The son of Benjamin Joule (1784–1858), a wealthy brewer, James Prescott Joule was born in the house next to the Joule Brewery in New Bailey Street, Salford on 24 December 1818. James was tutored at the family home 'Broomhill', Pendlebury, near Salford, until 1834 when he was sent, with his elder brother Benjamin, to study with John Dalton at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. They only received two years of education in arithmetic and geometry before Dalton was forced to retire because of a stroke.