William Stukeley
| William Stukeley | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Stukeley attributed to Richard Collins
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| Born |
7 November 1687 Holbeach, Lincolnshire |
| Died | 3 March 1765 (aged 77) |
| Nationality | English & British |
| Fields | Archaeology |
| Alma mater | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
| Known for |
Stonehenge Avebury Isaac Newton biography Stukeley Plesiosaur |
William Stukeley FRS, FRCP, FSA (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an Anglican clergyman and English antiquarian who pioneered the archaeological investigation of the prehistoric monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury. He was friends with Isaac Newton and was among Newton's first biographers. Stukeley was also involved with Freemasonry and instrumental in British scholarship's acceptance of Charles Bertram's forged Description of Britain. Despite his Anglican faith and church offices, he was obsessed with the idea of Druidry. He has been remembered as "probably... the most important of the early forerunners of the discipline of archaeology" for his habit of going out personally to examine and explore ancient sites.
William Stukeley was the son of a lawyer at Holbeach in Lincolnshire on the site of Stukeley Hall, a primary school that now bears his name. After taking his M.B. degree at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Stukeley went to London and studied medicine at St Thomas' Hospital. In 1710, he started in practice in Boston, Lincolnshire, becoming a member of Spalding Gentlemen's Society (founded by his friend Maurice Johnson II), before returning in 1717 to London. In the same year, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and, in 1718, joined in the establishment of the Society of Antiquaries, acting for nine years as its secretary. In 1719 Stukeley took his M.D. degree, and in 1720 became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, publishing in the same year his first contribution to antiquarian literature.
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