 Whewell was born in 1794, the eldest child of a master-carpenter in Lancaster. The headmaster of his local grammar school, a parish priest, recognized Whewell’s intellectual abilities and persuaded his father to allow him to attend the Heversham Grammar School in Westmorland, some twelve miles to the north, where he would be able to qualify for a closed exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge. In the 19th century and earlier, these “closed exhibitions” or scholarships were set aside for the children of working class parents, to allow for some social mobility. Whewell studied at Heversham Grammar for two years, and received private coaching in mathematics. Although he did win the exhibition it did not provide full resources for a boy of his family’s means to attend Cambridge; so money had to be raised in a public subscription to supplement the scholarship money.