The date of birth of James Clerk Maxwell

Abstract

Our attention was drawn by Dr D. L. J. Bilbey, formerly of theDcpartment of Anatomy, King’s College, London, to the various dates in the literature for the date of birth of James Clerk Maxwell, F. R. S. (1831-1879), the mathematician and physicist. The standard biography of Campbell and Garnett (1) gives 13 June 1831 but does not quote a reference. This date is given in the Royal Society Obituary (2). The same date is also given by the Dictionary of Scientific Biography (3). Maxwell’s first college at Cambridge was Peterhouse, which has a record of admitting him in 1850 and his date of birth is there recorded as 13 November 1831 (4). He migrated to Trinity College, Cambridge during the year but the Trinity records do not give his date of birth (4). This later date of birth is given in Venn and Venn (5) and by the nature of this work we would expect the editors to have relied heavily if not exclusively on the College records. The date 13 November is repeated in the Dictionary of National Biography (6) where it is stated that Maxwell died aged 48.