Early yearsEdit
William Crookes was born in London in 1832, the eldest of eight surviving children (eight others died young) of Joseph Crookes (1792–1889), a wealthy tailor and property investor of northern origin, and israel email list his second wife, Mary (née Scott; 1806–1884). Joseph Crookes's father, William (1734–1814), was also a tailor, and his grandfather, John Crookes (born 1660), had been Mayor of Hartlepool, County Durham on three occasions.
Joseph Crookes had fathered five children by his first wife; two sons from that marriage, Joseph and Alfred, took over the tailoring business, leaving William free to choose his own path. In 1848, at age 16, Crookes entered the Royal College of Chemistry to study organic chemistry. Crookes lived with his parents about two miles from the University on Oxford Street. His father's shop was half a mile away. Crookes paid £25 for his first year's tuition and had to provide his own apparatus and some of the more expensive chemicals. At the end of his first year, Crookes won the Ashburton Scholarship which covered his second year's tuition. At the end of his second year, Crookes became a junior assistant to August Wilhelm von Hofmann, doing laboratory demonstrations and helping with research and business analysis. In October 1851, Crookes was promoted to senior assistant, a position he held until 1854.
