{"product_id":"john-adams-edmonton-teacher-mathematics-navigation-c-5f9vj7wa","title":"John Adams, of Edmonton; Teacher of the Mathematics, Navigation, \u0026c.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRare.\u003c\/strong\u003e We have found copies of this print at the Royal Museum Greenwich, Wellcome Library and British Museum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA very fine portrait of John Adams of Edmonton, produced by his neighbour, the engraver John Thomas Smith - part of the intellectual community at Edmonton at that time - and intended to celebrate the award of a silver medal to Adams for his invention of, “an artificial Horizon to be used on Land”, declaring “the honour of the original improvement” due to Adams rather than his rival John Dollond.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn his early life Adams had been a sailor on “various voyages to Brazil and other parts of Spanish America” before settling down as a schoolmaster where he developed a reputation as a skilled - if fearsome - teacher.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe portrait of Adams shows him bewigged and holding a pair of spectacles and sat at a table with various instruments in front of him including a telescope and his prize-winning artificial horizon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe text beneath the portrait directs the viewer to the \u003cem\u003eTransactions of the Society of Arts\u003c\/em\u003e vol. 4 which records:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The Thanks of the Society, and a Silver Medal, were presented to Mr. John Adams, Master of an Academy, at Edmonton, Middlesex, for his Invention of an artificial Horizon to be used on Land; and for the Communication of the same to the Public by means of the following Letter and historical Account addressed by him to the Society….At the Committee to whom the Consideration of Mr. Adams’s Invention, and the Merits of his artificial Horizon were referred, it was declared by Mr. Dollond, with that Candour and Liberality which have constantly formed parts of his Character, that although he had made many Instruments on the Principle laid down, yet the Honour of the original Improvement was certainly due to Mr. Adams”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e(\u003cem\u003eTransactions of the Society, Instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce\u003c\/em\u003e, Vol.4 1786 p.203).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdams addressed the Committee:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Few men can claim many useful inventions to their own share; I have laboured to attain many, but have been too often unsuccessful. One, I can claim as my own, viz. an artificial Horizon, the principles of which I communicated some years ago to Mr. Dollond, and am pleased to find that, through his care in the construction, it is gotten into universal esteem: all I wish is the honour of being recorded the inventor, in any manner consistent with the plan of your Society. I shall be happy at any time to attend and make my claim; but flatter myself, that Mr. Dollond, who is one of your honourable Society, will be a sufficient voucher for…” (see above)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdams contributed a number of sections on navigation to popular seafaring manuals at the end of the 18th-century. He also appears to have had a formidable reputation as an exacting if successful schoolmaster. See for example John Chandler’s \u003cem\u003eThe seaman’s guide and new coaster’s companion\u003c\/em\u003e (1795) and \u003cem\u003eWilson’s Epitome of geometrical, trigonometrical, arithmetical, logarithmical, instrumental \u0026amp; practical navigation\u003c\/em\u003e (1783) a tenth edition “revised, corrected and improved by John Adams.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn John Thomas Smith’s memoirs he recalls “Dolly \u003cem\u003ealias\u003c\/em\u003e Matthew Booth, a half-witted fellow, was stoutly caned by old John Adams, the astronomical schoolmaster, for calling him a ‘moon-hauler’” (\u003cem\u003eA Book for a Rainy Day: Or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833\u003c\/em\u003e p.123).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSmith also recalls a scene from Adams’ schoolroom:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The following use was made of Hogarth’s plates of the Idle and Industrious Apprentices, by the late John Adams, of Edmonton, School-master. The prints were framed and hung up in the school-room, and Adams, once a month, after reading a lecture upon the vicious and virtuous examples, rewarded those boys who had conducted themselves well, and caned those who had behaved ill” (John Thomas Smith, \u003cem\u003eNollekens and His Times\u003c\/em\u003e (1829).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the obituary of Richard Hall Gower it is noted that despite him being sent to sea as a midshipman in the East India Company aged thirteen, by sixteen, “he knew a ship from keel to truck, but how to navigate her across the boundless expanse of the ocean, was still to him a mystery”. \u003cstrong\u003eGower placed himself under the instruction of Mr. John Adams of Latimer School, Edmonton, under whose care he made such rapid progress, that, upon rejoining his ship the next voyage, he went by the name of the ‘young philosopher’“\u003c\/strong\u003e (\u003cem\u003eAnnual Register\u003c\/em\u003e 1833, p.250).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn obituary for Adams appeared in the\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Mr. John Adams; who from a common sailor, had, by his various voyages to Brazil and other parts of Spanish America, acquired such a knowledge of mathematicks and navigation as to have had the instructing [of] a number of pupils, in the naval line, of all ages and ranks…his latter days were spent in comfort and tranquility…Mr. A. was a meteorological observer, and an occasional correspondent of Mr. Urban. His collection of curious books and instruments has been sold by auction since his decease” (\u003cem\u003eThe Gentleman’s Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, Vol 89, 1801)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1788, the engraver John Thomas Smith married Anne Maria Prickett and moved to Edmonton (then in rural north east London) and formed part of an intellectual circle in Edmonton that included Sir James Winter Lake (the governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company), the young John Constable and John Adams. It was in this short period while Smith was in Edmonton (he returned to central London in 1797) that he produced this portrait of Adams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67604419215669,"sku":"247170","price":850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/john-adams-edmonton-teacher-mathematics-navigation-c-5f9vj7wa","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}