William Stukeley: Difference between revisions

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In 1726, Stukeley relocated to [[Grantham]], Lincolnshire, where he married. In 1729 he was ordained as a cleric in the [[Church of England]] and appointed vicar of [[All Saints' Church, Stamford|All Saints' Church]] in [[Stamford, Lincolnshire|Stamford]], Lincolnshire. He was a friend of the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] [[William Wake]], who encouraged him to use his antiquarian studies to combat the growth of [[deism]] and [[freethought]] in Britain. To this end, Stukeley developed the belief that Britain's ancient [[druid]]s had followed a [[monotheism|monotheistic]] religion inherited from the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|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]].

 

 

===Childhood and university: 1687–1708===

Stukeley was born on 7 November 1669 at the family home in [[Holbeach]], [[Lincolnshire]],{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=27|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2pp=1, 30}} the eldest child in a family of four boys and one girl;{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=27}} it is possible that he was named after [[William III of England|William of Orange]], who soon after became [[King of England]].{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=31}}

He began studying at [[Cambridge University]] in November 1703 as a [[Commoner (academia)|pensioner]] at [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|Benet College]] (now [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge|Corpus Christi College]]).{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=29|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=33}} Among the classes that he took during his studies were Classics, Ethics, Logic, Metaphysics, Divinity, Mathematics and Philosophy.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=29}} 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.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|pp=39, 43}}

 

 

===Medical career: 1709–1716===

[[File:Rollright Stones (part), Oxfordshire - geograph.org.uk - 605684.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Rollright Stones]] in [[Oxfordshire]], which Stukeley visited, describing it as "the greatest Antiquity we have yet seen... a very noble, rustic, sight" which could "strike an odd terror upon the spectators".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=38}}]]

 

 

His brother, Adlard, moved in with him, and, in Boston, was [[Apprenticeships in the United Kingdom|apprenticed]] to a local apothecary. Stukeley also formed a local botanic society that went on weekly plant-collecting trips in the local area.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=45}} In 1715, he produced a print of [[St Botolph's Church, Boston]], which he dedicated to the Marquis of Lindsey.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=34}} 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.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=39}}

Stukeley's later biographer [[Stuart Piggott]] 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".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=39}}

 

 

 

[[Image:Stonehenge Stukeley.jpg|right|thumb|300px|An inward view of [[Stonehenge]] from August 1722<ref>{{cite book | last= Stukeley|first= William | title = Stonehenge, A Temple Restor'd to the British Druids | year = 1740 | publisher = W. Innys and R. Manby| location = London | url = https://archive.org/details/b30448554 |isbn= 9781605064277 }}</ref>]]

 

 

 

 

 

Stukeley devoted much attention to Avebury during the 1720s.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=49}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=49|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=250}} 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.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=50}}

 

In January 1721, Stukeley was initiated as a [[Freemasonry|Freemason]].{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=70|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=175}} He suspected that Freemasonry was the "remains of the mysterys of the antients [sic]".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=71}} By 1723 he was the Master of the Masonic Lodge meeting at Fountain Tavern on London's [[Strand, London|Strand]].{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=70|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=175}} In July 1722, he and several friends formed the Society of Roman Knights, an organisation devoted to the study of [[Roman Britain]].{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=53|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=117|3a1=Hutton|3y=2005|3p=385}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1pp=53, 55|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=117}} Members of the Roman Knights each took a name from the Romano-British period;{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=53|2a1=Hutton|2y=2005|2p=385}} Stukeley's was "Chyndonax", the name of a priest listed in a Greek inscription reputedly found in a glass cinerary urn in 1598.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=53|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=117|3a1=Hutton|3y=2005|3p=385}} Through the society he also became close friends with [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford]] and [[Heneage Finch, 5th Earl of Winchilsea]]; he encouraged the latter to carry out archaeological fieldwork, as at [[Julliberrie's Grave]] in Kent.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|pp=56–57}}

 

 

[[Image:Stukelykitscoty.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Stukeley's drawings such as this 1722 prospect of [[Kit's Coty House]] in Kent have provided valuable information on monuments since damaged]]

 

 

 

===Marriage and the clergy: 1726–46===

In 1726, Stukeley left London and relocated to Grantham in Lincolnshire.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=75|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=189}} The reasons for his decision to do so are obscure.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=75}} It may be that he left the city due to frustration that his antiquarian research was not being financially supported by wealthier benefactors.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1pp=107–108|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=190}} On his move to Grantham, Stukeley resigned as secretary of the Society of Antiquaries.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=44}} Stukeley struggled to earn a living as a physician in Grantham;{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=191}} he also established a Freemasonic lodge in the town, although it never appeared on the roll of the [[United Grand Lodge of England|Grand Lodge of England]].{{sfn|Haycock|2002|pp=175–176}} In December 1727 he married Frances Williamson, daughter of a gentleman from [[Allington, Lincolnshire|Allington]].{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=76|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=191}} The couple's attempts to conceive children met with failure, and Williamson suffered two miscarriages.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=76}} 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.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=77}} Frances subsequently bore Stukeley three further daughters.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=191}}

[[File:Stukeley William.jpg|thumb|left|Illustration of Stukeley]]

 

 

According to Piggott, Stukeley's ordination was "the essential turning-point in his whole life".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=77}} His reasons for joining the clergy are not known for certain. One possibility is that he sought the steady income supplied by a Church of England [[Benefice|living]], 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=77|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=191}} His decision to join the clergy concerned friends like Robert Gale.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=98|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2pp=191–192}} To Piggott, Stukeley sought to use his fieldwork "as ammunition in a holy war against the Deists".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=104}} 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".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=98}}

In 1740, he published ''Stonehenge'', a book that he described as being devoted to the subject of "Patriarchal Christianity".{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=105}} 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.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=106}}

 

 

 

In 1746, Stukeley drew up a very careful account of [[Charles I's journey from Oxford to the Scottish army camp near Newark]] in 1646.{{sfn|Brown|1904|p=110}}

 

===Final years: 1747–1765===

In late 1747, Stukeley became the rector for [[St George the Martyr, Holborn|St George the Martyr]], [[Queen Square, London|Queen Square]], a parish in [[Bloomsbury]], London.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1pp=124–125|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=224}}<ref name=ODNB>{{harvnb|Haycock|2004}}.</ref> He moved permanently to the city in February 1748.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=129}} Stukeley was a friend of [[Isaac Newton]] and wrote a memoir of his life in 1752. This is one of the earliest sources for the [[Isaac Newton#Apple incident|story of the falling apple]] that inspired Newton's formulation of the theory of gravitation.<ref>{{cite magazine | magazine=New Scientist | url=https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.php | archive-url=https://archive.today/20100121073908/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/01/newtons-apple-the-real-story.php | url-status=dead | archive-date=21 January 2010 | title=Newton's apple: The real story | date=18 January 2010 | access-date=30 November 2012 }}</ref> In the 1750s, he became a regular attendee at Royal Society events.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=224}} However, within the group he found himself increasingly side-lined under the presidency of [[Martin 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.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|pp=226–227}}

 

 

In June 1747, Stukeley had received a letter from [[Charles Bertram]], an Englishman living in Denmark. In their ensuing correspondence, Bertram claimed to possess a copy of a [[The Description of Britain|manuscript allegedly produced by a 14th-century monk]] from [[Winchester]] known as [[Richard of Cirencester]], which in turn contained an account and map of Roman Britain.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1pp=126–127|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=231}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1pp=129–130|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=232}} Stukeley unsuccessfully attempted to buy the manuscript from Bertram, stating that he would deposit it in the library of the [[British Museum]].{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=130|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=232}} In March and again in April 1756, Stukeley read papers on Bertram's manuscript to the Society of Antiquaries of London.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|pp=126, 133}} 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.{{sfnm|1a1=Piggott|1y=1985|1p=133|2a1=Haycock|2y=2002|2p=232}} At the time, many antiquarians regarded it as a genuine text, although a few had suspicions;{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=233}} in 1795, [[Thomas Reynolds (minister)|Thomas Reynolds]] declared that Bertram's document was a forgery, although this would only be widely recognised in the 19th century.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=135}} This discovery damaged Stukeley's reputation among later scholars, bolstering his reputation for credulity.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=233}} Stukeley had similarly been taken in by another forgery, [[James Macpherson]]'s ''[[Ossian]]'' poems, writing to Macpherson in praise of his alleged discovery.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=234}}

 

[[File:Blackfriars Gloucester by Stukeley 1721.JPG|right|thumb|300px|A 1721 view of [[Gloucester Blackfriars]] by Stukeley]]

 

 

 

==Ideas==

His idea that the druids once formed a monotheistic priesthood akin to those of modern Christians also owed an influence from older sources.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=103}} [[Michael Drayton]]'s 1612 poem ''[[Poly-Olbion]]'' had for instance portrayed them as wise, monotheistic sages and philosophers.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=103}}

 

 

The idea that Britain was God's chosen nation was a recurrent idea in Stukeley's thought.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|pp=120–121}} He thought that Britons should emulate the ancient Romans.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=120}} 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.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=119}} In this, he believed that the ancient Romans had replaced the Jews as God's [[chosen people]].{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=120}} 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]].{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=120}} Like many English people of his time, he believed that the [[Church of England]], which had split from the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th-century [[English Reformation]], had gained special favour from God; in Stukeley's words, it represented "the main support of religion now upon the face of the earth".{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=115}} 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".{{sfn|Haycock|2002|pp=112–113}} 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.{{sfn|Haycock|2002|p=111}}

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.{{sfn|Hutton|2005|pp=381–382}}

 

 

Piggott noted that Stukeley's speculations on druids, "which seem to us so childishly fantastic", shaped the literary mood of the romantic revival.{{sfn|Piggott|1985|p=12}} Haycock noted that, along with Macpherson and [[Thomas Gray]], Stukeley "helped create the principal historical and literary foundations for the 'Druidical revival' that flourished in the last decades of the eighteenth century".{{sfn|Haycock|2002|pp=234–235}}

* {{cite journal |last=Piggott |first=Stuart |title=William Stukeley: New Facts and an Old Forgery |journal=Antiquity |volume=60 |number=229 |year=1986 |pages=115–122 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00058518 |s2cid=163963818 }}

* {{cite journal |last=Reeve |first=Matthew M. |title=Of Druids, the Gothic, and the Origins of Architecture: The Garden Designs of William Stukeley (1687-1765) |journal=The British Art Journal |volume=13 |number=3 |year=2012 |pages=9–18 }}

* {{cite journal |last1=Rousseau |first1=G. S. |last2=Haycock |first2=David |title=Voices Calling for Reform: The Royal Society in the Mid-Eighteenth Century — Martin Folkes, John Hill, and William Stukeley |journal=History of Science |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=377–406 |year=1999 |doi=10.1177/007327539903700401 |bibcode=1999HisSc..37..377R |s2cid=153943908 }}

* {{cite journal |last=Scoones |first=F |year=1999 |title=Dr. William Stukeley's House at Grantham |journal=Georgian GRP Journal |volume=9 |pages=158–165 }}