Priestley was born in Birstal Fieldhead near Leeds in 13th March 1733, the eldest son of a cloth-dresser. His mother died when he was seven years old and his aunt mainly brought him up. He was educated for the dissenting ministry and spent much of his life both as a teacher and a preacher. Priestley was a true polymath, writing books and articles on theology, history, education, aesthetics and politics as well as science. During his lifetime he was as well known for his views on theology and politics as for his work in science.
Priestley married Mary Wilkinson in 1762. She was the daughter of Isaac and sister to John and William Wilkinson. All three men were prominent iron masters in the eighteenth century.
His scientific interests began around the middle of the 1760s. It was during this time that he began to write his book History and Present State of Electricity. For this work he received the help from several people. These included Benjamin Franklin (The American academic, politician and scientist who was present at the signing of the American Declaration of Independence), William Watson (An apothecary who lived in Bath and was also a member of the Bath Philosophical Society; he was also a friend of William Herschel) and John Canton (Another scientist born in the West country at Stroud in Gloucester in whose honour the Institute of Physics recently erected a blue plaque on his schoolhouse in Stroud).
While writing the book he carried out several experiments. Among them was an ingenious demonstration of the inverse square law of electrostatics. This is generally known as Coulomb's law but the work of Priestley in fact predates that of Coulomb by nearly twenty years. Mainly as a result of his work on electricity, he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1766.
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