14 Mr. Faraday on the 



brother Nathaniel, born in 1726 (the grandfather of Mark 

 Philips, M.P.), who must not be confounded with either of 

 the two Nathaniels who were respectively the father and the 

 brother of the John Philips of St. Ann's Square. The bro- 

 thers Thomas and Nathaniel also entered into partnership, 

 and thus two collateral branches of the Staffordshire family 

 were carrying on business in Manchester at the same time. 



John Leigh Philips was a pupil of Henry Clarke, the 

 well-known mathematician, at the " Classical and Mathe- 

 matical School in Salford, Manchester," and he solved three 

 problems in the Town and Cotmtry Magazine in 1775. He 

 held a commission as second Lieutenant in the corps of 

 Volunteers raised in 1777 (which afterwards became the 

 famous 72nd), he being then only sixteen years of age. His 

 name occurs in the list of those who constituted the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society on its formal 

 establishment in 1781, and though then apparently only 

 about twenty-one years of age, he was a member of the 

 Society's first Council or " Committee of Papers." He was, 

 I believe, subsequently a partner in the firm of Philips 

 and Lee, cotton spinners, who carried on their business at 

 53, Chapel Street, Salford, and he also, with his brother 

 Francis, carried on his father's and uncle's business in Queen 

 Street, St. Ann's Square, and in Cross Street, as a silk and 

 cotton manufacturer, the firm being known as J. L. Philips 

 and Brother. The mill in Chapel Street was the first to 

 be lit with gas — in 1805. In 1787 he married Caroline Penny, 

 and afterwards resided at May field, then a rural suburb of 

 Manchester. He was an enthusiastic patron of bibliography 

 and the arts, and especially a promoter of engraving. He 

 was also a collector of natural history specimens. In 18 15, 

 after his death, his books, paintings, prints, and natural 

 history collection were dispersed by auction in Manchester, 

 and realised the sum of ^5,474. 15s. 3d., the natural history 

 specimens eventually forming the nucleus of the Manchester 



