Stukeley, William

antiquary, born at Holbeach, Lincoln shire; graduated in medicine at Cambridge, and practised in London and elsewhere till 1729, when he took holy orders, and, after holding livings at Stamford and Somerby, was presented in 1747 to the rectory of St George the Martyr in London; maintained a lifelong interest in antiquarian research, and published many volumes on British and Roman antiquities, in which he displays unflagging industry and an exuberant fancifulne ; "I have used his materials," says Gibbon, "and rejected most of his fanciful conjectures"; his credulous works on the supposed Druidical remains at Stone henge and elsewhere gained him the title of the "Arch-Druid" (1687-1765).