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After returning to England he was appointed Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer and held this office until his death at the age of 93.
Maseres wrote many mathematical works which show a complete lack of creative ability. He rejected negative numbers and that part of algebra which is not arithmetic, despite writing 150 years after Viète and Harriot. It is probable that Maseres rejected all mathematics which he could not understand. He writes:-
If any single quantity is marked either with the sign + or the sign - without affecting some other quantity, the mark will have no meaning or significance, thus if it be said that the square of -5, or the product of -5 into -5, is equal to +25, such an assertion must either signify no more than 5 times 5 is equal to 25 without any regard for the signs, or it must be mere nonsense or unintelligible jargon.
Maseres had an unfortunate influence on the teaching of algebra in Britain for several decades. An example of this is seen in the algebra text of Nicolas Vilant, Regius Professor at St Andrews from 1765 to 1807.
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