FAMOUS JEX LIVES - JOHNSON JEX CLOCKMAKER 1778

FAMOUS JEX LIVES - JOHNSON JEX - CLOCKMAKER 1778

STORIES OF JEX PEOPLE

A Clockmaker, Blacksmith, Engineer and Inventor.

Johnson Jex was born in Billingford in Norfolk, England, in 1778. When he was about 12 he watched a clockmaker dismantle and clean a clock and then reconstruct it. He decided that he could do this and succeeded despiet his inexperience and young age. At 16 he was making machines for making watches, he made all the parts himself casting them in iron and brass.

He built a chronometer that was exhibited in Norwich in 1850. He had skills as a Blacksmith, an Inventor, Clockmaker, Iron founder and glass blower, mathematical instrument maker, as well as having a thorough knowledge of the chemistry of metals of the time. His first watch was made for his friend Rev. T Munnings and he inscribed on the inside

"I Johnson Jex, a blacksmith bred, with some strange crankums in my head, and tools on which I could depend, by me invented, for a friend. This time piece made from end to end. If this your mind should still perplex behold my name - 'tis Johnson Jex"

He is known as "The Learned Blacksmith of Letheringsett"

He taught himself astronomy and built many telescopes. He learnt the French language in later life to enable him to read French Clockmakers manuals, he was an extremely intelligent man who despite all his skills and knowledge never left Norfolk and was happy to stay at home with his machines. He died on January 5th 1852 aged 73 years.

To read an historical Lecture on this man please click here http://www.salthousehistory.co.uk/Johnson%20Jex.html

The handwritten copy of the gravestone of Johnson Jex at St Andrews Church, Letheringsett, Norfolk, England

it reads

THIS STONE

IS

ERECTED

TO MARK THE BURIAL PLACE OF

JOHNSON JEX

WHO DIED JANUARY 5th, 1852, AGED 73 YEARS.

BORN IN OBSCURITY

HE PASSED HIS DAYS AT LETHERINGSETT AS

A VILLAGE BLACKSMITH.

BY THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL AND INVENTIVE GENIUS,

COMBINED WITH INDOMITABLE PERSEVERANCE,

HE MASTERED SOME OF THE GREATEST DIFFICULTIES OF SCIENCE;

ADVANCING FROM THE FORGE TO THE CRUCIBLE,

AND FROM THE HORSE–SHOE TO THE CHRONOMETER:

ACQUIRING, BY MENTAL LABOUR

AND PHILOSPHICAL RESEARCH,

A VAST AND VARIED AMOUNT OF

MECHANICAL SKILL

AND GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

HE WAS A MAN OF SCRUPULOUS INTEGRITY AND MORAL WORTH:

BUT, REGARDLESS OF WEALTH

AND INSENSIBLE TO THE VOICE OF FAME,

HE LIVED AND DIED A SCIENTIFIC ANCHORITE.

“THERE IS A SPIRIT IN MAN; AND THE INSPIRATION OF THE ALMIGHTY GIVETH HIM UNDERSTANDING.”