NAME Sir William Herschel (1738–1822), born Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel.
WHAT FAMOUS FOR Discovering the planet Uranus in 1781, the first planet found by telescope and the first new planet identified since antiquity. He is also known for building some of the largest and most advanced telescopes of the 18th century and for discovering moons of Saturn and Uranus.
BIRTH William Herschel was born on November 15, 1738 in the Electorate of Hanover, Germany, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was born into a family of German Lutheran ancestry.
FAMILY BACKGROUND Herschel was the fourth of ten children born to Isaac Herschel (1707-1767) and his wife Anna Ilse Moritzen. His father Isaac was an oboist in the Hanover Military Band.
The family was poor but Isaac believed strongly in education. Isaac's own father, Abraham Herschel, had been a gardener, but Isaac used education—learning music—to raise his status and change his opportunities. The family moved house frequently for financial reasons, often sharing accommodation with other families.
CHILDHOOD William grew up in Hanover in modest circumstances. His mother Anna and sister Caroline made the family's clothes, bed linen, and meals, and took in sewing to supplement the family income.
Despite their poverty, Isaac Herschel enthused his children by showing them the wonders of the night sky and loved to discuss philosophical and mathematical subjects with them. Names like Leibnitz, Newton and Euler were often quoted in family discussions.
William's father taught music to his sons and when Isaac was away, their mother Anna ensured they practised. William was taught to play the violin "as soon as I was able to hold a small one made on purpose for me". All the children except the eldest Sophia Elizabeth showed marked musical talents, though Anna remained illiterate all her life. (1)
William’s sister, Caroline Herschel, became a celebrated astronomer in her own right and was his indispensable collaborator.
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| William and Caroline Herschel polishing a telescope lens By https://wellcomeimages.org/ |
EDUCATION William attended the local garrison school run by the Hanoverian Guards, where he studied basic literacy, arithmetic and religion. He proved a talented pupil and by the age of fifteen had learnt all that the master could teach him.
Aged 14, after an audition, he became a musician in the Hanoverian Guards. Towards the end of his schooling, he took additional private lessons in French to improve his prospects as a musician—lessons that would be essential for an aspiring musician at Court, where French opera was popular. His French teacher encouraged "the taste he found in his pupil for the study of philosophy, especially logic, ethics and metaphysics". (1)
William also learned instrument making, possibly from repairing their own musical instruments. The family valued education primarily as a means of social mobility.
After moving to England, he was largely self-taught in higher mathematics, optics, and astronomy, often by reading and translating technical treatises in Latin and French
CAREER RECORD 1757 Herschel began as an organist, composer, conductor, and music teacher, scratching together a living in London by copying music after arriving as a refugee in 1757, following the French victory in the Seven Years’ War.
1766 His fortunes changed when he became organist of the Octagon Chapel in Bath in 1766, freeing time to pursue astronomy.
1781 He discovered Uranus and gained fame across Europe.
1782 King George III appointed him "The King's Astronomer" and granted him a life pension of £200, allowing him to leave music and devote himself entirely to science.
APPEARANCE Portraits suggest a lean, serious-looking man with a rather gaunt, expressive face and an absorbed, intense manner.
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| Portrait by Lemuel Francis Abbott, 1785 |
FASHION As a respected figure, first in the Bath music scene and later at court, Herschel generally dressed in the formal, upper-middle-class fashion of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which included coats, waistcoats, and breeches. During his long nights of observing, he would wear more practical, warmer clothing.
CHARACTER Driven, obsessive, industrious, and curious, Herschel had the air of a man convinced the universe could be decoded with enough elbow grease and a sufficiently large telescope. Biographers describe him as “warm-hearted and affectionate,” which in Herschel’s case meant a rather touching willingness to pause his cosmic ambitions and deal with everyday earthly matters: he crossed back to the Continent to look for a missing younger brother, and quietly supported his father and siblings when money ran short. Dr. Burney and his daughter Mme. d’Arblay thought him a person of “singular charm,” a compliment not often given to someone who spent sixteen hours a day polishing metal discs in a shed.
His patience bordered on mythic—no one grinds mirrors for sixteen hours at a stretch unless they either possess supernatural calm or have completely misunderstood the idea of a hobby. He was also, by all accounts, profoundly unshowy. Herschel disliked controversy, was described as “ever diplomatic,” and generally preferred star catalogues to arguments. He was devout, prayerful, humble, gracious, kind, and moral, which made him almost anomalously pleasant by the standards of 18th-century scientific rivalries. Even as a young man he displayed, according to one contemporary, “an uncommon precipitancy in doing what there is to be done.” His work ethic was legendary: he slept only when clouds interfered with the heavens, as if nature itself had to physically push him indoors to bed. (2)
SPEAKING VOICE Herschel was multilingual, having learned German (his native language), French, Latin, and English. He quickly mastered the English language in his late teens.
His speech would have carried a German accent throughout his life, though Herschel would have become moderated by his long residence in England. He was noted for his clear and precise manner of communicating his scientific discoveries.
SENSE OF HUMOUR He possessed a mild, agreeable sense of humour and was known to be a pleasant conversationalist. Rarely frivolous — telescopes, not jokes, kept him up late at night.
His sister Caroline's memoir mentions that when she was in her late eighties, she was "able to put her foot behind her back and scratch her ear with it, in imitation of a dog, when she was in one of her merry moods," suggesting the Herschel family had moments of levity.
RELATIONSHIPS William maintained close relationships with his siblings throughout his life. He brought his sister Caroline to Bath in 1772, paying his mother enough to employ a servant before she would allow Caroline to leave. Caroline became his housekeeper, assistant, and collaborator in astronomy. When his older brother Jakob returned to Hanover after two years in England, they kept in constant contact by letter, with much of William's letters consisting of theological discussions. He invited his brother Alexander to join him in Bath, and Alexander became a skilled mechanical craftsperson who assisted with telescope construction.
At age 50, his financial worries ended when he married Mary Pitt, the rich widow of his friend John Pitt. Their wedding took place at St Laurence’s Church, Upton‑cum‑Chalvey, near Slough, in Buckinghamshire (now Berkshire), England on May 8, 1788. Mary was the daughter of wealthy merchant John Baldwin and was 38 years old at the time of marriage, her first husband and only child having both died. William and Mary's son, John Frederick William Herschel, was born in March 1792 when William was 55 and Mary was 42.
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| William and Mary Herschel Image by ChatGBT |
William's marriage may have caused considerable tension with Caroline, who worshipped her brother and possibly resented her sister-in-law invading her domestic life. Caroline destroyed her journals between 1788 to 1798, so her feelings during this period are not entirely known. However, in later life, Caroline and Lady Herschel exchanged affectionate letters.
His son John Herschel continued his legacy, naming many moons of Saturn and Uranus, pioneering photography, and inventing the actinometer for measuring solar heating power.
Herschel had friendships with leading scientists and intellectuals. He was a friend of Sir Joseph Banks. He dined with David Hume and Pierre-Simon Laplace. He had been elected to the American Philosophical Society on 18 February 1787 on the recommendation of Benjamin Franklin. He met Napoleon Bonaparte during his 1802 Paris visit.
MONEY AND FAME Herschel's financial situation changed dramatically during his lifetime. He began in poverty—his family was poor, and when he and his brother Jakob arrived in London in 1757, they had no money. As a musician in Bath, he was performing and "making a good deal of money," earning around £400 per year. However, when he accepted the King's offer of £200 a year as Royal Astronomer in 1782, he was earning around half of what he earned as a musician. He supplemented this income by making and selling telescopes, achieving an international reputation and profitably selling over 60 completed reflectors.
His marriage to the wealthy Mary Pitt in 1788 ended his financial worries. By 1785, King George III had given him a grant of £2,000 to build his 40-foot telescope.
Herschel became famous overnight after discovering Uranus in 1781. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, awarded the Copley Medal in 1781, and appointed Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1816. His fame reached international proportions, and he was universally known as "Sir William".
FOOD AND DRINK While assisting William with telescope construction and observations, Caroline would hand-feed him so he could keep polishing mirrors without interruption. This suggests periods of such intense work that normal meal times were disrupted.
MUSIC AND ARTS Music was Herschel's first profession and lifelong passion. He played the oboe, violin, organ, and harpsichord. Music paid his rent; astronomy made his name.
As a composer, his output included 24 symphonies (6 for large orchestra and 18 for small orchestra), 14 concertos (for violin, viola, and oboe), various chamber works including 6 Sonatas for the Harpsichord with Violin and Cello Obbligato, songs, psalm and anthem settings, and church music. His symphonies were composed in the late 1750s and early 1760s, with manuscripts providing details of place and date of composition in his own hand. For example, Symphony No. 12 is marked "Pontefract in Yorkshire Decemb. 1st 1761" and No. 14 "Leeds aprill the 14th 1762".
His music was thoroughly competent and well made, though not particularly individual; it has been compared to works by J.C. Bach (youngest son of J.S Bach), with some touches in slow movements reminiscent of C.P.E. Bach. His study of the mathematical basis of harmony led him into wider mathematics and eventually to astronomy. By the mid-1770s, astronomy had become his dominant concern. After he gave up composing, his astronomical work inspired new music—in 1788, Florentine composer Giuseppe Moneta composed the cantata L'Urano marking Herschel's discovery of Uranus.
LITERATURE Herschel was a reader of philosophical and scientific literature. When he first arrived in England at age 19, he brought back from his time with the Hanoverian Guards "only one memento of his stay—a copy of Locke On the Human Understanding". He "applied myself to learn the English language and soon was enabled to read Locke on Human Understanding". (2)
After meeting philosopher David Hume, he began to read other philosophical works. His reading included works by Robert Smith on optics for telescope construction. He also read and was influenced by Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which described the process of learning through practice and repetition—an idea that resonated with how he had learned music. His time in Bath made it easy to get new books and hear new things.
Herschel's own writing consists mostly of detailed and precise scientific papers presented to the Royal Society
NATURE His work was intimately connected with the nature of the cosmos. He was profoundly interested in the grand scale of the universe, the structure of the Milky Way, and the distribution of nebulae. He saw the study of the stars as a way to understand the vastness of creation.
Herschel conducted observations from the garden of his house at 7 New King Street in Bath. His later home, Observatory House in Slough, had grounds where his famous 40-foot telescope was erected. The site where Observatory House stood, though the building was demolished in 1963, later became part of Herschel Park.
PETS Caroline once noted mice as a nuisance around telescope barrels.
HOBBIES AND SPORTS His main hobby was arguably his telescope construction, which became the necessary precursor to his scientific work. The grinding and polishing of mirrors for his reflectors, including his largest 40-foot focal length telescope, was an intensive physical and technical undertaking that occupied him for years.
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| Herschel's mirror polisher By Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). |
Herschel was interested in philosophy, particularly "logic, ethics and metaphysics". During his membership in the Bath Philosophical Society, he read several papers on speculative topics including the fundamental nature of matter, the reality of space as an independent substance, and the problem of free will. (1)
SCIENCE AND MATHS Herschel's mathematical interests began with studying the mathematical basis of musical harmony, which led him into wider mathematics and eventually to astronomy.
He relied heavily on Mathematics for calculating orbits and positional astronomy, but his primary strength was in practical optics and observation.
ASTRONOMY Taking up astronomy in 1766, Herschel did what any reasonable person would do when suddenly obsessed with the stars: he began grinding metal in his house for sixteen hours a day. His first large telescope appeared in 1774, built after he sought lessons from a local mirror-maker in Bath. This gentleman was happy to sell tools but had about as much theoretical depth as a teaspoon. Herschel cheerfully raced past him in knowledge and then, with the earnestness of a man who finds both starlight and sandpaper irresistible, devoured Dr. Smith’s standard treatise on optics.
Soon the house became part workshop, part observatory, part family endurance test. His sister Caroline and brother Alexander, in a display of sibling loyalty that could only have been forged in a family band, assisted him in grinding and polishing speculum metal mirrors—imagine spending your evenings rubbing an alloy of copper and tin into cosmic perfection while your brother mutters about focal lengths. By October 1779 he had produced a highly respectable Newtonian reflector with a 6.2-inch aperture and seven-foot focal length, entirely home-built, and began a systematic survey of the heavens. Most people in Bath were content with spa water and a novel; Herschel was, by then, hunting galaxies before breakfast.
It all became gloriously official on March 13, 1781, when he discovered Uranus, and suddenly the world noticed this industrious German-born musician with metal filings in his hair.
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| Replica of the telescope used by Herschel to discover Uranus |
Within the year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded the Copley Medal, which was the scientific world’s way of saying, “Yes, that’ll do nicely.” In 1782, King George III appointed him “The King’s Astronomer”—a title that sounds grander than Astronomer Royal and is, confusingly, not the same thing at all. The king also offered a pension of £200 a year, which was roughly half what Herschel earned as a musician, but considerably more than he earned as a man staring into the void.
Herschel and Caroline moved through a series of respectable English locations—Datchet, Old Windsor, and finally Observatory House in Slough in April 1786, a name so perfect one hopes he thought of it himself. Money remained a concern, so he did what one does when faced with financial worry: he built and sold telescopes to people across Britain and continental Europe, more than 60 of them, each a gleaming souvenir of insomnia and repeated polishing.
On the night of August 28, 1789, William Herschel pointed his brand-new 1.2-metre te4lescope at the sky. At the time it was the largest telescope on Earth, a sort of astronomical cathedral he’d built in his garden, presumably terrifying the neighbours. On its very first outing, as if keen to justify its monstrous size, the telescope revealed Saturn’s sixth-largest moon. Herschel, one imagines, was delighted but probably not surprised; he had a knack for stumbling across cosmic real estate.
The moon itself would go nameless for a while, until Herschel’s son, John, tidied things up in 1847 in a publication charmingly titled Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope. With the sort of classical flourish only a Victorian could deploy without blushing, he christened it Enceladus, after the mythological giant. The logic was simple enough: Saturn was known to the Greeks as Cronus, head of the Titans, so why not name his attendant objects after other outsized members of the family? It was taxonomy by mythology, and it lent the cold little moon a pleasingly dramatic backstory — one involving gods, giants, and now, rather fittingly, a very big telescope.
Between 1782 and 1802, Herschel set about cataloguing the sky the way other people catalogue library books. He discovered over 2,400 nebulae, later increasing that number to 5,000, and identified binary star systems by the hundreds, producing catalogues in 1782, 1784, and 1821—more than 800 confirmed systems in all. He picked up new moons almost casually: the aforementioned Enceladus and Mimas at Saturn, and Titania and Oberon at Uranus. He determined the axial tilt of Mars and watched the Martian ice caps change with the seasons, firmly proving at dinner parties that Mars had weather.
And then, just to show he was paying attention to absolutely everything, in 1800 he discovered infrared radiation using prisms and thermometers. This was arguably astronomy’s most astonishing discovery made with household objects, the scientific equivalent of finding a new continent while washing up.
In 1802 Herschel traveled to Paris and became, for a brief time, astronomy’s most sociable man, meeting Lalande, Méchain, Delambre, Laplace, Messier, and even Napoleon, who presumably listened politely while Herschel talked about telescope barrels. In 1816, the Prince Regent awarded him a knighthood in the Royal Guelphic Order, making him the first Briton to be knighted into this new Hanoverian invention. It was fitting: Herschel had always been half German, half English, and entirely celestial.
He continued his work almost to his final breath in 1822, a lifetime of extraordinary, obsessive, sky-shaping effort. By then his health was declining, but his legacy had already ballooned far beyond orbiting rocks and polished mirrors. He had changed the way we see the universe, one hand-ground telescope at a time—possibly the greatest achievement ever accomplished in a Bath parlour.
PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Herschel held Christian beliefs, though the exact nature of his faith is somewhat debated by scholars. He was descended from a family of German Lutheran ancestry. His father Isaac and brother Jakob often engaged in philosophical and theological discussions at home. After Jakob returned to Hanover, much of William's letters to him consisted of theological discussions.
Herschel believed strongly that God's universe was characterized by order and planning. His discovery of that order led him to conclude that "the undevout astronomer must be mad".
During his 1802 meeting with Napoleon Bonaparte, when Napoleon asked "who is the author of all this" regarding the extent of the sidereal heavens, Herschel noted that LaPlace "wished to shew that a chain of natural causes would account for the construction and preservation of the wonderful system," while Napoleon "rather opposed" this view. Herschel wrote: "Much may be said on the subject; by joining the arguments of both we shall be led to 'Nature and Nature's God'". (3)
Modern scholars note that Herschel "was devout, prayerful, humble, gracious, kind, and moral," though whether he was a "true believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ" or more of a "nominal Christian" remains debated. He clearly believed in a divine Creator and Author of the laws of nature. (3)
Herschel was deeply interested in natural philosophy, seeing the universe as an ordered, rational creation. His work was guided by a desire to understand the architecture of the heavens and the construction of the universe.
POLITICS Herschel was politically loyal to King George III, whose Hanoverian heritage was a comfort to him. He avoided controversy, worked quietly, and accepted royal patronage.
His son John Herschel was described as "a political radical in the utilitarian mould but no social leveller," (4)
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| John Herschel, Portrait by Julia Margaret Cameron, April 1867 |
SCANDAL The primary controversy in Herschel's life concerned his departure from the Hanoverian Guards in 1757. After the Guards were defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck, his father Isaac sent his two sons to seek refuge in England. Although his older brother Jakob had received his dismissal from the Hanoverian Guards, Wilhelm left without discharge papers and was accused of desertion. This could have been a serious charge, but he was pardoned by George III in 1782, five years after discovering Uranus.
Another matter that raised eyebrows was Herschel's unusual scientific speculation that the sun was inhabited. In 1795, he presented his views to Britain's Royal Society that the sun was a cool, solid globe possibly inhabited "by beings whose organs are adapted to the peculiar circumstances of that vast globe," covered by a luminous atmosphere. This theory, though it had elaborate arguments, was met with skepticism by contemporaries and is now regarded as one of his stranger ideas.
MILITARY RECORD Herschel joined the Hanoverian Guards regiment as an oboist in 1753, aged 14 or 15. In 1755, when he was about 17, the regiment was ordered to England as the crowns of Great Britain and Hanover were united under King George II. As the threat of war with France loomed, the Guards were recalled to defend Hanover. He appears to have served during part of the 1757 campaign, but his health was delicate. After the Guards were defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck in 1757, his father sent both Wilhelm and his brother Jakob to seek refuge in England. Wilhelm, then 19 years old, left without proper discharge papers and was accused of desertion.
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Herschel's health in his youth was described as delicate, which was part of the reason his parents determined to remove him from military service. His mother described him as not having "the strength for a soldier's life".
Despite hi delicate childhood health, he developed remarkable stamina as an adult. He would spend up to 16 hours a day grinding and polishing telescope mirrors. According to his sister Caroline, he slept only when clouds made it impossible to see the stars. He could work through the night making astronomical observations and then, after "a hard day's work," sit up all night conducting more observations.
His health appears to have declined somewhat from around 1810-1815 onward, though he accomplished an enormous amount of work up to the end of his life in 1822. He lived to the age of 83.
HOMES Hanover (1738-1757): Born in the Electorate of Hanover, Herschel's family moved house frequently for financial reasons, often sharing with other families.
England - Early Residences (1757-1766): After arriving in England in 1757, Herschel lived first in London with his brother Jakob. He then moved to Richmond, North Yorkshire during 1760-61 as head of the Durham Militia Band. He worked in various locations in Yorkshire including Leeds, Pontefract, and Halifax.
Bath (1766-1782): In 1766, he obtained an engagement at Bath. From June 1, 1770, he lived at 7 New King Street, a house which he shared with the Bulman family. This house had a garden from which he discovered Uranus in 1781. The house is now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy.
Datchet, Old Windsor, and Slough (1782-1822): After accepting the King's offer in 1782, Herschel and Caroline left Bath in August 1782, living first in "a rather poor property" near Datchet. For a few months in 1785-86 they lived at Clay Hall in Old Windsor. On 3 April 1786, they moved to Observatory House on Windsor Road in Slough. This became his permanent home where his famous 40-foot telescope was constructed. His son John was born in this house in 1792, and William died there in 1822. (5)
The house was occupied by Herschel descendants until the death of Lady Herschel in November 1957. Observatory House was demolished in 1963 and replaced with an office block of the same name.
Upton: After his marriage to Mary Pitt in 1788, William moved to make a family home at Upton while Caroline remained at Slough. Mary Herschel died in 1832.
TRAVEL Herschel's major journeys included:
Germany to England (1757): At age 19, after the Battle of Hastenbeck, he and his brother Jakob fled from Hanover to England via Hamburg, making an arduous journey.
Return to Hanover (1772): In 1772, he travelled back to Hanover to bring his sister Caroline to Bath.
France (1802): In July 1802, Herschel and his family left their home in England for a two-week holiday in Paris. During this visit, he met and had discussions with Jérôme Lalande, Pierre Méchain, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Charles Messier, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
DEATH William Herschel died on August 25, 1822 at Observatory House, Windsor Road, Slough, at the age of 83. He was buried at nearby St Laurence's Church, Upton (Buckinghamshire, now Berkshire) on September 7, 1822, under the tower.
Following his death, his sister Caroline left England and returned to Hanover, where she continued cataloguing nebulae and star clusters and helping William's son John with his astronomical work. She died on January 9, 1848 at nearly 98 years of age.
APPEARANCES IN MEDIA His life and work are often documented in scientific histories, biographies, and documentaries about the history of astronomy. Statues and memorials are dedicated to him and his work (e.g., in Bath and Hanover). His discovery of Uranus is a frequent subject in astronomical literature.
A documentary film titled William Herschel & the Universe was directed by George Sibley, telling the story of how modern astronomy took shape under the pre-industrial skies of the 18th century. The film was screened as part of H200—the Herschel Society's celebration of William Herschel on the bicentenary of his death in 2022.
The book The Georgian Star by Michael Lemonick chronicles the lives of William and Caroline Herschel and their contributions to astronomy.
In 2022, the Herschel Society organized a William Herschel Conference with lectures on his work.
ACHIEVEMENTS Discovery of Uranus (1781), the first new planet in modern astronomy
Discovery of Saturn’s moon Enceladus (1789)
Discovery of Uranian moons Titania and Oberon (1787)
Builder of the largest telescope in the world of his day
Helped establish modern observational astronomy
Father of a scientific dynasty through Caroline and John Herschel
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