Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hart, Andrew Searle
HART, Sir ANDREW SEARLE (1811–1890), mathematician and vice-provost of Trinity College, Dublin, youngest son of the Rev. George Vaughan Hart of Glenalla, county Donegal, by Maria Murray, daughter of the Very Rev. John Hume, dean of Derry, was born at Limerick on 14 March 1811. Entering Trinity College, Dublin, in 1828, he became the class-fellow and intimate friend of Isaac Butt [q. v.], with whom he always preserved a warm friendship although they differed in politics. Hart graduated B.A. 1833, proceeded M.A. 1839, and LL.B. and LL.D. 1840. He was elected a fellow on 15 June 1835, was co-opted senior fellow 10 July 1858, and was elected vice-provost in 1876. He took an active interest in the affairs of the Irish church, and was for many years a member of the general synod and representative church body. He obtained much reputation as a mathematician, and published useful treatises on hydrostatics and mechanics. Between 1849 and 1861 he contributed valuable papers to the ‘Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal,’ to the ‘Proceedings of the Irish Academy,’ and to the ‘Quarterly Journal of Mathematics,’ chiefly on the subject of geodesic lines and on curves. On 25 Jan. 1886 he was knighted at Dublin Castle by the lord-lieutenant, Lord Carnarvon, ‘in recognition of his academic rank and attainments.’ He died suddenly at the house of his brother-in-law, George Vaughan Hart, of Kilderry, county Donegal, on 13 April 1890. He married in 1840 Frances, daughter of Henry MacDougall, Q.C., of Dublin; she died in 1876. Two sons, George Vaughan, a barrister, and Henry Chichester, of Carrablagh, Donegal, survived him.
Hart was the author of: 1. ‘An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics,’ 1844; 2nd edit. 1847. 2. ‘An Elementary Treatise on Hydrostatics and Hydrodynamics,’ 1846; another edit. 1850.
[Freeman's Journal, 26 Jan. 1886, p. 5; Dublin Gazette, 29 Jan. 1886, p. 94; Times, 15 April 1890.]