The date and place of Edmund Stone's birth are unknown, as are the names of his parents, but he was probably born in Argyllshire, Scotland, at least a few years before 1700.

As the story goes, the Duke found a copy of Isaac Newton's Principia in the grass in his garden, and was astonished to find it belonged to the 28-year-old Stone,[3] and that he understood Latin and advanced mathematics.

[14] In 1742 Stone submitted a 21-page paper "On Sir Isaac Newton's five diverging Parabolas", which was read to the Society but apparently never published.

[14] Little is known about Stone's life afterward, though he made another translation of Euclid's Elements in 1752, and he published a second edition of Bion's Mathematical Instruments in 1758, with a long appendix covering advancements of the intervening years.

Il s'appliqua lui-même, il étudia, il parvint aux connoissances de la plus sublime géométrie, & du calcul, sans maître, sans conducteur, sans autre guide que le pur génie.A l'âge de 28. ans il avoit fait tous ces progrès sans être connu, & sans connoître lui-même les prodiges qui se passoient en lui.Mylord Duc d'Argyle, qui joint à toutes les vertus militaires & à tous les sentimens d'un Héros, une connoissance universelle de tout ce qui peut orner & perfectioner l'esprit d'un homme de son rang, se promenant un jour dans son jardin, vit fur l'herbe le fameux Livre du Chevalier Newton en Latin.

L'autre répond: un domestique m'apprit, il y a dix ans, à lire: a-t'on besoin de sçavoir autre chose que les 24. lettres pour apprendre tout ce qu'on veut„?

La curiosité du Duc redouble; il soupçonne que les démarches de ce génie marveilleux étoient encore plus surprenantes que ses progrès; il s'affeoit sur un banc, & lui demande le detail de tout ce qu'il a fait pour devenir habile.„J'appris d'abord à lire, dit Stone, les massons travailloient alors à vôtre maison: je m'approchai d'eux un jour, & je vis que l'Architecte usoit d'une régle, d'un compas, & qu'il calculoit.

Le bel esprit & la vanité n'ont aucune part aux travaux infinis, qu'il subit pour exceller dans ce genre.

Il découvre quelquesfois, par des méthodes qui lui sont propres, les mêmes vérités que d'autres on déja trouvées.

Loin d'être plagiare, il attribuë les solutions ingénieuses & admirables, qu'il donne de certains Problémes, aux indices qu'il en trouve dans les autres, quoiqu'elles n'en découlent que par des conséquences fort éloignées, &c.Letter from Mr. the [Chevalier de Ramsay] to the [Father Castel Jesuit] True genius overcomes all the disadvantages of fortune, of birth, of education.

He applied himself, he studied, he arrived at the knowledge of the most sublime geometry, and of calculation, without master, without conductor, with no other guide than pure genius.

Milord Duke of Argyle, who joins to all the military virtues and all the feelings of a hero, a universal knowledge of all that can adorn and perfect the mind of a man of his rank, while walking one day in his garden saw on the grass the famous book of Sir Isaac Newton in Latin.

"I understand a bit of all that", replied Stone with an air of simplicity based on profound ignorance of his own talents and the excess of his knowledge.

Milord Duke was very surprised: but as he has the taste for these sciences, he deigned to enter into conversation with the new geometer: he posed several questions to him, and remained astonished at the force, the accuracy, and the candor of his responses.

The Duke's curiosity redoubled; he suspected that the process of this marvelous genius would be even more surprising than his progress; he sat down on a bench, and asked him to detail all he had done to become skillful.

"I first learned to read", said Stone, "the masons were then working at your house: I approached them one day, and I saw that the architect was using a ruler, a compass, and that he calculated.

Far from being a plagiarist, he attributes the ingenious and admirable solutions he gives of certain problems to the hints he finds of them in others, even though they only follow by a very circuitous chain of causes, &c.