William Gilbert 1540-1603 English Scientist

Gilbert is most famous for his early studies of lodestones and of magnetic fields. He recognized that the earth itself is a very large magnet. His book on magnetism was the first important work on physical science to be published in England.

Gilbert's background and training were primarily English. He was born in Colchester into an ancient Sussex family. He received his early education in the town school and went on to study for 11 years at St. John's College in Cambridge. There, he received a bachelor's and a master's degree and finally a degree in medicine. Then, like many young English scholars, he traveled extensively in Europe and especially in Italy. On his travels, he met many of the famous scholars with whom he would later correspond.

Returning to England in 1573, he settled in London where he practiced as a physician with great success. While he was making a reputation as a physician, he was also becoming well known in the fields of chemistry, physics, and cosmology. He was the first scientist to advocate Copernican views in England and he believed that the fixed stars were not all at the same distance from the earth. He gathered around him a group of scholars who met each month to discuss scientific problems. This group was the precursor of the Royal Society.

Gilbert was famous throughout Europe. His work was admired by and influenced Kepler and Galileo. Bacon admired Gilbert so much that he borrowed whole paragraphs of Gilbert's work and treated them as his own. Late in life (1601) Gilbert was appointed physician to Queen Elizabeth. Immediately after the Queen's death, he was reappointed royal physician by James I but died soon after, probably of the plague. He left his library and scientific instruments to the College of Physicians but they were destroyed in the great fire of London.