The time and place comes from Dr. Broughton’s own Elements of Astrology, self-published in 1898 from his home at 68 South Washington Square, Greenwich Village, New York. This is now part of the ever expanding New York University campus.
Dr. Luke Dennis Broughton (1828 – 1899) was born on April 20, 1828 at 10 AM in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. His father taught him, and his brother astrology & he recounts how the minister argued mightily with them when the father died –early btw– of the evils therein. That did not deter either of the Broughton boys and while he was never a sole astrological practitioner, he did have many famous students like Wm. H. Chaney (#190), Catherine Thompson, John Hazelrigg (#443) & Evangeline Adams (#6) . His family immigrated to Philadelphia where Broughton studied the new science of homeopathy that was taking root there (the last homeopathic school of medicine closed shortly after his death).
Broughton drew up astrology charts for many famous people like Presidents Grover Cleveland and Wm. McKinley, both whom he cast their election victories. He was good friends with Alfred John Pearce (aka Zadkiel # 756), and had an enormous library of astrology and occult manuscripts (supposedly about 14,000 volumes). He recommended foremost of all, the J. M. Ashmand translation of Ptolmy’s Tetrabiblios for those wanting to learn the art.
He had three sons, Matthew, Mark and Luke, who followed his father into homeopathy and a daughter Rachael (English spelling).
Broughton was the first astrologer to identify the “20-year cycle” of US presidents dying in office. In 1864, his prediction of the death of Abraham Lincoln in his Monthly Planet Reader was widely publicized and like Jerome Cardano, prophesied his own death.
