MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR. JOHN JUST, OF BURY. 



93 



The late Mn John Just was the eldest son of Mr. Jonathan 

 Just, formerly a respectable and industrious farmer, residing 

 at the village of Natland, in Westmorland, two miles south 

 of Kendal. The family had been long settled there, and the 

 subject of this memoir was born on the 3rd of December, 

 1797, in the same house in which both his father and his 

 grandfather had resided, the farm having been in the occupa- 

 tion of the family for nearly a century, and it is still tenanted 

 by a brother. John Just obtained the mere rudiments of an 

 English education at the endowed school of his native village 

 (then kept by the late Mr. James Ward, an artist of some 

 repute); and as he grew up, strong and robust, 1^^ was 

 employed, when not at school, in ploughing, harrowing, and 

 in such other agricultural pursuits as the sons of farmers 

 usually follow. He early manifested so intense a love, and 

 so great an aptitude, for learning, that he was afterwards, 

 when about fourteen years of age, sent to the grammar school 

 at Kendal, where he commenced his classical education under 

 the able tuition of the late Rev. John Sampson, its master ; 

 remaining in this school about twelve months. It is but right 

 to state that, in after years, Mr. Just always spoke in grateful 

 terms of Mr. Sampson, to whose care he acknowledged himself 

 indebted for all his mathematical knowledge, in which he was 

 no mean proficient. 



Whilst here, the late excellent Carus W^ilson, Esq., of 

 Casterton Hall, near Kirkby Lonsdale, the owner of the 

 property of which Mr. Just's father was tenant, had frequent 

 opportunities of seeing the boy and judging of his talents 

 and disposition ; and, finding him to manifest so strong an 

 intellect, and so remarkable a desire to acquire various 

 knowledge, that gentleman liberally took him into his house, 

 when he had nearly completed his fifteenth year, and sent 

 him at his own cost to the neighbouring grammar school of 

 Kirkby Lonsdale for about five years. While an inmate of 

 Casterton Hall, he manifested his versatility of talent, and his 



