Take Nobody's Word

Send us Fan MailIn 1662, the Royal Society of London adopted a motto that promised a revolution: Nullius in verba—or, on the word of no one. It was a bold renunciation of authority in favor of evidence, yet behind this polished veneer of the Enlightenment lay a messier reality marked by class-coded science and imperial gatekeeping. Even as Society president Sir Isaac Newton modeled dispassionate inquiry, the institution came to operate as a passionate apparatus for elite privilege and British expansion. Fellowship in the Society opened channels into an international fraternity of gentlemen-scientists and into the inner sanctums of British imperial power. As crisis ripened between Britain and its North American colonies, America’s first celebrity leaned on this scientific brotherhood to achieve political reform, while another American patriot rejected it as collusion with the imperial fist.   To support Stratford Mail or donate to Stratford Hall, please navigate to www.stratfordhall.org/donate, and let them know in the comment section you wish to support Stratford Mail.Don't you dare forget to follow Stratford Mail, and visit us at Stratford Hall Historic Preserve! Check out our standalone website, StratfordMail.org, for enhanced content.