], who knew John Boole through the institution, helped George Boole with mathematics books<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=37224|title=Bromhead, Sir Edward Thomas French|first=A. W. F.|last=Edwards}}</ref> and he was given the [[calculus]] text of [[Sylvestre François Lacroix]] by the Rev. George Stevens Dickson of [[St Swithin's Church, Lincoln|St Swithin's, Lincoln]].<ref name=SED>{{cite SEP |url-id=boole |title=George Boole |last=Burris |first=Stanley}}</ref> Without a teacher, it took him many years to master calculus.<ref name=MacTutor />

At age 19, Boole successfully established his own school in Lincoln: Free School Lane.<ref>[https://georgeboole200.ucc.ie/boole/life/lincoln/selfeducation/ George Boole: Self-Education & Early Career] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171122142141/https://georgeboole200.ucc.ie/boole/life/lincoln/selfeducation/ |date=22 November 2017 }} University College Cork</ref>  Four years later he took over Hall's Academy in [[Waddington, Lincolnshire|Waddington]], outside Lincoln, following the death of Robert Hall. In 1840, he moved back to Lincoln, where he ran a boarding school.<ref name=MacTutor /> Boole immediately became involved in the Lincoln Topographical Society, serving as a member of the committee, and presenting a paper entitled "On the origin, progress, and tendencies of polytheism, especially amongst the ancient Egyptians and Persians, and in modern India".''<ref>A Selection of Papers relative to the County of Lincoln, read before the Lincolnshire Topographical Society, 1841–1842. Printed by W. and B. Brooke, High-Street,  Lincoln, 1843.</ref>''

Boole became a prominent local figure, an admirer of [[John Kaye (bishop)|John Kaye]], the bishop.<ref>Hill, p. 172 note 2; [https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA172 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610152358/https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA172 |date=10 June 2016 }}.</ref> He took part in the local [[Early Closing Association|campaign for early closing]].<ref name=Hill149 /> With [[Edmund Larken]] and others he set up a [[building society]] in 1847.<ref>Hill, p. 130 note 1; [https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA130 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427154156/https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA130 |date=27 April 2016 }}.</ref> He associated also with the [[Chartism|Chartist]] [[Thomas Cooper (poet)|Thomas Cooper]], whose wife was a relation.<ref>Hill, p. 148; [https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA148 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504074433/https://books.google.com/books?id=-A89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA148 |date=4 May 2016 }}.</ref>

From 1838 onwards, Boole was making contacts with sympathetic British academic mathematicians and reading more widely. He studied [[algebra]] in the form of symbolic methods, as far as these were understood at the time, and began to publish research papers.<ref name=MacTutor />
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