British History

The proof of Thomas Ferres’s rags-to-riches tale is quite literally written in stone, but popular lore adds some tantalising and romantic detail.

The rags-to-riches story of Thomas Ferres (d. 1631) has blended fact with a good deal of romantic fiction. But Thomas was a real historical figure, and however he came by his wealth, the way he used it to help the poor and vulnerable is deeply moving.

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When Harrison won the Longitude Prize, fair and square, Parliament wouldn’t pay up.

Yorkshireman John Harrison was a carpenter by trade, but he taught himself clockmaking to such a high standard that he came to the attention of the Astronomer Royal, Edmund Halley.

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A self-made man who never forgot his humble beginnings.

George Stephenson (1781-1848) was an illiterate boy from the North East, who, through his pioneering railways and steam engines, became arguably the most important civil engineer in world history.

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Richard Trevithick’s boss hailed the engineer as a genius. Today he’d have been fired. (Oh, and the train was delayed.)

Richard Trevithick neglected the job he was hired for, and diverted Research and Development funds into a hare-brained private project to get a steam engine to haul itself and some waggons along a railway not designed for that purpose. In 1803, his boss hailed him as a genius. Today, he’d have been fired.

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Edmond Halley will forever be associated with the comet named after him, but his greatest achievement was getting Sir Isaac Newton to publish ‘Principia Mathematica’.

Halley’s comet is named after Edmond Halley (1656-1742), Britain’s second Astronomer Royal and a friend and colleague of Sir Isaac Newton.

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John Goodricke’s observations of Algol won him the Copley Medal while still in his teens, despite his disability.

John Goodricke lost his hearing when just a child, but a combination of a loving family, a private education system more advanced than some people today would have us a believe, and sheer determination meant that he achieved more in his short life than seems possible.

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