Editing Charles Babbage (section)

==Early life==
[[File:British (English) School - Charles Babbage (1792–1871) - 814168 - National Trust.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait of Charles Babbage ({{Circa|1820}})]]
Babbage's birthplace is disputed, but according to the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' he was most likely born at 44 Crosby Row, [[Walworth Road]], London, England.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=962|title=Babbage, Charles|first=Doron|last=Swade}}</ref> A [[blue plaque]] on the junction of Larcom Street and Walworth Road commemorates the event.<ref>{{openplaque | 1140 }}</ref>

His date of birth was given in his obituary in ''[[The Times]]'' as 26 December 1792; but then a nephew wrote to say that Babbage was born one year earlier, in 1791. The parish register of [[Stoke Newington (parish)#Ecclesiastical parish|St. Mary's]], [[Newington, London|Newington]], London, shows that Babbage was [[Baptism|baptised]] on 6 January 1792, supporting a birth year of 1791.<ref>{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Hyman |authorlink=R. Anthony Hyman |title=[[Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer]] |year=1985 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-02377-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YCddaWqWK2cC&pg=PA5 5]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Moseley | first = Maboth | title = Irascible Genius, The Life of Charles Babbage | publisher=Henry Regnery | location = Chicago | year = 1964 | page = 29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAMAQAAIAAJ }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = The Late Mr. Charles Babbage, F.R.S |work=The Times |location=UK |title-link=s:The Times/The Late Mr. Charles Babbage, F.R.S. }}</ref>
[[File:Charles Babbage by Antoine Claudet c1847-51-crop.jpg|thumb|Babbage {{Circa|1850}}]]

Babbage was one of four children of Benjamin Babbage and Betsy Plumleigh Teape. His father was a banking partner of [[William Praed]] in founding Praed's & Co. of [[Fleet Street]], London, in 1801.<ref>{{cite web|author=Members Constituencies Parliaments Surveys |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/praed-william-1747-1833 |title=Praed, William (1747–1833), of Tyringham, Bucks. and Trevethoe, nr. St. Ives, Cornw. |publisher=Historyofparliamentonline.org |access-date=7 June 2014}}</ref> In 1808, the Babbage family moved into the old Rowdens house in [[Teignmouth|East Teignmouth]]. Around the age of eight, Babbage was sent to a country school in [[Alphington, Devon|Alphington]] near Exeter to recover from a life-threatening fever. For a short time, he attended [[King Edward VI Community College#Grammar school|King Edward VI Grammar School]] in [[Totnes]], South Devon, but his health forced him back to private tutors for a time.<ref>{{harvnb|Moseley|1964|p=39}}</ref>

Babbage then joined the 30-student Holmwood Academy, in Baker Street, [[Enfield, London|Enfield]], [[Middlesex]], under the Reverend Stephen Freeman.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/db8b56cf-ea51-4c0b-ad46-320a2391d714 | title=Reverend Stephen Freeman's Schools Ponders End | work=74 – London Metropolitan Archives: City of London | publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] | location=UK | access-date=9 August 2021 }}</ref> The academy had a library that prompted Babbage's love of mathematics. He studied with two more private tutors after leaving the academy. The first was a clergyman near [[Cambridge]]; through him Babbage encountered [[Charles Simeon]] and his evangelical followers, but the tuition was not what he needed.<ref>{{cite book| first=Anthony | last=Hyman | authorlink=R. Anthony Hyman |title=[[Charles Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer]] | year=1985 | publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-02377-9|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YCddaWqWK2cC&pg=PA17 17]}}</ref> He was brought home, to study at the Totnes school: this was at age 16 or 17.<ref>{{cite book| first1=Bruce | last1=Collier| first2=James | last2=MacLachlan | title=Charles Babbage: And the Engines of Perfection | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vzMEwf-bHEC&pg=PA11 | year=2000|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-514287-7|page=11}}</ref> The second was an [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] tutor, under whom Babbage reached a level in Classics sufficient to be accepted by the [[University of Cambridge]].