[taken from Chapter 6 Manx Worthies, A.W.Moore, 1901]

JOHN GOLDSMITH (b. 1803, d. 1876),

who was chief clerk to Messrs. Quiggin, in & Co. in 1830. From thence he went into the service of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co., and, after he left this company, he was appointed secretary and manager of the Douglas Gas Co. He did good work as the honorary secretary of the Manx Society, and he was also for many years teacher and superintendent in the Primitive Methodist Sunday School in Douglas. But his chief claim to remembrance is his wonderfully extensive and accurate knowledge of astronomy. He was employed in calculating the tide tables in the widely circulated " Jefferson's Almanac," the proprietor of which stated that its success was largely due to their absolute reliableness. George Borrow, who was in the Isle of Man in 1855, spoke of him as " a very intelligent and amusing man".⁺

+ Life, writings, and Correspondence of George Borrow (Knapp), 1899. V01. II., P. 132.