The
Lucasian professor is the holder of a
mathematical professorship at
Cambridge University. The post was founded in
1663 by
Henry Lucas[?], who was Cambridge University's representative to Parliament in
1639-
1640. Lucas, in his will, bequeathed his library of 4,000 volumes to the University and left instruction for the purchase of land whose yielding would provide £100 a year for the founding of a professorship. In
1860, the fund had risen to only £155.