Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791. When he was young, he taught himself algebra, which he enjoyed, and in 1811 when entering Trinity College in Cambridge, he was far ahead of his tutors. It was when he was a mathematician in his 20s that he was first interested in machines that could calculate for a human. He pursued this for the rest of his life.
https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/who-was-charles-babbage