William Stukeley
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William Stukeley (7 November 1687 – 3 March 1765) was an English
antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
, physician and
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
clergyman. A significant influence on the later development of
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, he pioneered the scholarly investigation of the prehistoric monuments of
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...
and
Avebury Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in t ...
in Wiltshire. He published over twenty books on archaeology and other subjects during his lifetime. Born in
Holbeach Holbeach is a market town and civil parish in the South Holland District in Lincolnshire, England. The town lies from Spalding; from Boston; from King's Lynn; from Peterborough; and by road from Lincoln. It is on the junction of the ...
, Lincolnshire, as the son of a lawyer, Stukeley worked in his father's law business before attending Bene't College, Cambridge. In 1709 he began studying medicine at St Thomas' Hospital,
Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
, before working as a general practitioner in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Lincolnshire. From 1710 till 1725 he embarked on annual tours of the countryside, seeking out archaeological monuments and other features that interested him; he wrote up and published several accounts of his travels. In 1717, he returned to London and established himself within the city's antiquarian circles. In 1718 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
and became the first secretary of the
Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...
. In 1721 he became a
Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
and in 1722 co-founded the Society of Roman Knights, an organisation devoted to the study of
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...
. In the early 1720s, Stukeley developed a particular interest in Stonehenge and Avebury, two prehistoric
stone circles A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The b ...
in Wiltshire. He visited them repeatedly, undertaking fieldwork to determine their dimensions. In 1726 Stukeley relocated to
Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
, Lincolnshire, where he married. In 1729 he was ordained as a cleric in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
and appointed vicar of
All Saints' Church All Saints Church, or All Saints' Church or variations on the name may refer to: Albania *All Saints' Church, Himarë Australia * All Saints Church, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory * All Saints Anglican Church, Henley Brook, Western Aust ...
in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He was a friend of the
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
William Wake William Wake (26 January 165724 January 1737) was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737. Life Wake was born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He took ...
, who encouraged him to use his antiquarian studies to combat the growth of
deism Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin ''deus'', meaning "god") is the Philosophy, philosophical position and Rationalism, rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that Empirical evi ...
and freethought in Britain. To this end, Stukeley developed the belief that Britain's ancient
druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
s had followed a
monotheistic Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
religion inherited from the Biblical Patriarchs; he called this druidic religion "Patriarchal Christianity". He further argued that the druids had erected the stone circles as part of serpentine monuments symbolising the
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...
. In 1747 he returned to London as rector of
St George the Martyr, Holborn St George the Martyr Holborn is an Anglican church located at the south end of Queen Square, Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden. It is dedicated to Saint George, and was originally so-called to distinguish it from the later nearby churc ...
. In the last part of his life, he became instrumental in British scholarship's acceptance of
Charles Bertram Charles Julius Bertram (1723–1765) was an English expatriate in Denmark who "discovered"—and presumably wrote—'' The Description of Britain'' ( la, De Situ Britanniae), an 18th-century literary forgery purporting to be a mediaeval work on ...
's forged ''
Description of Britain ''The Description of Britain'', also known by its Latin name ' ("On the Situation of Britain"), was a literary forgery perpetrated by Charles Bertram on the historians of England. It purported to be a 15th-century manuscript by the English monk R ...
'' and wrote one of the earliest biographies of his friend,
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
. Stukeley's ideas influenced various antiquaries throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in addition to artists like
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
, although these had been largely rejected by archaeologists by the second half of the nineteenth century. He is nevertheless regarded as an important forerunner of archaeology for his emphasis on methodically measuring and documenting ancient sites. He has since become the subject of multiple biographies and academic studies by scholars like
Stuart Piggott Stuart Ernest Piggott, (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex. Early life Piggott was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, the son of G. H. O. Piggott, and was educated t ...
,
David Boyd Haycock David Boyd Haycock (born 1968 in Banbury, Oxfordshire) is a British writer, curator and lecturer. He read 'Modern History' at St John's College, Oxford, and has an MA in the History of Art from the University of Sussex and a PhD in History from Bi ...
and
Ronald Hutton Ronald Edmund Hutton (born 19 December 1953) is an English historian who specialises in Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a professor at the University of Bristol, has written 14 bo ...
.


Biography


Childhood and university: 1687–1708

Stukeley was born on 7 November 1669 in his parental home in
Holbeach Holbeach is a market town and civil parish in the South Holland District in Lincolnshire, England. The town lies from Spalding; from Boston; from King's Lynn; from Peterborough; and by road from Lincoln. It is on the junction of the ...
,
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
. He was the eldest child in a family of four boys and one girl; it is possible that he was named after William of Orange, who soon after became
King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...
. His paternal grandfather, John Stukeley (1623–1675), was a country gentleman who possessed a small estate at
Uffington Uffington is the name of several places: ; England *Uffington, Lincolnshire :* Uffington and Barnack railway station :* Uffington Rural District *Uffington, Oxfordshire :* Uffington railway station (Uffington Junction) *Uffington, Shropshire ;Un ...
, Lincolnshire and who accrued a large number of debts by the time of his death. John had two sons; the elder, Adlard, was apprenticed to the legal profession, while the younger, also called John, was initially trained as a farmer before joining Adlard in a family law firm. On 28 May 1686, John married the teenage daughter of Robert Bullen in Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire; their first child was miscarried, with William being their second. In 1692, at the age of five, Stukeley began an education at Holbeach's Free School, where he learned to read and write. By the age of thirteen, he was the top-rated pupil at his school. As a schoolchild, he began collecting Roman coins after a hoard was found nearby and also developed interests in botany and medicine. In 1700, he was taken out of school to work in his father's legal business. With his father he travelled south to London on various occasions, where he purchased many books and scientific instruments. He was nevertheless bored by his law activities, and when he requested that he be allowed to study at university, his father agreed. He began studying at
Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
in November 1703 as a
pensioner A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...
at Bene't College. Among the classes that he took during his studies were Classics, Ethics, Logic, Metaphysics, Divinity, Mathematics and Philosophy. In his spare time, he dissected animals and searched for fossils in the gravel pits outside the town; in 1708 he dissected a hanged man. Outside of term time, he travelled to London, there taking anatomy courses with George Rolf and becoming acquainted with the poet
John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peac ...
. In February 1706 his father died, with his uncle passing away three weeks later. He returned home to sort out the family's financial affairs. In 1707, his mother then died, leaving him in charge of his younger siblings; to pay off family debts, he sold off their furniture and let out their Holbeach home. He also attracted local attention for dissecting a local who had committed suicide. In January 1709 he returned to Cambridge to defend his thesis, on the title of "Catamenia pendent a plethora". By this point he was taking a growing interest in architecture, producing careful pen-drawings of medieval buildings. He considered embarking on the fashionable
Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
of continental Europe to see the ancient ruins of Greece and Italy, but likely decided against it on financial grounds.


Medical career: 1709–1716

In August 1709, Stukeley moved to London to further pursue medicine under doctor
Richard Mead Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
at St Thomas' Hospital. In March 1710, he left the city to practice medicine in the countryside, establishing a practice in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Lincolnshire. He took with him a
black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
servant, which would have been a status symbol at the time. Little is known of the time that he spent in the town, although in 1713 he was accorded Freedom of the Town. His brother, Adlard, moved in with him and in Boston was apprenticed to a local apothecary. Stukeley also formed a local botanic society that went on weekly plant-collecting trips in the local area. In 1715 he produced a print of Boston's St Botolph's Church, which he dedicated to the Marquis of Lindsey. Many of his travels around Lincolnshire were written up in what appears to be his first book, ''Iter Domesticum'', although the year of its publication is not known. From 1710 until 1725, Stukeley embarked on a horseback expedition through the countryside at least once a year, taking notes on the things that he observed. In 1710, for example, he first visited the prehistoric ceremonial complex, the
Rollright Stones The Rollright Stones are a complex of three Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monuments near the village of Long Compton, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. Constructed from local oolitic limestone, the three monuments, now known ...
. At the time, his interests were not purely antiquarian, for he also took notes on landscape gardens and other more recent constructions that he encountered. In 1712, Stukeley embarked on an extensive tour of western Britain, taking in
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
before returning to
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to visit
Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
,
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
,
Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.
, Chatsworth and
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. He later published an account of these travels in Western Britain as ''Iter Cimbricum''. Stukeley's later biographer
Stuart Piggott Stuart Ernest Piggott, (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex. Early life Piggott was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, the son of G. H. O. Piggott, and was educated t ...
related that this book was "not yet the characteristic product of a field archaeologist" but rather "differs little from that which could be written by any intelligent gentleman of the period". Stukeley befriended the antiquary Maurice Johnson and joined Johnson's
learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...
, the
Spalding Gentlemen's Society The Spalding Gentlemen's Society is a learned society based in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England, concerned with cultural, scientific and antiquarian subjects. It is Britain's oldest such provincial body, founded in 1710 by Maurice Johnson (1688 ...
, which is still based in Spalding, Lincolnshire. A 1714 letter indicates that Johnson recommended several books on British history to Stukeley, apparently at the latter's request; the suggested titles included
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
's ''
De Bello Gallico ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (; en, Commentaries on the Gallic War, italic=yes), also ''Bellum Gallicum'' ( en, Gallic War, italic=yes), is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Ca ...
'',
John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
's '' The History of Britain'', Robert Brady's ''An Introduction to the Old English History'',
Peter Heylin Peter Heylyn or Heylin (29 November 1599 – 8 May 1662) was an English ecclesiastic and author of many polemical, historical, political and theological tracts. He incorporated his political concepts into his geographical books ''Microcosmu ...
's ''Help to English History'', and
Richard Rowlands Richard Rowlands, born Richard Verstegan (c. 1550 – 1640), was an Anglo- Dutch antiquary, publisher, humorist and translator. Verstegan was born in East London the son of a cooper; his grandfather, Theodore Roland Verstegen, was a refugee f ...
' ''A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities concerning the most noble and renowned English Nation''. Another letter to Johnson, this time from May 1714, reveals that Stukeley was assembling a series of chronological tables of all British kings since
Brutus of Troy Brutus, also called Brute of Troy, is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Aeneas, known in medieval British history as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain. This legend first appears in the ''Historia Brittonum'', an anonymous ...
; following the medieval historian
Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth ( la, Galfridus Monemutensis, Galfridus Arturus, cy, Gruffudd ap Arthur, Sieffre o Fynwy; 1095 – 1155) was a British cleric from Monmouth, Wales and one of the major figures in the development of British historiograph ...
, Stukeley believed that the legendary Brutus was a real historical figure. In September 1716, he wrote an account of
Richborough Castle Richborough Castle is a Roman Saxon Shore fort better known as Richborough Roman Fort. It is situated in Richborough near Sandwich, Kent. Substantial remains of the massive fort walls still stand to a height of several metres. It is ...
, a Roman
Saxon Shore The Saxon Shore ( la, litus Saxonicum) was a military command of the late Roman Empire, consisting of a series of fortifications on both sides of the Channel. It was established in the late 3rd century and was led by the "Count of the Saxon Shor ...
fort in Kent. That same year, he described having made a model of the Neolithic/Bronze Age stone circle of
Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...
.


Return to London: 1717–1725

By May 1717, Stukeley had returned to London, living in
Great Ormond Street Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital ...
. The reasons for his return to the city are not known, although it is perhaps due to his desire to once again be among the London intelligentsia. Once in the city he began to circulate within its antiquarian circles. At Mead's nomination, in early 1718 he was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
, then under the presidency of the scientist
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
. Stukeley befriended Newton and visited him at his home on several occasions; he was part of a coterie in the society who supported Newtonian philosophy. Stukeley lectured to the society on a "fossil crocodile or porpoise" in 1719 (a plesiosaur now on display in the
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
, London), arguing that it was evidence for the
Genesis flood narrative The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the micro ...
; in February 1720, he lectured to the society on female human anatomy, illustrated with drawings of a cadaver he had autopsied. Following
Edmond Halley Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; – ) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, H ...
's resignation as society secretary, in November 1721 Stukeley put himself forward as a potential replacement; he unsuccessfully ran against Newton's favoured candidate,
James Jurin James Jurin Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, FRCP (baptised 15 December 168429 March 1750) was an English scientist and physician, particularly remembered for his early work in capillary action and in ...
. This upset some of Stukeley's friendships in the group and cooled his relationship with Newton for several years. Also in 1718, Stukeley joined the newly founded
Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...
and became its first secretary. In 1721–22 he was partly instrumental in setting up the society's committee on coins. He nevertheless appears to have taken little active part in the society's business. He also retained his interest in medical matters, and in June 1719 took a
medical doctorate Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...
in Cambridge, enabling him to join the
London College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...
in 1720. In October 1720 he was one of the physicians who conducted an autopsy of a deceased elephant in
Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...
's
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
garden. In March 1722 he gave the
Goulstonian Lecture The Goulstonian Lectures are an annual lecture series given on behalf of the Royal College of Physicians in London. They began in 1639. The lectures are named for Theodore Goulston (or Gulston, died 1632), who founded them with a bequest A beque ...
at the Royal College theatre; his topic was the human spleen. He published his lectures as ''On the Spleen'' in 1722, appending to it his "Essay Towards the Anatomy of the Elephant". According to Stukeley biographer
David Boyd Haycock David Boyd Haycock (born 1968 in Banbury, Oxfordshire) is a British writer, curator and lecturer. He read 'Modern History' at St John's College, Oxford, and has an MA in the History of Art from the University of Sussex and a PhD in History from Bi ...
, ''On the Spleen'' was significant as "his first major publication, and his only one in anatomy". Stukeley developed a friendship with two brothers who shared many of his antiquarian interests,
Roger Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...
and
Samuel Gale Samuel Gale (17 December 1682 – 10 January 1754) was an English antiquary, and a founder of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Early life Samiel Gale was born in the parish of St Faith's, London, on 17 December 1682, the youngest son of Th ...
. From his father, the former
Dean of York Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...
Thomas Gale Thomas Gale (1635/1636?7 or 8 April 1702) was an English classical scholar, antiquarian and cleric. Life Gale was born at Scruton, Yorkshire. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. ...
, Roger had inherited a copy of the ''Monumenta Britannica'', a work produced by seventeenth-century antiquarian
John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, ...
. He showed it to Stukeley, who produced a transcription of Aubrey's document in either 1717 or 1718. Piggott suggested that it was Aubrey's manuscript that first brought Avebury to Stukeley's attention. Circa 1718, Stukeley first visited the site, accompanied by the Gale brothers. In 1719, he visited again, also taking in Stonehenge before traveling to
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
to meet Thomas Hearne, an antiquarian who was highly critical of Stukeley. That summer, he spent time in
Great Chesterford Great Chesterford is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. The village is north from Bishop's Stortford, south from Cambridge and about northwest from the city and Essex county town of Chelmsford. The Ickn ...
in
Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, where he identified a Romano-British temple from crop marks in a field. Stukeley devoted much attention to Avebury during the 1720s. The records he produced of how the monument and its various features looked at the time has been important for later archaeologists for by the early twentieth century—when the earliest sustained archaeological investigation of the site took place—many of these features had been lost. He witnessed locals breaking up megaliths in the circle and although powerless to stop them it may have been this observation that led him to produce a detailed record of the site. In January 1721, Stukeley was initiated as a
Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. He suspected that Freemasonry was the "remains of the mysterys of the antients ic. By 1723 he was the Master of the Masonic Lodge meeting at Fountain Tavern on London's
Strand Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * Strand Street ...
. In July 1722, he and several friends formed the Society of Roman Knights, an organisation devoted to the study of
Roman Britain Roman Britain was the period in classical antiquity when large parts of the island of Great Britain were under occupation by the Roman Empire. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410. During that time, the territory conquered was ...
. The group began with sixteen members before attracting new recruits over the following two years. In admitting women as well as men, the Society was unprecedented within British society at the time; the Society of Antiquaries for instance would not admit female members for another two centuries. Members of the Roman Knights each took a name from the Romano-British period; Stukeley's was "Chyndonax", the name of a priest listed in a Greek inscription reputedly found in a glass cinerary urn in 1598. Through the society he also became close friends with
Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, KG, PC, PC (Ire) (5 July 1718 – 14 June 1794) of Ragley Hall, Arrow, in Warwickshire, was a British courtier and politician who, briefly, was Viceroy of Ireland where he had substantial es ...
and Heneage Finch, 5th Earl of Winchilsea; he encouraged the latter to carry out archaeological fieldwork, as at
Julliberrie's Grave Julliberrie's Grave, also known as The Giant's Grave or The Grave, is an unchambered long barrow located near to the village of Chilham in the south-eastern English county of Kent. Probably constructed in the fourth millennium BCE, during Bri ...
in Kent. In August 1721, Stukeley and Roger Gale set forth on another tour, visiting Avebury and Stonehenge before going to Gloucester, Hereford, Ludlow, Wolverhampton, Derby, and finally reaching Grantham in October. He wrote up his notes of the journey as ''Iter Sabrinum''. He returned to Avebury in the summer of 1722—this time with the artists
Gerard Vandergucht Gerard Vandergucht (or van der Gucht) (1696/97 – 18 March 1776) was an English engraver and art dealer. Vandergucht, was born in London, the elder son of the Flemish engraver Michael Vandergucht. He was taught engraving by his father, as w ...
and
John Pine John Pine (1690–1756) was an English designer, engraver, and cartographer notable for his artistic contribution to the Augustan style and Newtonian scientific paradigm that flourished during the British Enlightenment. Early life and apprenti ...
, who had both become Roman Knights that year—before proceeding to Stonehenge and Silchester. In September and October he embarked on another tour, this time taking in Cambridge, Boston, Lincoln, Dunstable, Leminster and Rochester, largely following Roman roads. He published a description of this tour as ''Iter Romanum''. In 1723, he travelled from London to Newbury and
Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...
before visiting Stanton Drew stone circles, and then heading back east to Bath,
Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
and Dorchester. These tours were written up as ''Iter Dumnoniense'' and ''Iter Septimum Antonini Aug''. He also wrote an account of Dorcehster's
Maumbury Rings Maumbury Rings is a Neolithic henge in the south of Dorchester town in Dorset, England (). It is a large circular earthwork, 85 metres in diameter, with a single bank and an entrance to the north east. It was modified during the Roman period wh ...
in October 1723 as ''Of the Roman Ampitheatre at Dorchester''. It was while at Avebury in 1723 that he began a draft of the ''History of the Temples of the Ancient Celts''. This work drew upon his fieldwork at both Avebury and Stonehenge as well as his field-notes from other prehistoric sites and information obtained from the 'Templa Druidum' section of Aubrey's ''Monumenta Britannica''. The work also cited Biblical and Classical texts. In the book, Stukeley discussed how prehistoric people might have erected such monuments using sledges, timber cradles, rollers and leavers. He devoted much space to refuting the suggestion, made by
Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...
and J. Webb, that Stonehenge had been erected by the Romans, instead attributing it to the prehistoric—or as he called it, "Celtic"—period. The druids are mentioned only briefly in the book, when Stukeley suggested that they might be possible creators of the stone circles. In 1724, Stukeley returned to Avebury and Stonehenge, returning via Ringwood and
Romsey Romsey ( ) is a historic market town in the county of Hampshire, England. Romsey was home to the 17th-century philosopher and economist William Petty and the 19th-century British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, whose statue has stood in the t ...
before heading up to
Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...
and then back down to Kent later in the year. This was the final year in which he conducted fieldwork at Avebury. In 1725, Stukeley engaged in the last of his great tours, this time with Roger Gale. This took him from
Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...
up into the Midlands, where he visited Coventry, Birmingham, Derby and Buxton before heaving west to Chester and then north for Liverpool and the
Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...
; there he visited stone circles like
Long Meg and Her Daughters Long Meg and Her Daughters is a Neolithic stone circle situated north-east of Penrith near Little Salkeld in Cumbria, North West England. One of around 1,300 stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany, it was constructed as a part of a m ...
and
Castlerigg stone circle Castlerigg Stone Circle (alternatively Keswick Carles, or Carles) is situated on a prominent hill to the east of Keswick, in the Lake District National Park, North West England. It is one of around 1,300 stone circles in the British Isles and ...
. From there, Stukeley and Gale travelled further north to
Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...
and then
Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...
, following it along to Newcastle before heading south back to London via Durham and Doncaster.


Marriage and the clergy: 1726–46

In 1726, Stukeley left London and relocated to Grantham in Lincolnshire. The reasons for his decision to do so are obscure. It may be that he left the city due to frustration that his antiquarian research was not being financially supported by wealthier benefactors. On his move to Grantham, Stukeley resigned as secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. Stukeley struggled to earn a living as a physician in Grantham; he also established a Freemasonic lodge in the town, although it never appeared on the roll of the
Grand Lodge of England The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic grand lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron ...
. In December 1727 he married Frances Williamson, daughter of a gentleman from Allington. The couple's attempts to conceive children met with failure, and Williamson suffered two miscarriages. In October 1728, Stukeley buried the second of the two unborn infants in his garden, performing a funeral ceremony that drew upon his interest in ancient Roman practices. Frances subsequently bore Stukeley three further daughters. Stukeley was friendly with the
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
William Wake William Wake (26 January 165724 January 1737) was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737. Life Wake was born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He took ...
, who shared his interest in antiquarianism. Stukeley asked his friend if he may become a cleric in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
, a request which Wake granted in June 1729. Wake ordained him as a
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
in
Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
on 20 July 1729. Given his intellectual pursuits, Wake saw Stukeley as a welcome recruit in the Church of England's conflict with
Freethought Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
. In October 1729, the
Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...
Peter King granted Stukeley the living of All Saints in Stamford, Lincolnshire, taking up residence in the town in early 1730. He enjoyed the town's medieval architecture, and began to write a history of the settlement in the form of a dialogue. He also enjoyed gardening while living in the town, in 1738 building a "Hermitage" in his garden, which featured niches, a stone arch and a fountain. According to Piggott, Stukeley's ordination was "the essential turning-point in his whole life". His reasons for joining the clergy are not known for certain. One possibility is that he sought the steady wage supplied by the Church of England, having for a while complained about how little he earned as a doctor. Alternately, he may have believed that becoming a cleric would be a secure position from which he could pursue the unorthodox ideas he was developing. His decision to join the clergy concerned friends like Robert Gale. To Piggott, Stukeley sought to use his fieldwork "as ammunition in a holy war against the Deists". Stukeley would write that his purpose in becoming a cleric was "to combat the deists from an unexpected quarter", describing his "resentment of that deluge of profaneness and infidelity that prevails so much at present, and threatens an utter subversion of religion in general". In 1736, he co-founded a local antiquarian and literary society, The Brazen Nose, with six other founder-members ( George Lynn being one of them). It held weekly meetings at which they discussed a varied range of subjects; the first meeting involved discussions of
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
, lunar maps, a wasp's nest, a medieval seal, and a bladder stone the size of a walnut that had been retrieved from a small dog. The society eventually lapsed, and Stukeley's attempt to revive it in 1746 proved unsuccessful. He also remained interested in the local discovery of antiquities; he became aware of a large, silver Romano-British dish uncovered at Risley Park,
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
in 1729 and read an account of it to the Society of Antiquaries in 1736. In October 1742, Stukeley was alerted to the discovery of the Royston Cave by local politician William Goodhall. He wrote about the site in his 1743 book, ''Palaeographia Britannica No. I, in which he argued that the cave's decorated chamber was established as a hermitage for a Lady Roisia de Vere circa 1170. A 1744 pamphlet was then issued by the Reverend Charles Parkin, arguing that the carvings were Anglo-Saxon in origin. Stukeley was affronted by the suggestion, and wrote his 1746 ''Origines Roystonianae II'' in response to it. In 1740, he was removed as a member of the Society of Antiquaries for not renewing his membership dues. In 1740, he published ''Stonehenge'', a book that he described as being devoted to the subject of "Patriarchal Christianity". He believed that learned people would read the book to learn about stone circles and druids, and that in doing so they would encounter the ancient proto-Christian of Britain and thus recognise how similar it was to modern Anglicanism. In doing so, he believed, they would reject the ideas promoted by deism and the freethinkers. In the winter of 1737, Stukeley's wife died at the age of forty. By February 1737/38 he suggested to Samuel Gale that they live together, although this plan never came to fruition. In 1739, Stukeley married the Gale brothers' sister, bringing her to live with him at Stamford. Her marriage portion of £10,000 allowed Stukeley to maintain two houses from 1740 onward; summers were spent at Stamford while winters were spent in his home in Gloucester Street, London. Also in 1739, he went into business producing medicinal oils with the daughter of John Rogers, a recently deceased apothecary whose wares Stukeley had previously championed. When in London, he regularly attended meetings of the Royal Society. In December 1741, he was appointed an associate member of the Egyptian Society, a group led by
Lord Sandwich Earl of Sandwich is a noble title in the Peerage of England, held since its creation by the House of Montagu. It is nominally associated with Sandwich, Kent. It was created in 1660 for the prominent naval commander Admiral Sir Edward Montagu ...
as its first president. Through the society, Stukeley became friends with the 2nd Duke of Montagu, regularly visiting the latter's home at
Boughton House Boughton House is a country house in the parish of Weekley in Northamptonshire, England, situated about north-east of Kettering. It is situated within an estate of . The present house was built by Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu (d.1709), ...
,
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
. Inspired by the medieval Gothic buildings, he began designing various Gothic plans of his own. This included a Gothic bridge and a mausoleum designed for the Duke of Montagu's estate, although neither were ever built. In 1746, Stukeley drew up a very careful account of King
Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
's journey from Oxford to the Scottish camp at Newark in 1646.


Final years: 1747–1765

In late 1747, Stukeley became the rector for St George the Martyr, Queen Square, a parish in
Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...
, London.. He moved permanently to the city in February 1748. Stukeley was a friend of
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
and wrote a memoir of his life in 1752. This is one of the earliest sources for the story of the falling apple that inspired Newton's formulation of the theory of gravitation. In the 1750s, he became a regular attendee at Royal Society events. However, within the group he found himself increasingly side-lined under the presidency of Folkes; although the pair retained a cordial relationship, Stukeley felt that Folkes was responsible for a decline in the quality of the society and was likely upset by Folkes' mocking attitude towards Christianity. Following Sloane's death in 1753, Stukeley was selected as a trustee to help establish the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, reflecting his standing in London antiquarian circles. He was also involved in the running of the
Foundling Hospital The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" w ...
, where he became acquainted with the illustrator
William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...
. In 1753, a Late Bronze Age tool hoard was uncovered during landscaping at
Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...
; Stukeley was invited to come and inspect the discovery the following year, at which point he met with the
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg ( – 8 February 1772) was Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son and heir apparent of King George II. She never became queen consort, as Frederick predeceased his father ...
, who had an interest in antiquarian matters. In 1754, he was re-admitted to the Society of Antiquaries. That same year, one of Stukeley's parishioners died, leaving his book collection to the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
and
Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...
. Stukeley was left as one of his executors, and in May 1755 transported the book collection to Oxford. Following the
1755 Lisbon earthquake The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with ...
, Stukeley developed an active interest in the subject, presenting papers on earthquakes to the Royal Society and in 1750 publishing ''Philosophy of Earthquakes, Natural and Religious''. In June 1747, Stukeley had received a letter from
Charles Bertram Charles Julius Bertram (1723–1765) was an English expatriate in Denmark who "discovered"—and presumably wrote—'' The Description of Britain'' ( la, De Situ Britanniae), an 18th-century literary forgery purporting to be a mediaeval work on ...
, an Englishman living in Denmark. In their ensuing correspondence, Bertram claimed to possess a copy of a manuscript allegedly produced by a 14th-century monk from
Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
known as
Richard of Cirencester Richard of Cirencester ( la, Ricardus de Cirencestria; before 1340–1400) was a cleric and minor historian of the Benedictine abbey at Westminster. He was highly famed in the 18th and 19th century as the author of '' The Description of Britain'' b ...
, which in turn contained an account and map of Roman Britain. Stukeley expressed caution regarding Bertram's claims, asking for detailed information regarding the original manuscript's provenance, with Bertram responding that he could not provide any because he had been sworn to secrecy by the man who supplied him with it. Stukeley unsuccessfully attempted to buy the manuscript from Bertram, stating that he would deposit it in the library of the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. In March and again in April 1756, Stukeley read papers on Bertram's manuscript to the Society of Antiquaries of London. He published these in 1757 as ''An Account of Richard of Cirencester, Monk of Westminster, and of his Works'', which reproduced the map but not the text of the original manuscript, instead consisting of Stukeley's own commentary. At the time, many antiquarians regarded it as a genuine text, although a few had suspicions; in 1795, Thomas Reynolds declared that Bertram's document was a forgery, although this would only be widely recognised in the 19th century. This discovery damaged Stukeley's reputation among later scholars, bolstering his reputation for credulity. Stukeley had similarly been taken in by another forgery,
James Macpherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...
's ''
Ossian Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...
'' poems, writing to Macpherson in praise of his alleged discovery. Stukeley also displayed a growing interest in the Roman Emperor
Carausius Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius (died 293) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapian from Belgic Gaul, who usurped power in 286, during the Carausian Revolt, declaring himself emperor in Britain and no ...
and his coinage. In 1750, he and John Kennedy saw a sketch of a silver coin that had been discovered at Silchester and donated to the
King of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the first ...
. Both of them misread the legend on the reverse of the coin, believing that it read "ORIVNA"; it had actually read "FORTVNA", but with the "F" largely eroded. In 1751, Kennedy published his ''Dissertation on Oriuna'', in which he claimed that Oriuna was the guardian goddess of Carausius. Stukeley disagreed, believing that Oriuna was Carausius' wife; he published this argument as ''Palaeographia Britannica No. III'' in 1752. The last decade of Stukeley's life was—according to Piggott—"relatively uneventful". He had re-joined the Society of Antiquaries but the papers presented there were increasingly treated un-seriously, while at the Royal Society, his papers were turned down and not published in its '' Transactions''. He retained his concern with the destruction of ancient monuments, in particular the pillaging of Hadrian's Wall for stone, imploring Princess Augusta to intervene and raising the issue in a November 1757 report for the Society of Antiquaries. He also raised concerns about the sturdiness of the
Eleanor cross The Eleanor crosses were a series of twelve tall and lavishly decorated stone monuments topped with crosses erected in a line down part of the east of England. King Edward I had them built between 1291 and about 1295 in memory of his beloved wi ...
at
Waltham Cross Waltham Cross is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, located north of central London. In the south-eastern corner of Hertfordshire, it borders Cheshunt to the north, Waltham Abbey to the east, and Enfield to the south ...
and ensured it was renovated. In 1757, Stukeley's second wife died. In 1759, Stukeley purchased a cottage in the (then largely rural) area of
Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...
, to the north of London. In 1763 he published ''Paleographia Sacra, or Discourses on Sacred Subject'' as a collection of some of his Sunday sermons. In early 1765, Stukeley suffered a stroke, fell into a
coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
and remained in this state for three days before dying in his bed on 3 March. He was 77 years old. He was buried without a monument in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene's Church, East Ham, which he is said to have selected as his resting-place on a visit there during his lifetime.


Ideas

Hutton noted that Stukeley "always had a strong streak of mysticism and interpreted ancient remains in accordance with set notions concerning the nature of primeval religion." He had a strong belief in immanent divinity. His belief in an immanent and interconnected divinity led him to adopt ideas from
Pythagoreanism Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek col ...
and
Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonism, Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and Hellenistic religion, religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of ...
: from the former he adopted the belief that music and numbers expressed the divine order while from the latter he adopted the notion of hidden correspondences between various parts of the natural world. Few of Stukeley's ideas were wholly original, being based on earlier sources. His general framework for understanding Britain's prehistoric past derived from his belief in the literal truth of Biblical mythology, including the creation of the world in 4004 BC and events like the
Genesis flood narrative The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the micro ...
. There is no evidence that when he started investigating Avebury and Stonehenge in 1719, he regarded them as having been erected by the druids. At the time, many antiquarians believed that they had been created in more recent periods; Inigo Jones believed Stonehenge had been built by Romans,
Walter Charleton Walter Charleton (2 February 1619 – 24 April 1707) was a natural philosopher and English writer. According to Jon Parkin, he was "the main conduit for the transmission of Epicurean ideas to England".Jon Parkin, ''Science, Religion and Politics ...
by Danish invaders in the Anglo-Saxon period, while
Edmund Bolton :''This is an article about the 17th-century poet. For the reality TV participant, see Beauty and the Geek (UK TV series)'' Edmund Mary Bolton (c.1575–c.1633) was an English historian and poet who was born, by his own account, in 1575. Life N ...
attributed it to the ancient British but not specifically the druids. In adopting the idea that the druids had erected these monuments, he was following the ideas of Aubrey, which he had read in unpublished manuscript form. Stukeley believed that the druids were part of "an oriental colony" of
Phoenicians Phoenicia () was an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient thalassocracy, thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-st ...
who had settled in Britain between the end of Noah's flood and the time of
Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
. He stated that the druids were "of Abraham's religion intirely ic and that, although never having encountered divine revelation, had concluded through their own reasoning that God existed as a Trinity. He also stated that their religion was "so extremely like Christianity, that in effect in differ'd from it only in this; they believed in a Messiah who was to come into this world, as we believe in him that is come." He believed that the leader of the Phoenician druids had been
Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...
, who had landed in western Britain and created the
Boscawen-Un Boscawen-Ûn () is a Bronze Age stone circle close to St Buryan in Cornwall, UK. It consists of nineteen upright stones in an ellipse with another, leaning, middle stone just south of the centre. There is a west-facing gap in the circle, which ...
circle in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. The idea that Hercules had arrived in south-west Britain was not original to Stukeley, having been adopted from Aylett Sammes' ''Britannia Antiqua Illustrata'' from 1676. Stukeley also believed that, because of Britain's isolated location, the druids had preserved the ancient monotheistic religion and that "the true religion has chiefly, since the repeopling of mankind after the flood, subsisted in our land". His idea that the druids once formed a monotheistic priesthood akin to those of modern Christians also owed an influence from older sources.
Michael Drayton Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London. Early life Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothin ...
's 1612 poem ''
Poly-Olbion The ''Poly-Olbion'' is a topographical poem describing England and Wales. Written by Michael Drayton (1563–1631) and published in 1612, it was reprinted with a second part in 1622. Drayton had been working on the project since at least 1598. ...
'' had for instance portrayed them as wise, monotheistic sages and philosophers. By the time he became a cleric, he hade come to believe that the ancient Egyptians,
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
and the druids all accepted the existence of the Trinity. By June 1730, he was claiming that Avebury was a symbolic depiction of the Trinity. He believed that ancient humans had venerated the components of the cosmos, such as the heavenly bodies and the four elements, and that they recognised the numbers and musical harmonies from which the cosmos had been created. The idea that Britain was God's chosen nation was a recurrent idea in Stukeley's thought. He thought that Britons should emulate the ancient Romans. Stukeley believed that God had created the Roman Empire to prepare for the arrival of Jesus and to assist in the spread of Christianity throughout Europe. In this, he believed that the ancient Romans had replaced the Jews as God's
chosen people Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be the chosen people of a deity, for a particular purpose. The phenomenon of a "chosen people" is well known among the Israelites and Jews, where the term ( he, עם ס ...
. In his view, the Roman Empire collapsed because its inhabitants had corrupted Christianity with what he called "superstitious fopperys" and that this perverted mixture survived as the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Like many English people of his time, he believed that the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
, which had split from the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th-century
English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
, had gained special favour from God; in Stukeley's words, it represented "the main support of religion now upon the face of the earth". Haycock noted that "a leading theme in Stukeley's antiquarian work" was "the resurrection of British history as an archetype for world history, and of Britain as a country historically fit to lead the world into the future". He criticised Britons who favoured archaeological remains encountered abroad during the Grand Tour, claiming that they were neglecting their own national heritage and adopting continental habits and vices such as effeminacy.


Fieldwork

Stukeley placed an emphasis on measuring and recording historical sites and encouraged his various correspondents to do the same. He engaged in excavation by digging in and around archaeological sites, relating that doing so was "like an anatomical dissection". He recognised the principal of stratigraphy, that different layers of soil reflected different periods in the development of a site. From the 1720s, he believed that the prehistoric complex at Avebury was laid out to represent a snake with its head and tail. By 1724, he was arguing that the snake was a symbol of Christ, with its shedding of skin echoing the resurrection and the circle or head representing the unity and wholeness of God. Using Halley's arguments about the gradual shift in the compass over time, Stukeley calculated that Stonehenge was built in 460 BC and Avebury in 1860 BC.


Personal life

Piggott described Stukeley as "a gregarious creature" who enjoyed conversation and being flattered. Haycock referred to Stukeley's "amiable personality", while Piggott also highlighted "an immensely likeable quality" to Stukeley's personality, as evidence highlighting that when the reverend was laid up in bed in Queens Square on one occasion, over 120 friends and parishioners either visited him or sent him a message of sympathy. He also regarded the antiquary as displaying a "charm and pleasant oddness" as well as a "cheerfulness and disarming ingenuousness". Piggott also noted that in later life, Stukeley became "self-opinionated" and "dogmatic". After the antiquarian's death, Bishop Warburton stated that in Stukeley displayed "a mixture of simplicity, drollery, absurdity, ingenuity, superstition and antiquarianism, that he afforded me that kind of well-seasoned repast, which the French call an ''Ambigu'', I suppose from a compound of things never meant to meet together." According to Hutton, Stukeley had "a profound and lifelong love of structure, form and design" that was reflected in his interest in the medieval profession as well as antiquities. He had an enthusiasm for gardening, and was fond of both city and countryside, enjoying the ability of traveling between the two. Fond of pets, he reported feeling great grief following the death of his cat, Tit, in the 1740s. While living in Boston, he aligned himself with the
Tories A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
. He suffered from
gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...
, having his first attack of the disease in 1709. Stukeley's decision, in 1722, to adopt the pseudonym of Chyndonax reflected his inclinations towards identifying with the druids in a personal capacity. This was bolstered by the tendency of friends in the Society of Roman Knights to refer to him, both in conversation and correspondence, as "the Druid". By 1740, he was beginning to depict the stone circles at Avebury—which are perfectly circular—as ovals in his illustrations so that they better fitted the shape of a serpent's head, which he believed they symbolised.


Reception and legacy

Haycock noted that Stukeley's books ''Stonehenge'' and ''Abury'' were well received, and that scholars "should not lose sight of his achievements behind the screen of his failings." He noted that Stukeley was "not a lone figure hypothesising wildly in his study" but "participating in a philosophical debate" that attracted the attention of various Enlightenment figures, including Newton, adding that Stukeley had established himself in "a firm position in London's intellectual society". By the early 1720s, Stukeley had a growing reputation as the country's main authority on druids and ancient monuments, having no obvious competitor given the comparative novelty of studying stone circles. However, by the 1750s, some of Stukeley's contemporaries were criticising the accuracy of some of his plans, and some were also accusing his interpretations of being speculative. Haycock observed that Stukeley's "influence upon antiquarian studies for the century or so after his death" was "profound". For instance, in his 1796 book ''Indian Antiquities'', Thomas Maurice drew upon Stukeley's publications as part of his argument that the druids were a group of Indian
brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru o ...
who had travelled west. According to Haycock, he "most famous propagator of Stukelian ideas in the early nineteenth century" was the artist and poet
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
, who had read both ''Abury'' and ''Stonehenge'' and been influenced by them. In the nineteenth century, many of Stukeley's interpretations were being adopted and expanded by several antiquarian clergymen, including
William Lisle Bowles William Lisle Bowles (24 September 17627 April 1850) was an English priest, poet and critic. Life and career Bowles was born at King's Sutton, Northamptonshire, where his father was vicar. At the age of 14 he entered Winchester College, where ...
, D. James and
John Bathurst Deane John Bathurst Deane (27 August 1797 – 12 July 1887) was a South African-born English clergyman, schoolmaster, antiquary, and author. Early life and education Born at the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, Deane was the second son of Captain Charles M ...
. The Wiltshire archaeologist
Richard Colt Hoare Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet FRS (9 December 1758 – 19 May 1838) was an English antiquarian, archaeologist, artist, and traveller of the 18th and 19th centuries, the first major figure in the detailed study of the history of his home ...
gave Stukeley's work some additional respectability when praising his use of fieldwork; Hoare concurred with Stukeley that sites like Stonehenge and Avebury were likely "Celtic" but did not endorse the idea that they were built by druids, believing that such information was unknowable. By the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the tide had turned against Stukeley's ideas in British archaeological circles. In 1889,
Augustus Pitt Rivers Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (14 April 18274 May 1900) was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display o ...
noted, in his presidential address to the
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society was founded in 1853, and is one of the largest county-based archaeological societies in the United Kingdom. It runs the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, Wiltshire which has the best Bronze Age ...
, that Stukeley's name "has been handed down to us chiefly as an example of what to avoid in archaeology". According to his biographer,
Stuart Piggott Stuart Ernest Piggott, (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex. Early life Piggott was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, the son of G. H. O. Piggott, and was educated t ...
, Stukeley was the "central figure of early eighteenth-century archaeology". The historian
Ronald Hutton Ronald Edmund Hutton (born 19 December 1953) is an English historian who specialises in Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a professor at the University of Bristol, has written 14 bo ...
called him "perhaps the most important forefather of the discipline of archaeology", while the archaeologist
Paul Ashbee Paul Ashbee (23 June 1918 – 19 August 2009) was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs (with Rupert Bruce-Mitford) from 1964 to 1972. He was also ...
referred to Stukeley as "a pioneer unmatched in the history of archaeology". The first edition of Piggott's biography of Stukeley was published in 1950, with a revised edition released in 1985. Piggott thought him "one of the most curious and complex of the English eccentrics, pathetic, charming, admirable, and laughable by turns." Piggott believed that Stukeley's folios of Avebury and Stonehenge were his "most important contributions to archaeology". He noted that the antiquarian's plan of Avebury, "though failing by modern standards of accuracy, was nevertheless a very much better achievement than anything that had been produced before". Piggott's ultimate assessment was that Stukeley "was not a good scholar: he was uncritical of his literary sources and his reading was discursive rather than profound. His value to archaeology in his own day and now lies in his capacity to observe and record facts in the open air." He situated Stukeley's intellectual failings within the wider context of British intellectual decline in the years following 1730. Piggott referred to the "varying quality" of Stukeley's work, believing there to have been a "lamentable decline in his later life". He believed that Stukeley had moved from a "neutral empiricism to an often wildly speculative religious interpretation" of prehistoric archaeology. In 2005, Hutton noted that there had been "a considerable change of attitude" to Stukeley among scholars over the previous few years, as they had rejected the division into two halves of his life which Piggott had constructed. Stukeley was the first person to identify the
Stonehenge Avenue Stonehenge Avenue is an ancient avenue on Salisbury plain, Wiltshire, England. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. Discovered in the 18th century, it measures nearly 3 kilometers, connecting Ston ...
and Stonehenge Cursus, giving these features the names by which they are now known. Piggott noted that Stukeley's speculations on druids, "which seem to us so childishly fantastic", shaped the literary mood of the romantic revival. Haycock noted that, along with Macpherson and
Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classics, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his ''Elegy Written in a Country ...
, Stukeley "helped create the principal historical and literary foundations for the 'Druidical revival' that flourished in the last decades of the eighteenth century".


Bibliography

A bibliography of Stukeley's published work was published in the 2002 biography by Haycock:


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

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Sources

* * Attribution: *


Further reading

* * – for details of Stukeley and Isaac Newton * * * *


External links

* * *
Text and engravings of Stukeley's Avebury survey onlineBronze Medal of William Stukeley at the British MuseumThe text of William Stukeley's Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life (1752) at the Newton Project, University of Sussex, UK.The manuscript of William Stukeley's Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life (1752) at the Royal SocietyAccount given to the royal society of the Plesiosaur discovery (1719).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stukeley, William 1687 births 1765 deaths 18th-century antiquarians Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge English Anglicans Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England English antiquarians English archaeologists Lincolnshire Antiquary Fellows of the Royal Society People from Holbeach People from Stamford, Lincolnshire Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Pseudohistorians People associated with Stonehenge Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London 17th-century Anglican theologians 18th-century Anglican theologians