Isaac Newton biography

The life of Isaac Newton could be divided in three basic sections. First his childhood from 1643 to 1669, which spanned his boyhood days to his chair appointment. Secondly from 1669 to 1687, which was a highly productive period when he was a Lucasian professor at Cambridge. Then finally consisting of the last period where Isaac was a highly paid government official in London.

Isaac Newton was born in a manor house of Woolsthorpe, located near Grantham in Lincolnshire. The calendar at the time showed him to be born on Christmas day, but in the "corrected" Gregorian calendar it shows that his birthday was January 4th 1643. He descended from a family of farmers, and tragically never knew his father whish passed away 3 months before Isaac was born. Although his father was a wealthy man, made this way by land ownership and livestock, her was completely uneducated and could not even sign his own name.

When Isaac was two years old, his mother Hannah Ayscough was remarried to Barnabas Smith. Smith was the minister of the church in North Witham, a nearby village. Isaac was at that time left in the care of his grandmother Margery Ayscough. He did not have a happy childhood and was basically treated as an orphan. Understandably Isaac was very bitter towards his mother and step-father. At age nineteen he examined his own sins, making a list which included "Threatening my father and mother Smith to burn them and the house over them".

His step father died in 1653, at this point Isaac lived with his mother, grandmother, a half brother and two half sisters. Around this time he also began attending the Free Grammar School in Grantham. The school was only five miles from his home, however he chose to lodge with the Clark family in Grantham. It is recorded that he showed little promise in academics. His school reports described him as "idle" and "inattentive". By this time his mother had become a lady of reasonable wealth and property and she thought that her oldest son was the right choice to manage her affairs and estate. She took him away from his schooling, but soon revealed that he had no talent or interest in estate managing.

His uncle William Ayscough made the decision that Isaac should prepare to enter the University and persuaded Isaac's mother that it was the right choice. Isaac returned to the Free Grammar School in 1660 and completed his school education. Instead of lodging again with the Clark family again, he lodged this time with the headmaster Stokes. Unlike before, this time around he must have convinced others that he did have academic promise, because Stoke persuaded Isaac's mother to allow him to enter the University.

Stokes provided Isaac with private coaching and a good grounding in preparation for the University. There is no record at this time of any extensive training in Mathematics, but it is possible that Stokes introduce him to Euclid's Elements. There are many tales of Isaac mechanical abilities and the models he made of clocks and windmills.