162 Biographical Account of [March, 



By tills wife Matthias Rittenhouse had four sons and six daughters. 

 David, the eldest son, and the subject of this article, was born on 

 the Sth of April, 1732. He was an infant when the family re- 

 moved to Norriton. He was destined by his father for a farmer, 

 and at the age of 14 was actually employed in ploughing his father's 

 fields. 



During this period, which continued for about five years, he 

 appears to liave been occupied chiefly in the study of mathematics, 

 and in the pursuit of mechanical inventions. VVe do not know 

 what books he possessed ; but his brother Benjamin, who was often 

 sent to call him in to dinner, often observed the fences at the ends 

 of the furrows, and the plough handles themselves, chalked over 

 with numerical calculations. In his ] 7th year he made a wooden 

 clock of very ingenious workmanship; and soon afterwards he con- 

 structed one of the same materials that compose the common clock, 

 and upon the same principles. It is obvious from this that he must 

 have possessed the means of making himself acquainted with the 

 principles of clock-making from books, since he had no otiier 

 instructor; and possibly there might have been a clock in his 

 father's house, which he would have it in his power to examine. Be 

 tills as it mav, his success in constructing all the parts of the clock 

 himself, and putting them together without any previous instruc- 

 tion, displayed an uncommon mechanical turn, which probably 

 would not have appeared had he been placed in more favourable 

 circumstances. He requested his father to allow him to devote the 

 whole of his time to mechanics, and to set up the trade of a clock 

 and mathematical iustrument-maker. His father, after a good deal 

 of hesitation, at last gave his consent. He erected in consequence 

 a workshop on the side of a public road, and in the township of 

 Norriton, after having made many implements of the trade with 

 his own hands to supply the deficiency of such as were wanting in 

 his purchased stock. 



From the age of 19 to 25 Mr. Rittenhouse devoted the whole of 

 his time to his trade and to his studies. The days were o(;cupied 

 with the former, and much of the nights with the latter, lie rose 

 very early in the morning, and did not go to bed till midnight, or 

 even later. This intense application impaired his health, wliich had 

 before been good. He was seized with a constant heat in the pit of 

 the stomach, affecting a space not exceeding the size of half-a- 

 guinea, attended at times with much pain. This malady never left 

 him during the rest of his life. 



In 17-^15 when P.Ir. Rittenhouse was 19 years of age, Mr. 

 Thomas Barton, an Irish Gentleman of English extraction, opened 

 a school in the neighbourhood of Mr. Matthias Rittenhouse. This 



not from his father, but from tliis woman ; and he is at some pair.s fa show lliat 

 abilities .are ol'ien hereditary. For i;iy o\vn part I never knew a man of abilities 

 whose mother had not been an uneonimoii woman. If we eou'-ider that tlie early 

 pari of edueaiidn, the most iniport;!nt of all, dciieuds aiiuoit solely on the mother, 

 we need not be greatlj iurpriitd ai ihij. 



