BUXTON, Jedediah, a prodigy of skill in numbers, was born in 1704, at Elmton, near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. Although his father was schoolmaster of the parish, and his grandfather had been the vicar, his education had been so neglected that he could not write; and with respect to any other knowledge but that of numbers, he seemed always as ignorant as a child. How he came first to know the relative proportions of numbers, and their progressive denominations, he did not remember; but on such matters, his attention was so constantly rivetted, that he frequently took no cognizance of external objects, and when he did, it was only with reference to their numbers. If any space of time was mentioned, he would soon afterwards reduce it to minutes; and if any distance, he would assign the number of hair-breadths, without any question being asked or any calculation expected by the company. He worked out every question after his own method, without any external aid, or even understanding the common rules of arithmetic as taught in the schools. He would stride over a piece of land or a field, and tell the contents of it almost as exactly
as if it had been measured by the chain. In this manner he measured the whole lordship of Elmton, consisting of some thousand acres, and gave the contents not only in acres, roods, and perches, but even in square inches. After this, for his own amusement, he reduced them into square hair-breadths, computing forty-eight to each side of the inch. His memory was so great, that in resolving a question he could leave off and resume the operation again at the same point after the elapse of a week, or even of several months. His perpetual application to figures prevented the smallest acquisition of any other knowledge. On his return from church, it never appeared that he had brought away one sentence, his mind, having been busied in his favourite occupation. His wonderful faculty was tested in 1754 by the Royal Society of London, who acknowledged their satisfaction by presenting him with a handsome gratuity. In this visit to the metropolis, the great object of his curiosity was to see the king and royal family; but in this he was disappointed by their recent removal to Kensington. He was taken to see the tragedy of Richard III. performed at Drury Lane theatre; but his mind was solely employed in his usual occupation. He attended to Garrick only to count the words he uttered. During the dance, he fixed his attention upon the number of steps; and he declared that the innumerable sounds produced by the musical instruments had perplexed him beyond measure. Jedediah returned to the place of his birth, where he died about the age of seventy.