Edward King
An English antiquary whose 1796 pamphlet was the first book in Britain to take reports of stones from the sky seriously.
Key facts
- Born
- c. 1735
- Died
- 1807
- Nationality
- British
- Field
- Antiquary and writer
Edward King was a lawyer by training and a scholar of the past by choice. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and for a short time President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and he wrote on ancient castles, monuments and history.
In June 1794 news reached England that a shower of stones had fallen near Siena in Italy, witnessed by many people, including English travellers. Then, in December 1795, a large stone landed beside Wold Cottage in Yorkshire. King gathered the accounts and in 1796 published a pamphlet with the long title Remarks concerning Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds, both in these Days, and in Antient Times.
King collected eyewitness statements, compared them with falls described by ancient writers, and argued that the events were real. Where he went wrong was the cause. He suggested the stones might form high in the air from clouds of dust and ash, perhaps from the eruption of Vesuvius that had happened just before the Siena fall, hardening as they fell. The idea that they came from far beyond the Earth still seemed too extraordinary.
Even so, his willingness to believe ordinary witnesses was unusual for a learned man of the time. His pamphlet helped prepare British readers for the chemical work of Edward Howard a few years later, which showed these stones were unlike any rock on Earth.