xiv Proceedings. [October igtk, ipi 5. 



years of age, and for the next twenty-five years earned an 

 exiguous income by teaching. He took pupils in Manchester 

 and the neighbourhood, and was often urged to apply for an 

 appointment, but when offered a post as schoolmaster at 

 Liverpool he transferred it to William Hilton, a working man 

 who had been fired by his own' example, and is in all pro- 

 bability the anonymous "grateful pupil," who erected the tablet 

 in the Church. He was Editor of the " Student " for some 

 time. 



As early as 1807 Wolfenden calculated the first tide-table for 

 tire port of Liverpool, published in the " Liverpool Almanac " 

 for 1808. He continued to do this work for many years, 

 receiving a small honorarium, which was withheld towards the 

 close of his life, when he was in dire poverty. His circumstances 

 becoming known, a number of members of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society — then under the presidency 

 of Dr. Eaton Hodgkinson — together with other charitable 

 persons, subscribed a sum sufficient to provide him a modest 

 annuity, but — we quote further from the tombstone — "his death 

 occurring shortly after, they determined, besides bearing the 

 expense of his funeral, to place this stone o^er his remains 

 to perpetuate the memory of his name and merits." The stone 

 is in good condition, and the inscription sets forth that in the 

 same grave lie Matty, his wife, who died in 1784, a few years 

 after the marriage ; their son John, and his wife Charlotte. 



The action of the Society did not escape the censure of a 

 critic who concluded a poem of 47 lines with the words " He 

 asked for bread, and he received a stone," but it was kindly 

 meant, and Wolfenden, who was a sturdy, independent character, 

 no doubt tried to conceal his poverty as much as possible. His 

 wants were few at any time, though, in extreme old age, he had 

 little, if anything, beyond the bare necessaries of life. After 

 three-quarters of a century there is not likely to be anyone living 

 who can recall his appearance, but the Society possesses an un- 

 named bust which, by what is known in mathematics as the 

 " method of exhaustions," is almost certainly his. No portrait is 



