A Synopsis of the life of

1642-1727By Win Clavering

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

A Synopsis of the life of

1642-1727By Win Clavering

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

LET MORTALS REJOICE

In April 1642, Hannah Ayscough (pronounced “Askew”) from Market Overton in Rutland, described as a woman of high character and fine intellect, married Isaac Newton, eldest son of Robert Newton and moved into the somewhat dilapidated Woolsthorpe Manor, bequeathed to them on Robert’s death the previous year.

Hannah was from the “gentry” class, who believed in educating children, so she could read and write whereas her husband could do neither. Isaac was a yeoman farmer owning considerable land that provided them with servants and an adequate income. In addition Hannah brought, by way of a dowry, property in Sewstern worth £50 a year.

In the 17th Century, brothers often found husbands for their sisters. So it is likely that Hannah’s brother William, who was rector of nearby Burton Coggles, would have introduced her to Isaac and it seems she was happy with the arrangement.

These, though, were very troubled times. King Charles I had long been unhappy with the behaviour of Parliament and the Members, in turn, were rebelling against his increasing taxes. Charles, believing in the Divine Right of Kings and humiliated by their refusal to provide him with ‘ship money’, attempted to arrest five parliamentarians, but failed and was forced to flee. In addition, the people, proudly Protestant, were afraid that Queen Henrietta Maria’s influence would prevail and the country would return to Catholicism. In short, there was political and religious turmoil.

On August 22nd, the ill-advised king raised his standard at Nottingham Castle thus signalling the start of the most vicious war ever fought on English soil. Town fought against town, neighbour conspired against neighbour, brother killed brother and father and son confronted each other on the battlefield. More than 70,000 men died in the conflict between Roundheads and Cavaliers. It was a time of great fear, insecurity and destruction.

In October 1642 Hannah’s husband Isaac died, leaving her five months pregnant. She was now in a most vulnerable and isolated situation. Not

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from a farming family, she was suddenly responsible for 243 sheep and 46 cattle. Further, there would be chickens, ducks, goats, pigs and various crops to care for. Many young farm-workers would have gone to war. Would those left be loyal to her? She had not had long to get to know them well. Life would be stressful and conducive to giving birth prematurely.

Fortunately Hannah had a supportive family, for Isaac, born on December 25th, was undersized, sickly and not expected to live. Premature babies are vulnerable to cold and often cannot suckle - so Hannah and her mother must have been extremely vigilant, day and night, to pull Isaac through those early days. That he was christened Isaac suggests that his father was highly regarded and Hannah subsequently did her best to make him into the farmer her husband would have hoped for.

Woolsthorpe Manor

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The Civil War must not be discounted as an effect on Isaac’s early life. Fear and insecurity creates tension and farms were particularly vulnerable. For the first four years of his life Lincolnshire was a major theatre of war. Plundering troops could wreak havoc and Woolsthorpe was dangerously near to the Great North Road. Some fierce skirmishes were fought in the Grantham area and one must wonder how this affected the weekly market and the annual fair where the farm produce was sold.

Whilst there is no record of plunder of the Newton farm, there is little doubt there would be some theft. History records stores of wool being seized and sheep and cattle removed in droves. Naturally the landowners who suffered most were those who declared allegiance to one side or another. Perhaps Hannah was discreet. However, she did have friends who were known Royalists. Humphrey Babington was such a friend and he was to play a very important role in Isaac’s life, as was his sister Catherine.

Isaac would not be easy to deal with. Being a restless and precocious child, with an intense desire to learn, he would command much attention. As he was unusually observant, with extraordinary powers of concentration to the task in hand, it would be almost impossible to persuade him into any routine. However he was fortunate to be the centre of his mother’s life and he would feel secure.

Then, when he was three years old a messenger came to Hannah with a proposal of marriage! This was something not to be taken lightly as it was from the rector of North Witham whose wife had died the previous year. Before replying, Hannah consulted her family, for brother William was her adviser and as Isaac was born fatherless, her father, James Ayscough, was his official guardian.

In the 17th Century the clergy were the most important people in the community and the Reverend Barnabas Smith was of particular consequence as he was also wealthy. Even though Barnabas, at sixty-three, was old enough to be Hannah’s father, security would be sought in time of war. No doubt with this in mind, Hannah would be encouraged to get to know her potential husband better and her highly intelligent son would sense there could be big changes in his life.

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From what we know of Isaac’s character it is easy to imagine, even at the age of three, he would be capable of expressing disapproval in no uncertain terms.

History does not record Hannah’s feelings but it seems her family drew up a contract, which she would understand to be beneficial to her and her son’s future. It stipulated that Barnabas should allocate some land to Isaac to bring in an income of £50 a year and should pay for Woolsthorpe Manor to be renovated and extended. In return her parents, James and Margery, would move to the manor, supervise the running of the farm, look after her young son and protect his inheritance.

One could well imagine that Barnabas would wish to be free of Isaac who was a very determined child and had slept in his mother’s bed from birth. He had no children of his own and probably desired to pass on his genes and family assets. Obviously he had a high regard for Hannah and saw her as an ideal rector’s wife, so the above arrangement was agreeable to him. He made Isaac a gift of land in Sewstern, the income from which he would receive on his majority.

Being a devoted mother, Hannah would find it distressing to leave her only child and move to North Witham but it seems she had little choice.

Newton’s biographers are inclined to attribute all the flaws in his character to this period in his life - even suggesting that his mother abandoned him! This can hardly be true as she would be living only two miles away, she could see him every day and he would be cared for by her parents whom he knew well.

One reads over and over again that Isaac hated his stepfather and was alienated from his mother at an early age but later evidence does not bear this out. It is true that in 1662, whilst at Cambridge, he apparently had some religious or puritanical urge to confess sins and wrote, in cipher, in a notebook, bequeathed to him by his stepfather, an intriguing list of past misdemeanours - some no doubt related to him by his mother. One was, “Threatening my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them”. Surely that was nothing more than an outburst of a spirited young

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child deprived of the comfort of his mother’s bed. After all he did enter it as a sin!

Records show that Isaac had a great deal of affection for the three children, Mary, Benjamin and Hannah, born of his mother’s second marriage and he always referred to them as “my brother and sisters” and was helpful and generous towards them and their children throughout his life. Hannah must have handled the situation skilfully to make him feel so close to his siblings.

Mixing with other children helps to develop social maturity, but Isaac had little in common with other boys. He would think their games a silly waste of time, as life for him was a serious business. He was set early on a voyage of discovery and it was bound to be a lonely passage.

Hannah and her parents must have worried about this, but the advantage of having no father allowed access from academic friends and family able to offer advice. Isaac was certainly given encouragement.

He was sent to two local dame schools in search for help in his development. Firstly to one in Skillington and later to one in Stoke Rochford. It would be interesting to know how they coped with him! He surely gained admiration from other children as a result of his manual skills. From an early age he showed exceptional talent for making toys, furniture, and working models of such things as windmills and clocks. It is said that he made kites and even set lanterns in them to illuminate his walks around the village. He accurately sculpted several sundials out of slabs of stone and mathematical calculations were used, at the age of nine, to make the one now in Colsterworth church.

So his family must have realised that he was an exceptional child.

Uncle William, who was a Cambridge graduate, would be a frequent family visitor and also Hannah’s friend Catherine Babington, who married a Mr Storer and had three children, Arthur, Edward and Catherine. They would be Isaac’s playmates from an early age. Humphrey, Catherine’s brother, was to become the rector of Boothby

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Pagnell after the war. He was a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge and recognised Isaac’s budding genius.

Catherine also became a widow and subsequently married Mr Clark, a Grantham apothecary. In August 1653 Barnabas Smith died and Hannah, now wealthy, returned to Woolsthorpe with her three children.

Isaac, who had obviously spent much time in North Witham reading through his stepfather’s considerable library of theological books, must have been delighted to learn that Barnabas had left them all to him. He set about constructing bookshelves in his room, to house them. His skill in carpentry was proved when, sixty-five years later, his friend, and first biographer, William Stukeley, visited the manor and found them still in use.

When Isaac was twelve his Uncle William hinted that it was time for him to attend the Grammar school in Grantham where Arthur and Edward Storer would be going.

The Clarks bravely offered to take him as a lodger! Isaac Newton aged twelve was not the type of adolescent to fit easily into a well-regulated family. At mealtimes, important social occasions in the 17th Century, his seat would often be empty, because if Isaac became absorbed in some project, the need for food, drink and sleep could not deflect him.

It seemed the Clarks were indulgent towards him and allowed him to read their books, experiment with chemicals and fill their attic and yard with various windmills and clocks that were of such ingenuity and quality that people came from far and wide to see them.

All this, together with the fact that he could not be disciplined like the members of the family, created resentment in Arthur and Edward. However, he did meet with approval from their sister, Catherine, whose friendship he kept throughout his life, and who told William Stukeley that Isaac was always “a sober, silent, thinking lad who never was known scarce to play with the boys abroad”. She explained that he preferred to busy himself making dolls furniture for the girls in the family.

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Hannah must have hoped that living in a household with boys near his age would help Isaac to become more socially mature, but he was becoming increasingly absorbed in his own interests. Although he seemed to enjoy living with the Clarks, away from his mother’s discipline, learning the efficacy of drugs and the properties of herbs, trouble was brewing with Arthur and Edward who were probably not allowed the same privileges.

Eventually, on the way to school, Arthur attacked him, a fight ensued, and Isaac was the victor. From all accounts it seems to have been quite a nasty incident with Isaac, having been hurt, losing his temper and banging Arthur’s face against the church wall. Following this, in order to preserve her much valued friendship with Catherine, Hannah removed Isaac from school and tried to make him into the farmer that was his inheritance.

There is no record of Isaac’s reaction, but the indications are that his mind was hardly on the job of looking after sheep and cattle and he would be found, more often than not, with his head in a book.

One reads stories of his animals roaming over neighbours’ land and of leaving a servant to sell the farm products at market whilst he slipped into the Clark’s to read. Once he even left his horse behind in Grantham!

It is speculative to imagine how he would have fared if his father had lived!

His uncle William wanted him to go to his old college, Trinity, in Cambridge and the Grammar school wanted him back so much that Headmaster Henry Stokes, offered to waive the fees and have him lodge with him.

After a frustrating year with Isaac on the farm, and following much persuasion from her brother and Humphrey Babington, Hannah must have been pleased to accept such an offer. Isaac’s attitude changed too, as he realised that if he didn’t take school seriously and become co-operative, farm work would be his future. He began to work hard, was made head boy and prepared to enter Cambridge.

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It is impossible for a caring mother, as Hannah surely was, not to be worried about her unworldly son embarking on a university career. She knew that if he were not supervised he would neglect himself - forgetting mealtimes and allowing the fire to go out for want of a log.

But almost all his biographers criticise her for allowing him to begin as a sizar, (servant) suggesting she was mean. But what did she know about life at Cambridge? It is almost certain she would leave his well-being in the hands of William, Humphrey and Henry Stokes.

To say that Isaac started university as a servant doing menial tasks for graduates is laughable. The word sizar was surely a mistaken entry! He was well aware of his superior intelligence, he had servants waiting on him all his life and from his own confession, he was pretty rude to them. He would have made a hopeless servant, anyway, with his mind busy beyond the horizon. An egotistical man like Newton could never bring himself to wait on others and Hannah, a respected and popular woman, would have more pride than to send her clever son to university as a servant.

Subsequent records prove that he was quite on a par with other students - visiting taverns and playing cards for money. Indeed, so flushed with money was he that he made loans to other students - and kept careful note of who they were and how much they’d borrowed!

Humphrey Babington was a Fellow of Trinity college and as such would have certain duties. Surely Isaac went as his assistant or sizar. Why else would Isaac have listed, in his accounts, money paid to ‘Babington’s woman’, who must have been cleaning his room or some such chore? All Isaac’s life, Humphrey had been interested in him and was instrumental in encouraging Hannah to let him go to Cambridge. If Isaac were under his wing then Hannah would be reassured and in 1661 he seemed perfectly happy to be leaving his Grantham life behind.

Another reason for dismissing the idea of his being a servant is that he had choice of accommodation. Coming from a strictly puritanical background he was critical of some student behaviour, and one day walked out on the antics of his roommate. Strolling alone in the college grounds he met a

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pensioner (undergraduate) who was suffering in the same way. His name was John Wickins. He and Isaac decided to share rooms and they lived and worked together for the next twenty years.

Trinity College, Cambridge 1690

The vigorous intellectual life of Trinity was just what Isaac needed and Babington must have introduced him to academics who helped stimulate his thought. Untold numbers of books were now available to him and he would read, avidly, the works of Archimedes, Aristotle, Plato, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Descartes. (The giants on whose shoulders he later claimed to have stood). He would learn how the Roman Catholic Church had persecuted Galileo for daring to state publicly that the earth was a satellite of the sun and not the centre of the universe as was Catholic dogma. Possibly because of this, he was ever afraid of England returning to Catholicism.

Isaac, always an original thinker, read critically and became a follower of no doctrine but pursued an intense and unceasing search for the Truth. He could not have been much fun to share rooms with as he had no sense of humour, resulting in his being over sensitive to criticism. John Wickins must have been extremely tolerant, but it seems they found much in common.

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In April 1664 Isaac was elected Scholar and this meant that he could stay on at Cambridge and study for his degree after which he could follow a line of research that would, hopefully, gain him recognition.

He was awarded his B.A. the following year and then started to formalise his system of “Fluxions” (Differential Calculus).

According to him he was “in the prime of my age for invention and minded mathematics and philosophy more than any time since”.

In July 1665 the Great Plague was killing Londoners in thousands and week-by-week the number of deaths increased. Fearing it would spread to Cambridge, the university closed in August and Isaac returned home to Woolsthorpe. Hannah must have realised by now that her son was a genius and in spite of having three teenagers in the house she was able to provide ideal conditions for his continuing research. Under her loving care he laid the foundations for his masterpiece “Principia” (“Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica”). He also spent some time in Boothby Pagnall, at the home of his mentor, Babington. He mentions, in particular, work there on “Fluxions”.

For almost two years he was able to devote himself to study without the distractions of university life and, as he later said, he was able to reach conclusions and solve problems by thinking on them continually.

It was in the manor orchard, so he told his friend William Stukeley, that he saw an apple fall and his mind turned to why it should fall perpendicular to the ground and not at an angle. Thus began his work on the Theory of Gravitation, perhaps the discovery that most captured people’s imagination.

In the 17th Century, people believed that they were weighed down to the earth by sin and it was only by absolving their sins could they hope to enter Paradise. This was the time when John Bunyan was writing Pilgrim’s progress, which portrays Christian’s journey through life rejecting all pleasure in order to reach the Celestial City. When the Theory

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of Gravity was eventually published and people came to understand what really kept their feet on the ground, they must have felt greatly relieved and in gratitude to Newton.

However, the world was not to be informed of his findings yet, for he had no intention of crying “eureka” and sending them to a scientific publication. He was wise enough to understand that he must have powerful men supporting him before his radical ideas could hope to be accepted.

He had been studying Descartes’s Theory of Colours and decided to carry out some experiments with light. He made a hole in the window shutter in his room, allowing a beam of sunlight through to hit a prism that split the light into seven colours and projected them, in a spectrum, onto the wall opposite. He concluded that each colour travelled at a different velocity

William Stukeley’s drawing of Woolsthorpe Manor

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through the prism and from there he developed his own colour theory. But as usual, kept his discoveries to himself. Forever watching stars, moon and planets and almost blinding himself with gazing at the sun, he worked out their movements with breathtaking accuracy. His findings have never been superseded.

After these valuable months at home, he returned to Cambridge and surprisingly spent more time studying theology and experimenting in alchemy than working on mathematics. His idea of gravitational attraction must have encouraged him to try to discover the consistency of such a power. The excitement and endless frustration in the years of experiments were eventually to drive him to distraction.

There are stories of several furnaces, in his laboratory, burning day and night. Of Isaac sitting up all night, waiting for results. He began to neglect his appearance and his health.

Isaac Barrow, master of Trinity and the first Lucasian professor, fully appreciated Newton’s superior mathematical brilliance and so, in 1669, at the age of 39, he nominated the younger man to succeed him to the chair. Isaac rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and refused to be ordained. Nevertheless, he was elected Lucasian professor at the age of twenty-six and now could speak with authority.

He was not an inspiring lecturer - being a man of few words - however; he was helpful to talented students and began to attract a following of admirers. What he really wanted though was to be recognised by Europe’s top scientists.

In studying the movements of the heavenly bodies he had found deficiencies in the refracting telescope which gave an unclear image due to chromatic aberrations. He had heard that James Gregory of Aberdeen had suggested that a reflecting telescope, using a concave mirror instead of a convex lens, might be the answer. Isaac was keen to explore this and set about the task with his usual enthusiasm.

First of all he had to make the necessary tools, as they were not readily available. He was already skilled in woodwork, but continued with almost superhuman patience and skill, to grind and polish the lenses and

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reflectors. The resulting telescope was only six inches long but as powerful as a six feet long refracting one. He was sure that this beautifully crafted instrument was something that everyone could appreciate and it would gain him his longed for recognition.

He tentatively mentioned to Henry Oldenburg, the secretary of the newly founded Royal Society, that he was experimenting with reflecting telescopes and had one almost complete. He was invited to send it for the members to inspect. When it was finally delivered in 1671 it caused a sensation and he was soon elected as a Fellow. Now he had “arrived” amongst Europe’s top philosophers and he could seek the support he needed.

Gaining in confidence, early the following year, he sent the Society his paper on colours. Robert Hooke, then the country’s most eminent scientist and who considered himself expert on the science of light, wrote a critique on Isaac’s paper. Criticism was something that Isaac could not stand - so began the disputes with top philosophers that continued throughout the rest of his life.

The man of few spoken words was uncompromising in the millions of words he wrote to Robert Hooke, and various scientific publications. Also, later on, to the Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed, the brilliant German mathematician Godfried Leibniz and many others. His letters to friends and family seem, largely, to have been lost, so it is his letters, written in a fury of invective, that give the impression he was a difficult man to deal with. There is no doubt he was - but life is not easy for a man who is a genius.

His alchemical experiments continued, with the help of John Wickins but he was now becoming a more remote figure. It is said that he was a typical absent-minded professor, with little social contact, always stopping to jot down ideas as they came into his head, and mostly eating alone.

However, it seems he continued to keep in touch with his family. Spending on “my cousin Ayscough” twelve shillings and six pence and three shillings on “oranges for my sister”. Although travelling to Woolsthorpe from Cambridge took three days he made the uncom-

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fortable journey most years and spent two or three weeks “in the country”. It is said he always found time to attend weddings and gave very generously to the bride and bridegroom.

In May 1679, Isaac’s half brother, Benjamin, now married and living in Stamford, contracted a virulent fever and Hannah rushed to his home to help nurse him. He recovered, but Hannah, unfortunately, succumbed.

Isaac reached her bedside with all possible haste and according to John Conduitt, (who later married into the family) he used all his energy and skill to ease her pain and aid her recovery - but he failed to save her life. She had requested that her firstborn should arrange her funeral and he duly wrapped her in white woollen cloth and had her buried next to his father in Colsterworth churchyard.

Leaving behind his study and research, he spent almost a year in Woolsthorpe sorting out his mother’s affairs. There was always a powerful bond between Isaac and his mother and the only surviving snippet of a letter from her was full of concern and affection for him. Manor and farm being now his, he had to find a suitable tenant and agent.

Woolsthorpe had always been somewhere for him to come to “recharge his batteries” and meet old friends and family. He had now lost this valuable “safe harbour”.

After twenty years of working together, John Wickins decided to swap the laboratory for the church and possibly tired of being in Newton’s shadow, left Cambridge in 1683. It is not known whether he and Isaac kept in touch.

He was replaced by Humphrey Newton, (no relation), from Grantham, who was his assistant for about five years and gave some interesting accounts to Stukeley. He told of several furnaces constantly burning in the laboratory and of Isaac sitting up all night waiting for results - often forgetting meals. Humphrey only saw him smile once! As a member of The Royal Society, however, Isaac made some very valuable friends.

One of the first was Robert Boyle, the chemist and a founder member, who formulated a law governing the behaviour of gases. He helped Newton in his research.

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Later he met the philosopher John Locke, known for his Essay concerning Human Understanding. He believed that humans absorbed knowledge through their various senses. He was a searcher after the Truth and a free thinker like Newton, but unlike Newton he was calm, thoughtful, and understanding. He, later, described Isaac as “the greatest arid rarest genius that ever arose”.

Another friend was Samuel Pepys, who should have been good for Isaac in another way, as he was fonder of wine, women and song than anything else. Samuel was a great admirer of clever people and perhaps he would persuade our puritan to visit the theatre! As an administrator for the navy he also had friends in court and that would impress an unsophisticated man, but Newton would have been shocked to read his diary!

Then there was the astronomer Edmund Halley, a constant and valuable friend who impoverished himself by publishing Principia Books II and III because he recognised how important they were. However, Newton didn’t appear to appreciate that he might not have been recognised in his lifetime without Edmund’s help.

In 1684, he described to Halley the elliptical orbit of his comet. An amazed Halley then persuaded him to finish his work on the Principia, containing the laws of motion and attraction. Two years later Book I was sent to the Royal Society at the time when Pepys was President. It is said that Samuel paid for the publication.

Around this time Leibniz published his important mathematical tool called Calculus. This caused Newton great distress as it was almost identical to Fluxions (only easier to use), which he constructed twenty years previously, but had not published. He accused Leibniz of plagiarism and accused John Collins, described as a scientific intermediary, of showing Leibniz his papers. Protracted and bitter arguments followed over many years and Leibniz died in 1716 still unforgiven.

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PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA(Mathematical Principles of Natural Science)

A massive work, the Principia worked everything out with rules and laws and consisted of: INERTIA: Resistance to being moved.

MASS: Amount of material in a body.

WEIGHT: Force of Gravity acting on a mass.

MOMENTUM: The product of mass and velocity.

FORCE: Any action on a body which changes its state of rest or motion.

LAWS OF MOTION:

1. A body will remain at rest or will move with uniform velocity in a straight line unless acted on by force.

2. The change of momentum of a body is proportional to the force used.

3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

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BOOK I: LAWS OF MECHANICS: Movement of Planets. Movement of Moon.

BOOK II: Movement of solids through liquids.

BOOK III: Universal Gravitation and the Theory of Tides.

PRINCIPIA Book I was published in 1686 and caused a sensation, it was difficult to believe there was much more to come.

The three Books took Britain and Europe by storm. Newton was the first man to state, in writing, that the world was an entity and not a division of heaven and earth. This was greeted enthusiastically by mathematicians, physicists and astronomers. Many poets celebrated him in verse. He was a national hero.

He changed the circumstance of mankind by showing how man could harness the forces of nature and make them work for his benefit. This led to the industrial revolution, which put Britain ahead of the world as an industrial nation.

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, believed that everything in the universe was made up of earth, water, air and fire and that God moved the Sun and planets.

Galileo, the Italian astronomer, believed that objects everywhere had a tendency to move unless stopped. His research was stopped by the Inquisition.

Kepler, a German astronomer, wasted many years of research because he believed that the orbits of the planets were circular. He came late to realise that they were ellipses; he was the first man to do so. He was a genius of the first order; unfortunately, he was persecuted rather than praised.

Descartes, the French philosopher, invented analytical geometry. He believed that everything was mechanical and set in motion by God. Famous for saying “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am).

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Isaac Newton brought together the findings of these men and provided them with rules and laws. He was fortunate to live in a country that allowed experimental and religious freedom, although he was always afraid that such freedom would not last.

Publication of Principia brought Newton fame but it also created problems. It was obligatory for a publisher to present a copy of such a manuscript to the king. The king was the devout catholic James II — and the Roman Catholic Church, always suspicious of scientists, saw trouble ahead.

King James decided that the university must be kept under control. In 1687 a letter mandate arrived on the desk of the vice-chancellor, to admit Alban Francis, a Benedictine monk, to the degree of Master of Arts “without exercises and without oaths”!

The vice-chancellor, John Peachell, was frantic with worry. He wrote to Samuel Pepys, a royal advisor, for help and hurriedly called a meeting of top university men. They were determined to make a stand on the grounds that to admit Francis without the oath would be illegal.

The King summoned Peachell and representatives to appear before the Court of Ecclesiastical Commission. Isaac Newton and Humphrey Babington were among them and they had to plead before the notorious Judge Jeffreys!

This was the Judge Jeffreys who was well known for having men executed at the drop-of-a-hat and Newton and co had to appear before him four times! Isaac knew that his religious views were not popular. He was, what we would call, a Unitarian. He always insisted he profoundly believed in God but he kept to himself what he really believed, it was safer to do so.

However, nobody could say he lacked courage, as, according to him, he said plenty in the university’s defence. The poor vice-chancellor lost his job though and the others were warned to watch their step in future. One has the sneaking feeling that Judge Jeffreys sympathised with their casebecause Father Francis was not admitted. Fortunately, the reign of James II was short!

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On the strength of all this, Newton was invited to put his name forward as a parliamentary candidate. He was elected as an MP for Cambridge in 1689. It was his way of keeping the university in touch with government thinking and it lured him out of the laboratory and into London, which, like Samuel Johnson after him, he loved. He also had his first portrait painted by the leading artist of the day, Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Newton liked women, but never married. Perhaps a good thing, as he would have made an inconsiderate husband, being “married” to his work. However, he did become involved in an emotional relationship with a man - although nobody has ever suggested that it was a physical one.

Sometime in 1689 and probably through the Royal Society, he met a brilliant, young but unstable, Swiss mathematician called Nicholas Fatio de Duillier. It seems there was instant rapport and for about three years they worked closely together on various aspects of Newton’s work. This seemed to be the only intense relationship he ever formed, as he was inclined to fall out with other friends, but Fatio was important to him. He no longer needed Humphrey Newton.

The twenty-five year old Fatio rejuvenated him and he was spending more time in London. He began to lobby for a government appointment.

The happy relationship with Fatio did not run as smoothly as he’d hoped, however. The younger man began spending long periods abroad, complaining that the English climate did not agree with him.

Then in 1692, Isaac’s old friend and loyal supporter, Humphrey Babington died. Around the same time there came a desperate letter from his sister Hannah Barton, telling him that her husband, Robert, had died and that his long illness had left her and the children almost destitute.

The government was not coming forward with offers of exciting work for him and there is a story of a fire in his laboratory, which destroyed some valuable documents. Then the final blow came! Fatio wrote to say he was ill, was going to live on the family estate in Switzerland and would not be returning to London. Isaac plunged into a deep depression and suffered a minor nervous breakdown.

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During his years in Cambridge he had many brilliant students through his hands and one of them was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1695. He was Charles Montague and he quickly offered Isaac the position of Warden of the Mint. This was meant as a sinecure, but Isaac Newton aged fifty-four was not looking for any such thing.

He accepted the offer, left for London straight away and threw himself wholeheartedly into the job, thoroughly schooling himself in the history and operation of the mint. There is no record of depression from then on!

The Mint was housed in the Tower and the warden’s house was also within the walls. As horses were used to drive the presses, it was noisy and smelly. Isaac put up with this for only a short time before moving into a house in Jermyn Street where he lived for the next ten years.

He had been to visit his sister Hannah and her four children in Northamptonshire. He purchased an annuity for three of the children but saw potential in the fourth.

To prove he had regained his sanity he invited Hannah’s second daughter, Catherine, then aged about eighteen, to run his household in London. She was beautiful, witty, clever, charming and she soon created a stir amongst London society. Poems and stories about the wonderful Catherine Barton abounded.

His beautiful niece changed his attitude to life, and his house was furnished with bright colours, predominantly crimson, which would have shocked the puritans! His dinner parties became famous as, unlike her uncle, Catherine was known for her brilliant conversation. Jonathan Swift said he loved her more than anyone else in London and Voltaire trumpeted her fame around Europe. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was impressed!

Meanwhile the Warden of the Mint was immersing himself in the recoinage, the planning of which was underway before his appointment. His attitude to work hadn’t changed, and never known to do things by half, he turned his mind to restricting the activities of the clippers and counterfeiters. The most resourceful of these was William Chaloner, who, as an artist among coiners, had successfully avoided prosecution over

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many years. He had, however, met his match when the new Warden set out on his trail. Chaloner was convicted of high treason and was sent to the gallows in 1699.

Newton proved a brilliant administrator and in 1700 he was appointed Master of the Mint, at an average salary of around £1600 per annum. A position he held until his death twenty-seven years later. During his years of alchemic experimentation he had learned a great deal about metals and was an expert assayer. He tried to ensure that the metals used were pure and the coinage was of face value.

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Sir Godfrey Kneller portrait of Sir Isaac Newton 1702

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In 1701 he was elected to Parliament for a second time and resigned his Chair of Mathematics. He nominated William Whiston to succeed him. Charles Montague had meanwhile been appointed First Lord of the Treasury. He nominated himself the Earl of Halifax.

Newton was elected President of the Royal Society on November 30th 1703. It was at a low ebb when he took over the chair, membership was dwindling and the meetings lacked serious content. Things would have to change! He set about appointing demonstrators in mathematics and mechanics; astronomy and optics; zoology and anatomy; physiology, botany and chemistry. He took on only those with established reputations. Membership slowly increased and eventually doubled during his years of office.

In April 1705 Isaac was knighted by Queen Anne for services to science. This must have greatly pleased him, for his revered friend Samuel Pepys did not attain such heights. Not content with all the work he’d taken on he now started on the second edition of Principia and needed the latest observations from the Greenwich observatory.

John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, working alone, had recorded over 20,000 stellar observations at the new Greenwich Observatory. Isaac wanted a copy but Flamsteed withheld, suspecting that Newton would use his work and take all the glory. Both men had short tempers, there was a lot of unpleasantness and Newton, now a powerful man, obtained an order from Prince George, the Queen’s consort, to force Flamsteed to hand over his findings to the Royal Society. Halley sided with Newton and it must be admitted that Flamsteed was not generously treated.

Isaac never relaxed, and at the age of sixty-four decided to finish his work on the science of light he called Optics. Most of the treatise was written up when he was in his thirties, but he now knew it would be well received. He produced several editions in English as well as Latin.

He seemed to have no trouble in his relationship with Catherine. It appears, she could do no wrong, for there is no record of any objection from him, when, after Lady Halifax died, Catherine became the housekeeper, and presumably, the mistress of Lord Halifax. Perhaps he

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valued the friendship of Charles too highly and of course, Isaac always knew which side his bread was buttered. It seemed his puritanical days were well and truly over! Possibly Catherine lived with Halifax for about ten years and when he died in 1715 he left her property and a fortune in his will. She came back to her uncle who was now a near neighbour in St. Martin’s Street.

35 Saint Martin’s Street. Sir Isaac lived in this house from 1710-1725

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In 1717 a wealthy young man called John Conduitt appeared at the Royal Society and made it known that he was a great admirer of Sir Isaac. Two years later he married Catherine, who was considerably older than he, but still beautiful. They spent much of their time caring for Isaac and running his affairs over the next ten years. They had a daughter called Kitty who eventually married into the nobility.

Isaac never gave up studious work; in 1723 he began the third edition of Principia!

When Isaac became wealthy he had hundreds of begging letters, some from relatives he had hardly known, but Conduitt records that he always responded generously. He also supported his other sister Mary Pilkington and her family when her husband died, arranging for her to receive a regular income.

He never forgot his Lincolnshire home, showing concern for his tenants and giving money for repairs to Colsterworth church.

He died on March 20th 1727 and lay in state for eight days in Westminster Abbey. He was buried in a prominent position in the nave. His pallbearers were The Lord Chancellor, The Dukes of Montrose and Roxborough and the Earls of Pembroke, Sussex and Macclesfield. The chief mourner was Sir Michael Newton, a distant cousin.

Voltaire, who attended the funeral, said he was buried like a king who had made his subjects happy.

However, a Frenchman called Champlain de la Blancherie denounced the English for their failure to honour Newton’s divinity properly! He proposed that the calendar be restarted with 1642 as year one and his home in Woolsthorpe turned into a sanctuary!

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A monument was erected in Westminster Abbey in 1731 and inscribed in Latin:

LET MORTALS REJOICE THAT THERE HAS EXISTED SUCH AND SO GREAT AN ORNAMENT TO THE HUMAN RACE.

Sir Isaac Newton’s Monument in Westminster Abbey

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Some of Isaac Newton’s sins from childhood listed in 1662

“Threatening my father and mother Smith to burne them and the house over them” “Neglecting to pray”

“Falling out with the servants”

“Calling Dorothy Rose a jade”

“Punching my sister”

“Peevishness with my mother”

“Making a mousetrap on a Sunday morning”

“Swimming in a kimnel (tub) on Thy day”

“Eating an apple in church”

“Robbing my mother’s box of plums and sugar”

“Denying a crossbow to my mother and grandmother although I knew of it”

“Having unclean thoughts”

“Refusing to go to the close ( field) on my mother’s command”

“Peevishness over a piece of bread and butter at Mr Clark’s”

“Stealing cherry cobs from Edward Storer”

“Beating Arthur Storer”

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Quotes and Letters

“Newton was the greatest mind in British History. His temperament was volatile, sensitive and egocentric. He could be steady, resolute and generous. Sensual and aesthetic experiences were denied to Newton. Food and drink meant nothing to him. Verse was an antic game with words. Music a tedious jumble of sounds. He never spoke of a picture.”A. Rupert Hall.

“Newton’s findings, of the laws of gravity and motion, was the greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make:” Albert Einstein.

“What Newton did he did with intensity. He questioned the reason for everything.”Richard S. Westfall.

“Newton was a colossus without parallel in the history of science. His theory will never be outmoded Designed to predict the motions of heavenly bodies, it does its job with unbelievable accuracy — better than one part in a hundred million for the motion of the earth round the sun. It remains in daily use to predict the orbits of moons and planets, comets and spacecraft”Stephen Hawking. Lucasian Professor, Cambridge.

“He had a broad forehead and an expression of concentrated meditation.His nose was long, thin and prominent. His chin was square and broad. He was of middle height and stout in later years. He had a lively and piercing eye, a comely and gracious aspect, with a fine head of white hair.”John Conduit.

“If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke.

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In May 1665 Newton tore a corner off a letter from his mother to write a formula on the back. The following is all that remains of the correspondence:

“IsackReceived your letter and I perceive you letter from mee with your cloth butnone to you. Your sisters present thailove to you with my motherly lovyou and prayers to God for you Your loving mother Hanah.

Newton’s reaction to someone opposing his ideas: “Stop telling me what so and so thinks but prove my results are wrong or provide new and different results.”

Newton to Edmund Halley, who was trying to persuade him to publish Principia book III: “Philosophy is such an impertinently litigious lady that a man had as good be engaged in lawsuits as have to do with her.” To which Halley replied, “Let not your resentments run so high as to deprive us of your third book.”

Newton to John Collins, who had shown Leibniz some papers on “Fluxions”: “I look upon your advice as an act of singular friendship being I believe censured by divers for my scattered letters in ye “Transactions” about such things as nobody els would let come out without substantial discours. I could wish to retract what has been done but by that, I have learnt what’s to my convenience which is to let what I write ly by till I am out of ye way.”

May 1694 to Nathaniel Hawes : “A vulgar Mechanick can practice what he has been taught or seen done, but if he is in an error he knows not how to find it out and correct it, and if you put him out of his road, he is at a stand. Whereas he that is able to reason nimbly and judiciously about figure, force and motion is never at rest till he gets over every rub.”

To an unnamed companion in his old age: “I do not know what I may seem to the world, but, to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

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The Apple Story

William Stukeley, a young friend, fellow Lincolnshireman and first biographer wrote, in 1726, that after dining with Sir Isaac in Kensington:

“The weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank tea, under the shade of some apple trees, only he and myself. Amidst other discourses, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formally, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth’s centre.”

From: Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life

John Conduitt, husband of Isaac’s niece, Catherine Barton, recorded a similar story:

“In the year 1666 he retired again from Cambridge .... to his mother in Lincolnshire and whilst he was musing in a garden it came into his thought that the power of gravity (which brought an apple from the tree to the ground) was not limited to a certain distance from the earth but that this power must extend much farther than usually thought. Why not as high as the moon said he to himself and so if so that must influence her motion and perhaps retain her in her orbit.”

Keynes Collection, Kings College, Cambridge.

Voltaire French philosopher and literary genius, wrote in 1727:

“Sir Isaac Newton, walking in his garden had first thought of hisSystem of Gravitation, upon seeing an apple falling down from the tree”

Letters concerning the English Nation.

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Newton’s sundial now in St. John the Baptist Church, Colsterworth

Newton’s drawing for his Reflecting Telescope

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Bibliography

Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life by William StukeleyNever at Rest by Richard S. WestfallIsaac Newton “Adventurer in Thought” by A. Rupert HallThe Last Sorcerer by Michael WhiteThe Endless Quest by F. W. WestawayA Portrait of Isaac Newton by Frank F. ManuelNewton’s Handbook by Derek GjertsenIsaac Newton by Louis Trenchard MoreLet Newton Be Oxford University PressSeventeenth - Century Lincolnshire by Clive HolmesScientific advice Colin Clavering

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Isaac Newton at forty-sixby Sir Godfrey Kneller

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