398 
JEDEDIAH BUXTON* 
to put him in nomination, at the Common Hall, but had actually 
several hands held up for him. 
In 1761, he was corrector of the Public Advertiser to the late 
Mr. Woodfall, when he published a second edition of his Concord- 
ance, to which he had made great additions. Anxious at all times to 
do good, a singular and extraordinary opportunity occured, in 1762, 
to call forth his utmost exertions. One Richard Potter, a sailor, was 
tried and capitally condemned for uttering a seaman’s will, knowing 
It to be forged. It appeared upon evidence that Potter was a poor 
illiterate creature, the tool of another, and ignorant of the nature of 
the crime. Mr. Cruden, who happened to he in court, was so convinced 
of this, that he resolved to make application for the royal mercy ; and 
however improbable his success appeared, he, by his repeated appli- 
cations and representations, actually succeeded, and Potter’s sentence 
, was changed to transportation. 
Numberless other instances of Mr. Cruden’s benevolence might be 
given, if room permitted. One man, depressed by poverty, he saved 
from suicide, and made comfortable and happy with his family by an 
immediate pecuniary supply, as well as by bis best religious advice ; 
both of which he was equally ready to bestow' upon all suitable occa- 
sions ; and when he met with proper objects, often gave away more 
money than he retained for bis own use. In private life he was 
courteous and affable, in religious sentiments a strict Calvinist, but 
by no means intolerant. In 1769 he revisited Aberdeen, where he 
spent about a year; after which he returned to London, and on the 
first of Nov. 1770, was found dead on his knees, in the posture of 
praying. He had for some time before been troubled with an 
asthma. 
Jedediah Buxton. 
This was a prodigy with respect to skill in numbers. His father, 
William Buxton, w'as schoolmaster of the parish w here he was horn 
in 1704: yet Jedediah’s education was so much neglected, that he 
was never taught to write, and, with respect to any otiier knowledge 
but that of numbers, seemed ahvays as ignorant as a boy of ten years 
of age. How he came first to know' the relative proportions of num- 
bers, and their progressive denominations, he did not remember, but 
to this he applied the whole force of his mind, and upon this his 
attention was constantly fixed, so that he frequently took cognizance 
of external objects only wdth respect to their numbers. If any space 
of time was mentioned, he w'ouh! soon after say it was so many minutes ; 
and if any distance of way was stated, he would assign the num- 
ber of hairbreadths without any question being asked, or any calcu- 
lation expected by the company. 
When he once understood a question, he began to work it with 
amazing facility, after his own method, without the use of a pen, 
pencil, or chalk, or even understanding the common rules of aritlime- 
tic as taught in the schools. He would stride over a piece of lend 
or a field, and tell the contents of it almost as exact as if one had 
measured it w'ith the chain. In this manner he measured the whole 
