HISTORY OF THE ATOMIC THEOBY. 5 



the family, which had come into their possession through his 

 maternal grandmother. His father at this time was a woollen 

 weaver, and did not live in the house belonging to the pro- 

 perty, but in a cot of his own, having two small rooms below, 

 one some ten feet square only, and the other still less. The 

 larger house was afterwards, on the death of his uncle, occu- 

 pied by the father. It is described as one of the better class 

 of farm houses of the district, and is still in possession of the 

 family in a somewhat modernized state. The village of 

 Eaglesfield is 2j miles south-west of Cockermouth. The 

 whole township contains only 371 inhabitants. His father, 

 Joseph Dalton, was very poor, in fact he earned only a scanty 

 subsistence by weaving common country goods, and his wife 

 eked it out by selling paper, ink, and quills,* but he seems to 

 have been a man of some vigor of mind, as we find that he 

 taught his sons mathematics, giving them such an education 

 at least as is included in mensuration and navigation.! He 

 afterwards inherited the estate, his brother having died 

 childless. He then gave up weaving. It was by a similar 

 occurrence that the property long afterwards came into the 

 possession of Dr. Dalton, and afterwards into the hands of 

 his cousins on the mother's side.f Of the Daltons, or the 

 relatives by the father's side, yeomen or small proprietors in 

 Cumberland, we can find little information; his mother, 

 Deborah Greenup, through whom the property came, con- 

 nected him with many families in the neighbourhood. She 

 was the third daughter of a family of one son and seven 

 daughters, living at Greenrigg, Caldbeck. The son was a 

 barrister, and practised in London, but having inherited 

 Greenrigg, retired to it, living there to an advanced age, 

 having no children, and leaving the property to his unmarried 

 sister, Ruth. This aunt of Dr. Dalton left the estate of 



• Mr. Bewley'8 Letter. f Mr. Woolley.| 

 X This estate was of about sixty acres, but Dalton's elder brother Jonathan 

 increased it considerably by purchase. 



