# John Metcalf

John Metcalf (15 AUG 1717 – 26 APR 1810); born in Knaresborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, England; with Dorothy Benson; parent of 3 children; died in Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.

**Lifespan:** 15 AUG 1717 – 26 APR 1810

## Also known as
- Blind Jack of Knaresborough
- Blind Jack Metcalf

## Partners
- [Dorothy Benson](/p/dorothy-benson-70735.md) — 1739

## Children
- [Tabitha Metcalf](/p/tabitha-metcalf-70737.md)
- [Ellen Metcalf](/p/ellen-metcalf-70738.md)
- [John Metcalf](/p/john-metcalf-70739.md)

## Timeline
- 15 AUG 1717 — **Born** at Knaresborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
- ABT 1723 — **Description (Blindness)** at Knaresborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, England — Totally blind from about the age of six after smallpox (put to school at four, two years there, then "seized with the small-pox, which rendered him totally blind"). Because his parents had other children to provide for, he was taught music at thirteen.
- 1732 — **Occupation (Fiddler)** at Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, England — "In the year 1732 Metcalf was invited to Harrogate" to succeed the resident fiddler; played each season at the Queen's Head and the Royal Oak (renamed the Granby in 1795), where he met Dorothy Benson, the landlord's daughter. Also traded horses, guided visitors and later ran a stage-waggon between York and Knaresborough (1751).
- 1739 — **Residence** at Knaresborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, England — After marrying, "took a small house at Knaresborough"; soon after bought an old house and rebuilt it himself, raising the stone from the river. Knaresborough remained the family home until Dorothy's illness in the 1770s.
- 1745 — **Military service** at Knaresborough, West Riding of Yorkshire, England — Jacobite rising of 1745: assistant to the recruiting sergeant raising Captain Thornton's Knaresborough volunteers, then accompanied the army to Scotland (Falkirk, Culloden), employed moving guns over boggy ground; home to his family in spring 1746. The gravestone alludes to it: "when rebellion reared her giant size, 'twas his to burn with patriot enterprise".
- FROM 1765 TO 1792 — **Occupation (Road builder)** — Turnpike road contractor: first contract in 1765 for the three-mile Minskip–Ferrensby section; built about 180 miles of road across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Cheshire, including Knaresborough–Wetherby, Wakefield–Huddersfield–Saddleworth (via Standedge), Bury–Blackburn and Skipton–Colne–Burnley. Finished his last road in 1792, aged 75.
- ABT 1781 — **Occupation (Cotton spinner)** at Stockport, Cheshire, England — While working in Cheshire began cotton spinning in a small way near Stockport with six spinning-jennies and a carding engine, later made over to his son-in-law (David Jackson, husband of Tabitha) — "a person in the stocking business".
- 1792 — **Retired** at Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England — "In the year 1792 he returned into Yorkshire" and settled on a small farm at Spofforth, near Wetherby; "his house is kept by a daughter and son-in-law" (Ellen and Thomas Ingleson). In January 1795, aged 77, walked from York to Spofforth via Knaresborough to have his life written down.
- 1795 — **Publication** — Metcalf, John (1795). The Life of John Metcalf, Commonly Called Blind Jack of Knaresborough  https://archive.org/details/lifejohnmetcalf00metcgoog/page/n8/mode/2up
- 1810 — **Descendants at death** — Left four children, twenty grandchildren and ninety great- and great-great-grandchildren (Gentleman's Magazine 1810; Langdale 1836 edition; Baring-Gould). Andrews and DNB flatten the last figure to "ninety great-grandchildren".
- 26 APR 1810 — **Died** at Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
- 30 APR 1810 — **Buried** at Spofforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England — Buried in the churchyard of All Saints', Spofforth, under a stone erected at the cost of Lord Dundas. Epitaph: "Here lies John Metcalf, one whose infant sight / Felt the dark pressure of an endless night; / Yet such the fervour of his dauntless mind, / His limbs full strung, his spirits unconfined, / That, long ere yet life's bolder years began, / The sightless efforts mark'd th' aspiring man; / Nor mark'd in vain—high deeds his manhood dared, / And commerce, travel, both his ardour shared. / 'Twas his a guide's unerring aid to lend— / O'er trackless wastes to bid new roads extend; / And, when rebellion reared her giant size, / 'Twas his to burn with patriot enterprise; / For parting wife and babes, a pang to feel, / Then welcome danger for his country's weal. / Reader, like him, exert thy utmost talent given! / Reader, like him, adore the bounteous hand of Heaven. / He died on the 26th of April 1810 in the 93rd year of his life."
- **Residence**

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