Buxton, Jedediah: Farm labourer was a maths genius

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Jedediah Buxton: Farm labourer was a maths genius

Nicola Rippon reveals the fascinating story of the farm labourer from North-East Derbyshire who was feted by royalty and celebrities for his incredible mathematical prowess.

Dustin Hoffman as autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in the film Rain Man

Famous 18th century actor David Garrick in one of his most notable roles, Richard III

King George II

Engraving made in 1781 by J Spilsbury after a painting by Benjamin Killingbeck of Jedidiah Buxton (1707-1772). Buxton, a farm labourer in Derbyshire was a calculating prodigy

IN these days of pocket calculators, a criticism often levelled by those who had to manage without such a luxury is that the present generation is not tested by the daily use of mental arithmetic.

Almost 300 years ago, however, there lived a Derbyshire farm worker who astonished all who knew him with remarkable feats of calculation which would confound even the most experienced mathematician.

Jedediah Buxton’s talents were all the more astounding because he had very little education, a developmental disorder that modern experts believe to have been autism, and an overall intellect approximated to no more than that of a 10-year-old child.

In 1751, his case became one of the earliest recorded examples of Savant Syndrome – a condition made more familiar following Dustin Hoffman’s performance as autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in the film Rain Man – when psychologist Gnothi Sauton wrote a paper on him.

Jedediah Buxton was born in March 1707, at Elmton, near Bolsover.

His grandfather was a minister, and his father a schoolteacher, but Jedediah’s developmental problems meant that he was given little educational encouragement or guidance and was destined to spend much of his life working in the fields.

Despite this, and from an early age, he showed a remarkable flair for complex mathematics. Seemingly unable to engage in everyday life, Jedediah would amaze surveyors working on the same land as he by solving their calculations in seconds.

He was asked to estimate the area of land belonging to the Lordship of Elmton, which he did by simply walking over it and closing his eyes for a few moments, before coming up with an answer down to the last square inch – and without writing down a single figure.

When the surveyors measured the land scientifically, they discovered that Jedediah’s answer was out by only the merest fraction.

He was asked to calculate the cost of shoeing a horse with 140 nails, if the price was one farthing for the first nail, and then doubled for each remaining nail.

In no time at all, he arrived at the apparently correct answer of £725,958,096,074,907, 868,531,656,993,638,851,106 2s 8d. (We asked Chris Linton, professor of mathematics at Loughborough University, to calculate the cost of the 140th nail and he came up with £725,935,716,098,002,055,388,532,495,854, 438,851,106 2 shillings and 8d.)

Scientists have studied Jedediah’s life and achievements, both during his lifetime, and since his death. F W H Myers, one of the first people to attempt to describe the ways in which savants like Jedediah worked out their calculations, discovered that they used highly complex and uniquely personal methods.

Contemporary observers noted that Jedediah had an exceptional memory – he remembered all the steps in a maths calculation for a long time afterward – and so he was able to split a maths problem into many pieces and then combine them.

Myers also noted that savants usually completed their calculations while working at other tasks – Jedediah could even suspend his calculations to pursue another problem, only to be able to resume his original calculation at the precise point at which he had left it. Myers believed such calculations took place in the subconscious, rather than the conscious, mind.

It is tempting to suppose that most of the stories told about Jedediah Buxton were apocryphal, yet several accounts of his achievements were recorded within his lifetime.

George Saxe, who must himself have been something of a maths whiz, was one of those who wrote of his encounter with Jedediah: “I proposed to him the following random question: In a body whose three sides are 23,145,789 yards, 5,642,732 yards, and 54,965 yards, how many cubical 1/8ths of an inch are there? After once naming the several figures distinctly, one after another, in order to assure himself of the several dimensions and fix them in his mind, without more ado he fell to work amidst more than 100 of his fellow labourers and, after leaving him about five hours, on some necessary concerns (in which time I calculated it with my pen) at my return, he told me he was ready.

“Upon which, taking out my pocket-book and pencil, to note down his answer, he asked which end I would begin at, for he would direct me either way … I chose the regular method … and in a line of 28 figures, he made no hesitation nor the least mistake.”

(Prof Linton calculated the answer at 171,484,593,923,536,216,155,095,040.)

By adulthood, Jedediah had become one of the most famous men in all of Derbyshire, and by his later years his fame had spread across the country.

In the 1868 edition of The National Gazetteer, the entry for Elmton noted: “Jedediah Buxton, the calculating boy, was born here.”

His feats of mathematics were so well known that Herman Melville mentioned him in his book White Jacket.

Following an editorial about him in Gentlemen’s Magazine in 1754, the members of the Royal Society had invited Jedediah to the nation’s capital. Jedediah walked all the way to be tested by them.

They asked him to calculate the number of barley-corns it would take to cover a distance of eight miles. He came to the answer, of 1,520,604, in only 90 seconds.

He was also taken to see legendary thespian David Garrick in Richard III and afterwards revealed, not that he had enjoyed the performance, but that he had calculated that there had been 5,202 steps during the dances, and 12,445 words spoken.

Jedediah, it seemed, saw his whole world only in numbers – he could quote the number of pints of beer he had drunk at all the houses he had ever visited during more than 50 years.

While in London, Jedediah was presented to King George II, and to many more important figures and celebrities.

In many ways he had become something of a curiosity, known as an “idiot savant”. It is worth noting that, even in the less enlightened times of the mid-18th century, this was not quite as cruel a term as it might appear.

It came from the French language, where it described simply an unlearned, yet skilled, person.

Nevertheless, he was somewhat bandied about by members of polite society, although he seemed to mind this little, being glad for the opportunity to exercise his mind with a complex calculation.

In February 1772, Jedediah asked his employer, the Duke of Portland, owner of Welbeck Abbey, just over the border into Nottinghamshire, for an urgent interview.

He wanted to thank the Duke for his kindness, since this would be his last opportunity. When asked why this was so, Jedediah predicted that he would be dead within a week.

On March 5, 1772, perhaps his most remarkable calculation was proved accurate, as Jedediah Buxton passed away – once more astounding his friends and acquaintances.

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