<Tr> <Th> Fields </Th> <Td> Mathematician and physician </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Institutions </Th> <Td> University of Oxford Royal Mint </Td> </Tr> <P> Robert Recorde (c. 1512--1558) was a Welsh physician and mathematician . He invented the "equals" sign (=) and also introduced the pre-existing "plus" sign (+) to English speakers in 1557 . </P> <P> A member of a respectable family of Tenby, Wales, born in 1512, Recorde entered the University of Oxford about 1525, and was elected a Fellow of All Souls College there in 1531 . Having adopted medicine as a profession, he went to the University of Cambridge to take the degree of M.D. in 1545 . He afterwards returned to Oxford, where he publicly taught mathematics, as he had done prior to going to Cambridge . It appears that he afterwards went to London, and acted as physician to King Edward VI and to Queen Mary, to whom some of his books are dedicated . He was also controller of the Royal Mint and served as "Comptroller of Mines and Monies" in Ireland . After being sued for defamation by a political enemy, he was arrested for debt and died in the King's Bench Prison, Southwark, by the middle of June 1558 . </P>

Who was the first english mathematician who used the modern symbol of equality in 1557