Was James Clerk Maxwell Jewish?
Scottish physicist and inventor James Clerk Maxwell is one of most important people in modern physics.
You can imagine my surprise then when I saw ‘MNews’ lists Maxwell as a ‘jewish inventor’:
‘James Maxwell – Theory of the electromagnetic field
James Maxwell is a physicist and author of the theory of the electromagnetic field.’ (1)
This is rather bizarre on ‘MNews’’ part and I was interested to see if I could find out why.
All I could come up with however is that ‘Maxwell’ is a surname sometimes appropriated by jews in Scotland, (2) but there is no evidence at all that Maxwell was jewish or had any jewish ancestry whatsoever. Indeed, even jewish accounts of Maxwell list him as a devout Scottish Christian and make no mention of any jewish connection whatsoever. (3)
Let’s be thorough however and quote one account of Maxwell’s origins and parentage:
‘James Clerk Maxwell was born in 1831 in Edinburgh, Scotland. An extraordinarily curious child, Maxwell investigated everything he could find. He grew up in a deeply Christian home and by the age of eight could recite all 176 verses of the 119th Psalm! His mother, who had been personally educating him, died when he was eight and Maxwell’s later education was first at the Edinburgh Academy and then, from age 16, Edinburgh University.
[…]
In 1857 Maxwell married Katherine Dewar and they shared a deep Christian faith. There are many letters to Katherine in which Maxwell discusses Bible passages that he knew they were reading together.’ (4)
To add further detail: Maxwell’s father was John Clerk – a lawyer – and his mother was Frances Cay. (5)
Maxwell’s father added ‘Maxwell’ to his surname with the death of Maxwell’s great-grandmother Dorothea Clerk Maxwell in 1793 as part of his inheritance of her Middlebie estate (this had been made part of the inheritance of the estate by John Maxwell in 1722). Maxwell’s father was from the Clerk family of Penicuik and was his father was the nephew of the 6th Baronet: Sir George Clerk. Maxwell’s grandfather was Captain James Clerk of the British East India Company.
Maxwell’s mother Frances Cay was the daughter of Robert Hodshon Cay – Judge Admiral of Scotland – and Elizabeth Liddell (originally from Newcastle, England and a ship owner’s daughter).
None of Maxwell’s grandparents or even great-grandparents were jewish or had any ancestral connection to the jews I can find.
Ergo James Clerk Maxwell was not in any way, shape or form jewish.
References
(1) https://mnews.world/en/news/the-great-jews-and-their-inventions
(2) https://ancestors.familysearch.org/LKR9-FL3/james-maxwell-i-1635-1720
(3) For example: https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA171141274 and https://aish.com/how-james-clerk-maxwells-belief-in-god-inspired-a-revolution-in-science/
(4) https://canonjjohn.com/2021/03/20/heroes-of-the-faith-james-clerk-maxwell/
(5) The biographical detail on Maxwell’s family tree is derived from: https://web.archive.org/web/20160315213805/http://www.isee.zju.edu.cn/em01/articles/material_3/Maxwell.pdf