Biography of Isaac Newton 1642-1727

Before 6th October 1642 [his uncle] Isaac Newton (age 36) and [his mother] Hannah Ayscough were married.

On 6th October 1642 [his uncle] Isaac Newton (age 36) died.

Around 1645 Reverend Barnabas Smith and [his mother] Hannah Ayscough were married.

In 1654 Isaac Newton (age 11) entered The King's School, Grantham [Map].

In June 1661 Isaac Newton (age 18) entered Trinity College, Cambridge University [Map] which become his home for the next thirty-five years.

In September 1670 John Flamsteed (age 24) visited Cambridge and entered his name as an undergraduate at Jesus College. While it seems he never took up full residence, he was there for two months in 1674, and had the opportunity to hear Isaac Newton's (age 27) Lucasian Lectures.

In 1672 Isaac Newton (age 29) was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1679 Catherine Barton was born to Robert Barton of Brigstock, Northamptonshire and [his half-sister] Hannah Smith. She a niece of Isaac Newton (age 36) being the daughter of his maternal half-sister Hannah Smith. She married 26th August 1717 John Conduit and had issue.

In April 1686 Isaac Newton (age 43) submitted Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy to the Royal Society.

1689. Godfrey Kneller (age 42). Portrait of Isaac Newton (age 46).

In 1699 Isaac Newton (age 56) was appointed Master of the Mint.

In 1705 Isaac Newton (age 62) served as President of the Royal Society. He served until 1727.

In April 1705 Isaac Newton (age 62) was knighted.

Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life. 20th February 1721. A Lincolnshire feast was held at the Ship tavern, Temple bar. when I went into the dining room above stairs, where the better sort of company was; it was talkd, that there was an old gentleman belowstairs whom they fancied to be Sir Isaac Newton (age 78). I instantly went down, & finding it to be so, sat down with him. they above sent to desire us to walk up into the chief room. I answerd, the chief room was where Sir Isaac Newton sat. upon which the upper room was immediately left to the ordinary company, and the better sort came to us.

Sir Isaac enjoy'd himself extremely in this society of his countrymen; & talkd much, & pleasantly. particularly I remember one part of the conversation turn'd upon musick, of which Sir Isaac was fond; & of the opera's then beginning to be in vogue among us. it was no wonder, his soul should be delighted with harmony. Sir Isaac said they were very fine entertainments; but that "there was too much of a good thing; it was like a surfiet at dinner. I went to the last opera," says he, "The first act gave me the greatest pleasure. The second quite tired me: at the third I ran away." He left 5 guineas, & desired the stewards to call upon him for every subscription relating to his countrymen .

About this time upon the request of my friend Mr Maurice Johnson, he readily enterd himself a member of the literary society at Spalding, which still subsists. he made them a present of books: desirous of incouraging every laudable attempt to promote learning, in any branch.

He carryed me with him in his chariot to see the coinage at the Mint, in the Tower: their method of weighing to an extreme nicety, & the rest of thir operations.

On 28th March 1727 Isaac Newton (deceased) was buried in Scientist's Corner, Westminster Abbey [Map]; the first scientist to be buried there. The service was performed by the Bishop of Rochester (age 74).

Before the funeral his body lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber, Cheyneygates, Westminster Abbey [Map]. His coffin was followed by most of the Fellows of the Royal Society.

The Pall Bearers were the Lord Chancellor Peter King 1st Baron King (age 58), James Graham 1st Duke Montrose (age 44), Robert Ker 2nd Duke Roxburghe (age 18), Thomas Herbert 8th Earl Pembroke 5th Earl Montgomery (age 71), Talbot Yelverton 1st Earl of Sussex (age 36) and Thomas Parker 1st Earl Macclesfield (age 60).

The Chief Mourner was Michael Newton 4th Baronet (age 32); his third cousin.

Voltaire observed, "He was buried like a king who had done well by his subjects.".

He was buried at Scientist's Corner, Westminster Abbey [Map] on 28th March 1727.; the first scientist to be buried there. The inscription on his John Michael Rysbrack (age 32) monument reads "Here is buried Isaac Newton, Knight, who by a strength of mind almost divine, and mathematical principles peculiarly his own, explored the course and figures of the planets, the paths of comets, the tides of the sea, the dissimilarities in rays of light, and, what no other scholar has previously imagined, the properties of the colours thus produced. Diligent, sagacious and faithful, in his expositions of nature, antiquity and the holy Scriptures, he vindicated by his philosophy the majesty of God mighty and good, and expressed the simplicity of the Gospel in his manners. Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race! He was born on 25th December 1642, and died on 20th March 1726."

Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life. In magnis, voluisse sat est. Being some account of his family; & chiefly of the junior part of his life. By William Stukeley (age 64). 1752.

Woolsthorpe Manor [Map]. Birthplace of Isaac Newton.