There was a James Crichton working in Glasgow who probably spent two years, from 1774 to 1776, in London, but our Crichton was John Crichton who flourished in London between 1831 and 1865 and who showed off some of his scientific instruments in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

 

John Crichton began his business as an optical, philosophical, mathematical and nautical instrument maker at 32 Fore Street, Limehouse, London in 1831.  He moved to 112 Leadenhall Street in 1834 where he remained in business until 1865.  Leadenhall Street (Figure 2) which is in the centre of London and which joins Fenchurch Street, the home of the famous dynasty of instrument makers, Henry Hughes and Son.Crichton was apprenticed to the well known early sextant maker Benjamin Messer.  Among the items Crichton was known to produce were barometers, compasses, sextants, telescopes, artificial horizons, microscopes and thermometers. (Gloria Clifton, “Dictionary of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851,” 1991, The National Maritime Museum, London).