The Boy James Clerk Maxwell
1841-1847
“It takes a village to raise a child”
Painting by Jemima, the cousin of James Maxwell, describing the day he moved to their house: 31 Herriot Row, Edinburgh.
“It takes a village to raise a child” is a proverb with roots in African culture. It emphasizes the importance of a community to guide children, in addition to their immediate family.
This was certainly the case with James Clerk Maxwell who developed into a well-adjusted and godly young man in spite of his mother’s untimely death. Just who were all these people in his life?
From Glenlair to Edinburgh
As you may remember from Maxwell Marathon Part One , he spent his early childhood in Glenlair. After the death of his mother, his aunts on both sides convinced his father John Clerk Maxwell to send him to Edinburgh Academy, whose founders included Sir Walter Scott. He moved in with his paternal aunt, the widowed Mrs. Wedderburn, occasionally staying with his maternal aunt Ms. Cay. John Maxwell divided his time between Glenlair and Edinburgh, where he could be a father to his sister’s children, and she a mother to James.
His Schooling and Accomplishments
The beginning of James’ formal schooling at the Edinburgh Academy was difficult. He no longer enjoyed freestyle learning through nature as he did in Glenlair. Instead, he found himself confined in classrooms filled with unruly boys of average intellect. His unusual manners, country speech and distinct clothing gained him the nickname “dafty.” He initially navigated through these challenges with irony and a few scuffles.
Recent Photo of Edinburgh Academy.
While his mother’s influence was missed, his father became more like a brother to him. James would confide in him about the minute details of his life, allowing the father to reroute his son’s ways. His aunts contributed to his wardrobe, and helped their nephew adjust his social manners.
He soon gained the respect of his peers and appreciated the rigor of classical education. He also bonded with two other students, Lewis Campbell and Peter Tait, who became his lifelong friends. He shared with them the love of learning, long conversations, and healthy entertainment. By the time he graduated, James Maxwell won two awards in Math and Poetry, placing second behind Lewis Campbell. Peter Tait was one class behind them, and won first place every year.
Two school medals won by James Maxwell in Math and English Verses. Currently displayed at the Clerk Maxwell Foundation.
Eight Medals won by Peter Tait, a year behind James Maxwell.
While Tait had the most outstanding school records, he was quoted saying this about Maxwell:
“It was in those days that some of the early
developments of genius showed themselves.
He possessed one of the most piercing intellects of modern times.”
Indeed, Maxwell’s abilities lay beyond the confines of schoolwork. He often immersed himself in his own research to work out original ideas about all sorts of problems.
His father and uncle, recognizing this, took him to meetings at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Soon after, James solved a problem the members were pursuing: how to draw a perfect oval. Descartes had already described a mechanical method to do so, but it only applied to a particular case. Maxwell devised an elegant method to produce oval curves of various shapes by wrapping a thread to round pins, with precise mathematical ratios.
Ovals with two foci 1:2 ratio (left), 1;3 ratio (middle); Oval with three foci (right)
This resulted in his first published paper: “On the Description of Oval Curves and those having a plurality of Foci; with remarks by Professor Forbes” when he was only fourteen. James Forbes, a professor of Natural Philosophy of the Edinburgh University, mentored the project and presented the paper to the Royal Society since James was still young. This started a lifelong friendship between the two.
At the age of fifteen, James met William Nicol, the inventor of the polarizing prism. Nicol gifted him two prisms, thus compelling James to pursue studies on the law of refraction and polarization of light. To investigate these topics, he experimented with gelatin which also prepared the way for his future work to investigate the compression of elastic solids. His work on ovals and studies on refraction with gelatin enabled him to understand how lenses focus, and led him to important contributions in optics later on in life.
Fun Optics with gelatin
Inspired by Maxwell, I recently created activities with gelatin. Here are two of them:
Make lenses with gelatin
Observe how they bend light. This is now inserted in Lightlab Extra 8 “Light Bending”
Shine a laser beam through a gelatin block
Observe total internal reflection as it occurs in Fiber Optics. This is included in the “Light Module” I wrote for Christian Service Brigades.
His church Life
In order to become acquainted with the denominations of both parents, a typical Sunday of James Maxwell was equally divided between St Andrew’s Church (Presbyterian) in the morning and St John’s Episcopal Chapel in the afternoon. One could easily speculate that the boy who could recite Psalm 119 at the age of eight surely mastered both catechisms and answered all questions well.
His time in Glenlair
During the summers, Maxwell always returned to Glenlair where the natural resources spiked his intellectual interests. His cousins and friends often joined in the exploration. His friend Lewis Campbell remembered those times in his memoirs:
“In September 1846 I made my first visit to Glenlair. It was a time of perpetual gladness, but the particulars are hardly worth recording.”
There were endless projects to attend with Maxwell’s father who administered the affairs of the estate. They also enjoyed sports such as archery, horse back riding, tubbing and swimming in the river.
The animals at the farm gained a loving companion who was gentle and entertaining. James was particularly fond of frogs, whose motions he carefully examined and imitated. His dog, Toby, became another source of scientific discovery with optics as he examined his eyes with a magnifying glass.
On rainy days, James read from the mansion’s extensive library, and busied himself with drawings and music. He also tinkered with scientific experiments in the attic, where many of his great ideas were born.
In the evening, his father read a prayer to the assembled household. Thus culminated their busy days, allowing for a restful sleep to all.
When I visited Glenlair this past July, I understood why this place remained his favorite domicile and attracted so many visitors. The view from their front door and the scenery all around were breathtaking.
Panoramic view taken from the front door of their house.
Photos of the Glenlair estate during my visit last July 2025.
His exceptional agility
Many stories circulate about James’ strength and agility of limbs, allowing him to perform astonishing stunts. For example, he once imitated the frog so well, as he jumped like one, that he shocked his taunting classmates. James was also known to climb trees and walls without much difficulty. Angus Ferguson, our guide and current owner of Glenlair also testified to us that he once saw graffiti underneath the high slates on one of the steading roofs! It read: “Jimmy was here.”
When he was twelve, Maxwell began juggling with the devil-on-two-sticks, which consists of manipulating one stick with two others held by each hand. It was said that he could perform fast gyrations and spins better than a professional. Here is a tutorial on this skill.
The mechanical motions of the sticks might have even inspired his work in thermodynamics. I would imagine that while developing the formula of the distribution of gas molecules, he envisioned them whizzing around at various speeds and rotations like the ones he performed with the devil’s sticks.
Drawing of gas molecules spinning and bumping each other
Maxwell didn’t just master space and time with his hands, but also with his feet. He enjoyed Scottish dancing, and was known to perform the neatest reel-steps, including the most difficult lock step.
His poetic abilities and humor
James Maxwell, in addition to his scientific mind, fostered a love of language arts, and won first prize for a poem in 1845. Below is a section of one of his poems, titled “School Rhymes”, written in 1844 when Maxwell was barely thirteen:
“But come, thy real nature let us see,
No more the rector but the goddess be,
Come in thy might and shake the deep profound,
Let the Academy with shouts resound,
While radiant glory all thy head adorns,
And slippers on thy feet protect thy corns;
O may I live so long on earth below,
That I may learn the things that thou dost know!
Then will I praise thee in heroic verse
So good that Linus’ will be counted worse;
The Thracian Orpheus never will compare
With me, nor Dods that got the prize last year.
But stay, O stay upon this earth a while,
Even now thou seest the world’s approving smile,
And when thou goest to taste celestial joys,
Let thy great nephew teach the mourning boys,
Then mounting to the skies upon the wind,
Lead captive ignorance in chains behind.”
James was profoundly good natured and an avid joke teller. Although many were not understood by others, one of them will amuse you. He wrote it in a letter to entertain his dad, when he was eleven years old.
“A simpleton wishing to swim was nearly drowned. As soon as he got out he swore that he would never touch water till he had learned to swim.”
Conclusion
It is obvious that not a few adults poured into the life of James Maxwell. They were the reason he cultivated so many talents at such a young age, to build and maintain healthy friendships, and to receive a firm foundation in the Christian faith. His gratitude and loyalty to every person in his life was evident through all the letters he wrote to them.
Most of us don’t have the advantage of living close to relatives so that we may partner with them in nurturing our children. However, we can pray that the Lord would provide church families who will have a positive influence on our children and friends who will foster the brilliance in them.
Similarly, each one of us can look out for those young people in our circles in need of godly influence. We can utilize our gifts to help them reach their full potential. Let us be intentional in mentoring the next generation so they can become the next Esthers and Daniels.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”