# The Life and Letters of Faraday/Volume 1/Chapter 1

LIFE OF FARADAY.
CHAPTER I.
Early Life—Errand Boy and Bookbinder's Apprentice.
The village of Clapham, in Yorkshire, lies at the foot of Ingleborough, close to a station of the Leeds and Lancaster Railway. Here the parish register between 1708 and 1730 shows that 'Richard ffaraday' recorded the births of ten children. He is described as of Keasden, stonemason and tiler, a 'separatist;' and he died in 1741. No earlier record of Faraday's family can be found.
It seems not unlikely that the birth of an eleventh child, Robert, in 1724, was never registered. Whether this Robert was the son or nephew of Richard cannot be certainly known: however, it is certain that he married Elizabeth Dean, the owner of Clapham Wood Hall.
This Hall was of some beauty, and of a style said to be almost peculiar to the district between Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale, and Skipton. The porch had a gable-end and ornamented lintel with the initials of the builder (the proprietor); and the windows, with three or four mullions and label or string-course, had a very good effect. It was partly pulled down some twenty ​years ago, and a common sort of farm-house built in its place.
It is now little better than a stone cottage. The door opens directly into a kitchen, flagged with four large flags. What remains of the old Hall is, if
CLAPHAM WOOD HALL WITH MILL AS IT WAS. anything, meaner than the dwelling itself. At this Hall Robert and Elizabeth Faraday lived, and had ten children, whose names and birthdays, and callings in after life, so far as they are known, were these:—
Robert; born 1724, died 1786, married 1756 to Elizabeth Dean of Clapham Wood Hall. Richard, born June 16, 1757, was an innholder, slater, grocer. John, born May 19, 1759, was a farmer. James, born May 8, 1761, was a blacksmith. Robert, born February 3, 1763, was a packer in a flax mill. Elizabeth, born June 27, 1765. William, born April 20, 1767, died in July 1791. Jane, born April 27, 1769. Hannah, born August 16, 1771. Thomas, born November 6, 1773, kept a shop. Barnabas, whose birthday is not known, was a shoemaker. ​The first insight into this large family comes in the year when Faraday was born, through William, who died when he was twenty-four years old, at Clapham Wood Hall. Faraday's grandmother then wrote a letter to Anne Fordyce, to whom her son William
was engaged to be married. This letter shows the nature and strength of the religious feeling in the family for two generations previous to the birth of Faraday.
"Clapham Wood Hall, July 4, 1791.
'Dear Nancy,—With a troubled mind I write this to you. My dear son is dead. He died on the Sabbath in the evening at seven o'clock. Now, my dear love, I beg you would hear me what I have to say, and be sober. It hath been a great concern on William's mind about you: he was afraid you would feel ​to an extreme, and it troubled him very much: from this consideration he strove to make all things look as well as he could, and he had some hope within a little of his death that he happen might mend, which is very natural for all people.
'When William began to be worse, he began to be concerned about his everlasting welfare. He sent for Mr. Gorrel and confessed the faith in Christ, and gave Mr. Gorrel and the rest of the brethren great satisfaction.
'William was exceedingly comfortable, and rejoiced exceedingly. He then sent for his clothes, and he thought he would go to Wenning Bank, and join the brethren in public; but both we and the brethren saw there was no chance, but they came to visit him very frequently. I cannot, in a little compass, tell you all that William said, but he rejoiced exceedingly.
'Now, my dear love, I hope you will consider that Providence knows better than we, and I hope this account will serve in some measure to reconcile you, and I shall be very glad to hear from you.
'My children all give their kind love to you. From your affectionate, well-wishing
'Elizabeth Faraday.'
The brethren were members of a Sandemanian congregation. The Glasites are said once to have had a chapel at Clapham, with a burial ground attached to it. At present the chapel is converted into a barn, and the windows are walled up. The unconsecrated burial ground is thrown open to the fields, but one or two headstones still remain against the wall of the building.
​Several of these congregations were formed in different parts of England by the writings and preaching of Robert Sandeman, the son-in-law of the Reverend John Glas, a Presbyterian clergyman in Scotland. Thus the Church in London was formed in 1760. In 1763 the congregation at Kirkby Stephen numbered between twenty and thirty persons. Sandeman ultimately went to America to make his views known, and he died there in 1771.
In 1728 Glas was deposed by the Presbyterian Church Courts, because he taught that the Church should be subject to no league nor covenant, but be governed only by the doctrines of Christ and His Apostles. He held that Christianity never was, nor could be, the established religion of any nation without becoming the reverse of what it was when first instituted; that Christ did not come to establish any worldly power, but to give a hope of eternal life beyond the grave to His people whom He should choose of His own sovereign will; that the Bible, and that alone, with nothing added to it nor taken away from it by man, was the sole and sufficient guide for each individual, at all times and in all circumstances; that faith in the divinity and work of Christ is the gift of God, and that the evidence of this faith is obedience to the commandments of Christ.
There are two points of practice in the Church which, in relationship to the Life of Faraday, must be mentioned. One of these is the admission into the Church, the other is the election of elders.
Members are received into the Church on the confession of sin, and the profession of faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This profession must ​be made before the Church in public. The elders first, and afterwards the other members, ask such questions as they think are necessary to satisfy the Church. Prayer is then offered up, a blessing is invoked upon the person received, and he is heartily welcomed and loved for the sake of the truth he has professed.
There must be a plurality of elders (presbyters or bishops) in each Church, and two must be present at every act of discipline. When a vacancy occurs, the elders suggest for election to the congregation one of its members who appears to answer the description of an elder in the New Testament. The election is made by the whole Church unanimously. Earnestness of feeling and sincerity of conviction are the sole requisites for the office, which is entirely unpaid.
With regard to other members of the large family that were born at Clapham Wood Hall, it is known that Faraday's uncle John had a quarry among the hills, and erected a shielding for the use of the men, which in some maps is marked as Faraday House, and the gill which runs by it, in the map of the Ordnance Survey of Westmoreland, is called Faraday Gill. His uncle Thomas was the father of Thomas Armat Faraday, who is now a draper and grocer at Clapham. His father James, who was a blacksmith, was married in 1786 to Margaret Hastwell, a farmer's daughter of Mallestang, near Kirkby Stephen. To James and Margaret Faraday four children were born:—
James; born 1761, died 1810, married 1786 Margaret Hastwell, born 1764, died 1838.
Elizabeth, born 1787.
Robert, born 1788.
Michael, born 1791.
Margaret, born 1802.
1791. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Sept. 22. Born.
1801. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Æt. 9-10.
In 1807 James wrote to his brother Thomas at Clapham—'I am sorry to say I have not had the pleasure of enjoying one day's health for a long time. Although I am very seldom off work for a whole day together, yet I am under the necessity (through pain) of being from work part of almost every day.' . . . And then, after speaking of some Church matters, he says—'But we, perhaps, ought to leave these matters to the overruling hand of Him who has a sovereign right to do what seemeth good to Him, both in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth.'
On July 29, 1809, he wrote to the same brother—'I never expect to be clear of the pain completely with which I am afflicted, yet I am glad to say that I am somewhat better than I formerly was. . . .
'We are about to remove very shortly, so that you will be good enough to direct your next as follows—18 Weymouth Street, near Portland Place, London.'
There he died on October 30, 1810.
1803. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Æt. 11-12.
1804. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Æt. 12-13.
Only a few yards from Jacob's Well Mews is a bookseller's shop, at No. 2 Blandford Street.
There Faraday went as errand boy, on trial for a year, to Mr. George Riebau, in 1804. He has spoken with much feeling 'that it was his duty, when he first went, to carry round the papers that were lent out by his master. Often on a Sunday morning he got up very early and took them round, and then he had to call for them again; and frequently, when he was told the paper was not done with, "You must call again," he would beg to be allowed to have it; for his next place might be a mile off, and then he would have to return back over the ground again, losing much time, and being very unhappy if he was unable to get home to make himself neat, and to go with his parents to their place of worship.'
He says, 'I remember being charged with being a great questioner when young, but I do not know the nature of the questions.' One instance, however, has been preserved. Having called at a house, possibly to leave a newspaper, whilst waiting for the door to be opened, he put his head through the iron bars that made a separation from the adjoining house; and, whilst in this position, he questioned himself as to which side he was on. The door behind him being opened, he suddenly drew back, and, hitting himself so as to make his nose bleed, he forgot all about his question.
1809. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Æt. 17-18.
Faraday's indentures as an apprentice are dated October 7, 1805: one line in them is worthy to be kept—'In consideration of his faithful service no premium is given.'
Four years later his father wrote (in 1809), 'Michael is bookbinder and stationer, and is very active at learning his business. He has been most part of four years of his time out of seven. He has a very good master and mistress, and likes his place well. He had a hard time for some while at first going; but, as the old saying goes, he has rather got the head above water, as there is two other boys under him.'
Faraday himself says, 'Whilst an apprentice I loved to read the scientific books which were under my hands, and, amongst them, delighted in Marcet's "Conversations in Chemistry," and the electrical treatises in the "Encyclopædia Britannica." I made such simple experiments in chemistry as could be defrayed in their expense by a few pence per week, and also constructed an electrical machine, first with a glass phial, and afterwards with a real cylinder, as well as other electrical apparatus of a corresponding kind.' He told a friend that Watts 'On the Mind' first made him think, and that his attention was turned to science by the article 'Electricity' in an encyclopædia he was employed to bind.
1810. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Æt. 18-19.
He learned perspective of Mr. Masquerier, that he might illustrate these lectures. Masquerier lent me Taylor's "Perspective," a 4to volume, which I studied closely, copied all the drawings, and made some other very simple ones, as of cubes or pyramids, or columns in perspective, as exercises of the rules. I was always very fond of copying vignettes and small things in ink; but I fear they were mere copies of the lines, and that I had little or no sense of the general effect and of the power of the lines in producing it.'
1811. $\scriptstyle {\underbrace {\quad \quad \quad } }$ Æt. 19-20.
into the world of science. Collected by M. Faraday, 1811. 1809-10.'
Among the books and subjects which are mentioned in this volume are, 'Description of a Pyropneumatic Apparatus,' and 'Experiments on the Ocular Spectra of Light and Colours,' by Dr. Darwin, from Ackerman's Repository; 'Lightning,' and Electric Fish and Electricity,' from Gentleman's Magazine; 'Meteorolites,' from the Evangelical Magazine; 'Water Spouts,' from the Zoological Magazine; 'Formation of Snow,' from Sturm's Reflections; 'To loosen Glass Stopples, from the Lady's Magazine; 'To convert two Liquids into a Solid,' 'Oxygen Gas,' 'Hydrogen Gas,' 'Nitric and Carbonic Acid Gas,' 'Oxymuriate of Potash,' from Conversations in Chemistry.
'Galvanism:' 'Mr. Davy has announced to the Royal Society a great discovery in chemistry—the fixed alkalies have been decomposed by the galvanic battery,' from Chemical Observer; 'Galvanism and a Description of a Galvanometer,' from the Literary Panorama.
Through Mr. Tatum, Faraday made the acquaintance of Mr. Huxtable, who was then a medical student, and of Mr. Benjamin Abbott, who was a confidential clerk in the city, and belonged to the Society of Friends. Mr. Huxtable lent him the third edition of 'Thomson's Chemistry,' and 'Parkes's Chemistry:' this Faraday bound for his friend. The earliest note of Faraday's that is known to exist was written this year to Mr. Huxtable. It shows a little of the fun and much of the gentleness of his writing at this time:—
Dear Sir,—Tit for tat, says the proverb; and it is ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/34 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/35 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/36 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/37 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/38 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/39 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/40 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/41 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/42 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/43 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/44 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/45 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/46 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/47 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/48 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/49 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/50 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/51 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/52 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/53 ​Page:Lifelettersoffaradayjonesvol1.djvu/54