#52 Ancestors 2020 Week 38 On the Map: Great Uncle Arthur and Halley's (AKA Storer's) Comet

If you know anything at all about astronomy, you've probably heard of Halley's Comet, that great fireball which periodically soars across our skies.  I bet you didn't know that before it was called Halley's Comet, it was called Storer's Comet, in honor of my great-uncle (10X) Arthur Storer, America's first astronomer, or at least the first named astronomer.  

Arthur was born in Leicestershire, England, about 1645, the youngest child of Edward Storer and Katherine Babbington. Arthur's father died in 1644, shortly before Arthur's birth, and his mother, with four young children, married again to William Clarke, an apothecary in Grantham, Lincolnshire. 

Isaac Newton

Growing up in Lincolnshire, Arthur became friends with Isaac Newton, a few years his senior, who boarded with the Clarkes while both he and Arthur  attended the King's School in Grantham. (Newton reportedly developed a crush on Arthur's sister Katherine, although they did not marry.)  It was during this time that Newton developed his interest in science and began his experimentations.  It is alleged that Arthur had a role in spurring Newton to excel.  Apparently the two boys got into a fight over their respective academic talents and Arthur bested Newton, thus inspiring him to work harder to beat out his rival. Newton became the top-ranked student at the school, but remained lifelong friends with Arthur, mentioning him several times in his journals. 

While Newton went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, there is no evidence that Arthur attended Cambridge, but he certainly kept up his interest in science.

In 1672, Arthur's step-sister Anne (my 9X-great grandmother) emigrated to Calvert County Maryland with her husband James Truman and three daughters: Martha, Anne, and Mary.  Arthur went to Maryland with the Truman's and was a witness to James Truman's will in July of 1672.  Truman died shortly thereafter, and Anne married for the second time to Robert Skinner.  

Arthur kept detailed notes of his scientific observations, and often wrote to his friend Isaac Newton back in England to share his work.  In 1680 and again on August 14, 1682, he described the appearance of comets in the sky over the Patuxent River, the later comet being what is now called Halley's Comet.  His notes say that the comet stayed visible until September 18, 1682.  His notes include this poetic description:  “It was a very great amazement …to see a long bright stream in form like a sword streaming from the horizon about 30 degrees in altitude…so nearly after sunset.” Storer's observations were considered to be the most accurate of his contemporaries, with the exception of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and the comet was thereafter referred to as Storer's Comet.

So, how did it become Halley's Comet?

At the time of Storer's observations, comets were considered singular phenomena, that is, they appeared once and then vanished off into the ether. The appearance of a comet was often regarded as an omen linked to everything from the death of kings to natural disasters. But it was regarded as a temporary phenomenon, flashing through space and then disappearing. Now, however, scientists believe that this particular comet has been around for thousands of years and is probably the comet referenced by Greek astronomers in 466 BC and by Chinese, Babylonian and Roman astronomers in later centuries. [See History.com for more examples.] 

It was Edmond Halley who postulated (using Newton's gravitational theory) that this was actually the

Edmond Halley

same comet periodically revisiting Earth's atmosphere.  In 1705, Halley predicted that the comet observed by Storer in 1682 and by others earlier would reappear in 1758 and approximately every 76 years after that. 

Halley was eventually proved correct, although he did not live to see the proof.  He died in 1742, but the comet appeared in the sky on Christmas night 1758, right on schedule.  Its appearance was hailed as a triumph of scientific reasoning and Newtonian physics:

“By its appearance at this time, the truth of the Newtonian Theory of the Solar System is demonstrated to the conviction of the whole world, and the credit of the astronomers is fully established and raised far above all the wit and sneers of ignorant men,” the British publication the Gentleman’s Magazine wrote. [History.com ]

Shortly thereafter, the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis Lacaille named the comet in Halley's honor. 

OK.  Halley probably deserves the honor, but really, if Arthur hadn't beat up Isaac Newton back in Grantham,  Newton might never have been motivated to excel, and might never have developed his gravitational theory, and Halley might not have been able to theorize a recurring comet.  So I still think Uncle Arthur deserves some credit.

Arthur Storer died in Calvert County MD late in 1686 leaving a will with bequests to his mother, his sisters Katherine and Anne and brother Edward.  

Arthur is memorialized in Calvert County with the Storer Planetarium at Calvert High School, located on the property where Storer's sister Ann Truman Skinner lived and where he is probably buried.