BUXTON, Jedediah, a prodigy of skill in numbers. His father, William Buxton, was schoolmaster of the same parish where he was born in 1704; yet Jedediah’s education was so much neglected, that he was never taught to write; and with respect to any other knowledge but that of numbers, he seemed always as ignorant as a boy of ten years of age. How he came first to know the relative proportions of numbers, and their progressive denominations, he did not remember; but to this he applied the whole force of his mind, and upon this his attention was constantly fixed; so that he frequently took no cognizance of external objects, and when he did, it was only with reference [7:5:755]to their numbers. If any space of time was mentioned, he would soon afterwards say it was so many minutes; and if any distance of way, he would assign the number of hairbreadths, without any question being asked, or any calculation expected, by the company. When he once understood a question, he began to work with amazing facility, after his own method, without the use of pen, pencil, or chalk, 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 you the contents of it almost as exactly as if you had measured it by the chain. In this manner he measured the whole lordship of Elmton, consisting of some thousand acres, belonging to Sir John Rhodes, and brought him 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 while resolving a question, he could leave off, and resume the operation again, where he had left off, the next morning, or at the distance of a week, a month, or several months, and proceed regularly till it was completed. His memory would doubtless have been equally retentive with respect to other objects, if he had attended to them with equal diligence; but his perpetual application to figures prevented the smallest acquisition of any other knowledge. He was sometimes asked, on his return from church, whether he remembered the text, or any part of the sermon; but it never appeared that he had brought away one sentence, his mind, upon a closer examination, being found to have been busied, even during divine service, in his favourite operation, either dividing some time, or some space, into the smallest known parts, or resolving some question that had been given him as a test of his abilities. In the year 1754 he came to London, where he was introduced to the Royal Society, who, in order to prove his abilities, asked him several questions in arithmetic; and be gave them such satisfaction, that they dismissed him with a handsome gratuity. In this visit to the metropolis, the only object of his curiosity, except figures, was his desire to see the king and royal family; but they being just removed to Kensington, Jedediah was disappointed. During his residence in London, he was taken to see King Richard III. performed at Drury-lane theatre; and it was expected, either that the novelty and the splendour of the show would have fixed him in astonishment, and kept his imagination in a continual hurry; or that his passions would, in some degree, have been touched by the power of action, even if he had not perfectly understood the dialogue. But Jedediah’s mind was employed in the theatre just as it was employed in every other place. During the dance, he fixed his attention upon the number of steps; after a fine piece of music, he declared that the innumerable sounds produced by the instruments had perplexed him beyond measure; and he attended even to Mr Garrick, only to count the words that he uttered, in which he said he perfectly succeeded. Jedediah returned to the place of his birth, where, if his enjoyments were few, his wishes did not seem to exceed them.

Buxton, a town in the hundred of High Peake, in the county of Derby, 160 miles from London. It is in a valley, surrounded by a barren, hilly district. Its medicinal waters have great celebrity, and, with the excellent accommodation at the hotels and lodging-houses, and the salubrity of the air, attract a great number of visitors in the summer months. One of the most beautiful objects of Buxton is a range of buildings called the Crescent, constructed by the late Duke of Devonshire, and containing hotels, shops, and libraries. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 760, in 1811 to 934, in 1821 to 1036, and in 1831 to 1211.