William Stukeley

William Stukeley (November 7, 1687 - March 3, 1765), English antiquary, was born at Holbeach, Lincolnshire, the son of a lawyer.

After taking his M.B. degree at Cambridge, he went to London and studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital. In 1710 he started in practice in Lincolnshire, removing in 1717 to London. In the same year he became a fellow of the Royal Society, and, in 1718, joined in the establishment of the Society of Antiquaries, acting for nine years as its secretary. In 1719 he took his M.D. degree and in 1720 became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, publishing in the same year his first contribution to antiquarian literature.

His principal work, an elaborate account of Stonehenge, appeared in 1740, and he wrote copiously on other supposed Druid remains, becoming familiarly known as the "Arch-Druid." In 1729 he took holy orders, and, after holding two livings in Lincolnshire, was appointed rector of a parish in Bloomsbury, London. He died in London on the 3rd of March 1765.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.