Second son of a London draper

I am the second son of Thomas Jones, of the city of London, a draper, in good circumstances. I was born in the year 1810, and received the rudiments of learning in the first four rules of arithmetic, at a school in the borough of Southwark. In the year 1822, I was bound apprentice to the business of a draper, in Cheapside, and served until the year 1834. During the last two years of my apprenticeship, I studied in the evenings, mathematics, and the French and German languages, and improved myself in writing and spelling. In the year 1834, I became a member of the second class in the first edition of the Mechanics' Institution, and there learned to draw. In the year 1836, I went to