A farthing doubled 139 times results in a figure spanning thirty-nine digits, an arithmetic product calculated mentally by Jedediah Buxton. Despite his lack of formal education and inability to read or write, this labourer from Elmton demonstrated a capacity for numerical processing that confounded contemporaries and earned the attention of the Royal Society in the mid-eighteenth century.
Early Life and Education
Born in 1707 in the village of Elmton, near Creswell, Derbyshire, Jedediah Buxton was the son of a schoolmaster, William Buxton. Despite this familial connection to pedagogy, he remained illiterate. His grandfather, Edward Buxton of Chelmorton, had been married to Ann, who later married the local vicar, John Davenport. Buxton developed a preoccupation with numbers that entirely eclipsed other intellectual interests. He possessed no recollection of how he acquired his mathematical intuition, yet he prioritized numerical counting over the perception of physical objects or environment.
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Buxton viewed the world through the lens of arithmetic, frequently reducing tangible space to abstract data. When measuring the lands of Elmton, encompassing approximately one thousand acres, he walked the perimeter to determine the area. He expressed these measurements not only in standard agricultural units like acres, roods, and perches but also in square inches and square hairs'-breadths. His memory allowed him to hold complex problems in his mind for months at a time, pausing calculations for other labour before resuming the operations at the exact point of interruption.
Recognition and Public Feats
In 1754, Buxton traveled to London at the invitation of the Royal Society, who sought to test his mental acuity. Following their evaluation, they provided him with a financial gratuity. During this visit, he attended a performance of Richard III at the Drury Lane theatre. Rather than engaging with the narrative, he focused on counting the words spoken by David Garrick. Similar focus was applied to the steps taken by dancers and the sounds produced by musical instruments. Records of his life appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine in June 1754, and a portrait by Maria Hartley was completed in 1764.
Fast facts
- Born: 1707, Elmton
- Died: 1772, Elmton
- Citizenship: Kingdom of Great Britain
- Occupations: Mental calculator, labourer
- Notable 1754 event: Tested by the Royal Society
- Portrait location: Elmton Church
- Commemoration: Blue plaque installed in Elmton, 2011
Questions readers ask
Did Jedediah Buxton have any formal schooling?
No, despite his father being a schoolmaster, he remained illiterate and received no formal education.
What system did he use for massive numbers?
He devised his own nomenclature, using the term 'tribe' to represent the cube of a million.
Achievements
- Tested and verified by the Royal Society of London in 1754
- Mentally multiplied very large multi-digit numbers over days and weeks of ordinary work
- Counted the exact number of words (14,445) spoken in a performance of Richard III
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