The Curious History of Relativity:

[Monte Davis]

 >  He had a theory to support his idea? 
 
It doesn't require a theory beyond the finite velocity of light (known since
Roemer in the 17th C.),  Newtonian physics to calculate escape velocity, and
a bit of math to detremine the mass/density at which the latter exceeds the
former. No relativity required. It's just that for 150 years after Michell,
Laplace et al, there were no astronomical observations to make black holes
more than a theoretical curiosity (and some of those who did think about it
felt that nature would somehow avoid such bizarrerrie).
 
Only when general relativity provided Schwarzschild, Wheeler et al with new
tools to think about X-treme gravitation... and astronomy at new wavelengths
turned up X-treme objects requiring explanation ... did the idea come back
into its own.
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