Arthur Storer

Who is this?

Arthur Storer (1645–1687) was a pioneering astronomer in colonial British America, remembered today chiefly for his association and correspondence with Isaac Newton. Storer was born in Buckminster, Leicestershire, England, but moved to Grantham, Lincolnshire shortly after, due to his widowed mother remarrying apothecary William Clarke who worked across the border. He eventually emigrated as an adult to Calvert County, in the Province of Maryland. He carried out careful astronomical observations using self-made instruments, and has been described as "the first astronomer in the American colonies" and as "Maryland's first scientist". His most notable observations were those of the Great Comet of 1680 and of the Comet of 1682 (later known as Halley's Comet). Storer shared his observations with Newton, who used them in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica of 1687. Storer's maternal uncle was the Rev. Humphrey Babington, who was the Anglican rector of Boothby Pagnell in Lincolnshire and a senior fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Storer's stepfather was William Clarke, who was the apothecary of Grantham and who provided lodgings to the adolescent Isaac Newton during his time as a student at The King's School, Grantham. Some sources indicate that Arthur Storer was also an apothecary, but no direct evidence of this has survived. The planetarium of Calvert High School, in Prince Frederick, Maryland, is named after Arthur Storer.

Career

1. 1648
   Born
2. 1686
   Passed away

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Lincolnshire
• •Citizenship: United States
• •Known as: astronomer