William Gilberd

William Gilberd William Gilberd was the pioneer of the study of magnetism in England and he lived in Trinity Street, Colchester. It is a common misconception that William Gilberd, used a 't' at the end of his name. In the few remaining signatures, we can plainly see that he was William Gilberd. For this reason he is always refered to as Gilberd in Colchester, and not the commonly held belief, Gilbert - Information helpfully supplied by Kirsty at Colchester Castle Museum Part of his house, pictured right, survives as Tymperleys, the town's clock museum, and the Gilberd School in High Woods, Colchester, is named after him.

William Gilberd (or Gilbert) was the pioneer of the study of magnetism in England and he lived in Trinity Street, Colchester.
Part of his house, pictured left, survives as Tymperleys, the town's clock museum, and the Gilberd School in High Woods, Colchester, is named after him.
Gilberd is buried at Holy Trinity Church, Colchester, and his statue looks over High Street from the Victorian town hall.
Gilberd was born as the scientific renaissance, led by Copernicus and Vesalius, began in Europe.
His work on electro-magnetism was a landmark in the science and he was also court physician to Elizabeth I and James I and president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Gilberd is credited, with William Harvey, as playing a major role in the reintroduction of the experimental method into science.
His De magnete, magneticisque corporibus is generally regarded as the first great scientific book by an Englishman and came as other great men of the Tudor period, like Francis Bacon, Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh pushed forward the frontiers of the known world.
Gilberd's theory was that the earth was a lodestone with north and south magnetic poles, influencing the solar system. His work helped to lead to the concept of gravity as an attracting force between masses. He was also among the first to distinguish magnetism from static electricity.

1. Dates Born: Colchester, 1544 Until this century, Gilberd's birth was universally placed in 1540. 1544 has now been established on good evidence

Died: probably London, 30 Nov. 1603 Dateinfo: Dates Certain Lifespan: 59

2. Father Occupation: Magistrate

Jerome Gilberd was the recorder of Colchester. One source listed him as a merchant. Clearly his own forebears were merchants and made a fortune at it. None of the good sources says a word about Jerome Gilberd being a merchant.

Evidently prosperous.

3. Nationality Birth: English Career: English Death: English

4. Education Schooling: Cambridge, M.A., M.D.

St. John College, Cambridge, 1558-69 or 70; B.A., 1561; M.A., 1564; M.D., 1569.

He was also educated at the Royal Grammer School, shortly before it moved locations. With thanks to Kirsty at Colchester Castle Museum.

5. Religion Affiliation: Anglican

By assumption. He was buried in an Anglican church in Colchester.

6. Scientific Disciplines Primary: Magnetism Subordinate: Electricity, Natural Philosophy

De Magnete, 1600, is the enduring basis of Gilberd's fame.

Posthumously, De mundo nostro sublunari philosophia nova was published in 1651. This is really two works put together as one from Gilberd's manuscripts by Gilberd's half brother; he himself never intended them as parts of one book. More than De Magnete, the two treatises that make up De mundo strove toward a general natural philosophy.

7. Means of Support Primary: Medicine Secondary: Academia, Personal Means, Patronage

At Cambridge he became a Junior Fellow of St. Johns in 1561. He was the mathematics examiner in the college, 1565-6 and bursar, 1569-70. He became a Senior Fellow in 1569.

Nothing is known about his activities from 1569 (or 70) until the mid or late 70s. There is good evidence that De Magnete was completed quite a few years before it was published, and possibly Gilberd devoted these unknown years to his magnetical research. Something would have had to support him. He is known to have inherited property from his father, and it is possible that he inherited Wingfield House, his residence in London, from his step-mother (a Wingfield), sometime before 1583.

Medical practice, from perhaps 1577 to 1603. He was one of the prominent physicians in London, consulted among others by the aristocracy.

One of the personal physicians to Elizabeth I, 1600-03. He received a persion of L100 (which is hard to distinguish from a salary) from the Queen. Note that this relation to the court came only near the end of Gilberd's life.

Physician to James I, 1603.

8. Patronage Type: Court Official

He obtained his grant of arms from Elizabeth in 1577.

He was appointed physician to Elizabeth in 1600 and kept the position until Elizabeth died.

After the death of Elizabeth he became James I's physician and held the position until his own death.

Note that Gilberd, a promient and probably wealthy physician, did not dedicate De Magnete to anyone. On the contrary, it is dedicated to Gilberd by Edward Wright, who wrote the dedicatory epistle.

9. Technological Involvement Types: Medical Practice, Pharmacology, Navigation, Instruments

He participated in the compilation of the College of Physicians' Pharmacopoeia.

He specifically proposed the use of magnetic declination and dip to determine longitude and latitude. Thomas Blundevelle describes the two instruments of Gilberd's invention intended for these purposes.

The Versorium for magnetic investigations, and a similar device for electrical.

I considered briefly adding Cartography to this list because Gilberd did prepare a map of the moon (in De mundo). However, recall that this was before the telescope. I have seen the map. It is more a sketch than a map, and does not involve any of the skills of cartography.

10. Scientific Societies Membership: Medical College

Informal Connections: He knew Thomas Wright and William Barlowe. The older literature on Gilberd abounds in stories of a proto-society that met in his home, Wingfield House. This has been shown to rest on no solid evidence whatever. The older literature also credits him with correspondence with Giovanfrancesco Sagredo (Galileo's friend and patron) and Paolo Sarpi. These correspondences are likewise figments of the imagination.

Royal College of Physicians, before 1581; Censor, 1581, 1582, 1584-87, 1589-90; Treasurer, 1587-94, 1597-99; Elector, 1596-97; Consilarius, 1597-9; President, 1600.

Sources

1. Duane H.D. Roller, The DE MAGNETE of William Gilberd, (Amsterdam, 1959), pp. 50-91. QC751.G47R7. This is far and away the best source on Gilbert that I have found.
2. Dictionary of National Biography (repr., London: Oxford University Press, 1949-50), 7, 1217. Biographia Britannica, 1st ed. (London, 1747-66), 4, 2202-3.
3. William Munk, The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 2nd ed., 3 vols. (London, 1878), 1, 77-80.
4. Suzanne Kelly, The De mundo of William Gilbert, (Amsterdam, 1965).
5. Silvanus P. Thompson, Gilbert of Colchester; an Elizabethan Magnetizer, (London, 1891).
6. Bern Dibner, Doctor William Gilbert, (New York, 1947).
7. Rufus Suter, "A Biographical Sketch of Dr. William Gilbert of Colchester," Osiris, 10 (1952), 368-84.
8. John Aikin, Biographical Memoirs of Medicine in Great Britain from the Revival of Literature to the Time of Harvey, (London, 1780), pp. 175-81.

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. Charles Singer, "Dr. William Gilbert," Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service, Oct. 1916.
2. Richard H. Jarrell, "The Latest Date of Composition of Gilbert's De mundo," Isis, 63 (1972), 94-5.
3. There is a surprising dearth of information about this prominent scientist.

Compiled by: Richard S. Westfall Department of History and Philosophy of Science Indiana University Reproduced with thanks from Albert Van Helden, Copyright © 1995