1. William Lilly is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most important astrologer in England through his social and political connections as well as going on to have an indelible impact on the future course of Western astrological tradition.
William Lilly's autobiography, published towards the end of his life in 1681, at the request of his patron Elias Ashmole, gives candid accounts of the political events of his era, and biographical details of contemporaries that are unavailable elsewhere.
William Lilly writes about the 1666 Great Fire of London, and how he was brought before the committee investigating the cause of the fire, being suspected of involvement because of his publication of images, 15 years earlier, which depicted a city in flames surrounded by coffins.
William Lilly was a controversial character who was both aided and abetted by powerful friends and enemies.
Brinsley was strict in discipline but advocated encouragement and praise, and by the time William Lilly left the school in 1619, he was excellently educated and excelled at Latin.
Wright was looking for a literate youth to act as his secretary and general servant, and at that time William Lilly's father was very happy to be rid of him, considering that since his son was no good around the farm, he was "good for nothing".
William Lilly received a warm welcome from Gilbert Wright, and worked as his servant until Wright's death in 1627.
William Lilly describes a contented marriage with Ellen, which continued for six years.
The comfortable lifestyle and fortune that William Lilly inherited from Ellen, gave him leisure time to frequent sermons and lectures in London society.
William Lilly then began to issue his prophetical almanacs and other works, which met with serious attention from some of the most prominent members of the Long Parliament.
In 1650, William Lilly wrote a preface to Sir Christopher Heydon's An Astrological Discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations, a defence of astrology written about 1608 which was first published posthumously, largely at the expense of Elias Ashmole.
William Lilly came under the lash of Samuel Butler, who, making allowance for some satiric exaggeration, has given in the character of Hudibras' Sidrophel a probably not very incorrect picture of the man; and, having by this time amassed a tolerable fortune, he bought a small estate at Hersham in Surrey, to which he retired, and where he diverted the exercise of his peculiar talents to the practice of medicine.
William Lilly lived in a house on the site from 1627 to 1665.
Besides his 36 annual almanacs published between 1647 and 1682, William Lilly's published works include:.