Peter King 1st Baron King 1669-1734

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 [aged 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 [aged 58], James Graham 1st Duke Montrose [aged 44], Robert Ker 2nd Duke Roxburghe [aged 18], Thomas Herbert 8th Earl Pembroke 5th Earl Montgomery [aged 71], Talbot Yelverton 1st Earl of Sussex [aged 36] and Thomas Parker 1st Earl Macclesfield [aged 60].

The Chief Mourner was Michael Newton 4th Baronet [aged 32]; his third cousin.

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

The inscription on his John Michael Rysbrack [aged 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."