Biography of Isaac Newton

Through his early life experiences and with the knowledge left by his predecessors, Sir Isaac Newton was able to develop calculus, natural forces, and optics. From birth to early childhood, Isaac Newton overcame many personal, social, and mental hardships. It is through these experiences that helped create the person society knows him as in this day and age. The beginning of these obstacles started at birth for Newton.

Isaac was born premature on Christmas Day 1642, in the manor house of Woolsthorpe, 7 miles south of Grantham in Lincolnshire. It is said that “Because Galileo, . . . had died that year, a significance attaches itself to 1642”(Westfall 1).

Though his father had died before Isaac was born, he was given his father’s name. He was born into a farming family that had worked their way slowly up the “social ladder”. The Newton’s were one of the few families to prosper in Lincolnshire(Westfall 1). At the age of three Isaac’s life would take a drastic turn. When Isaac was three his mother, Hannah Ayscough, remarried to the Reverend Barnabas Smith(Internet-newtonia). Isaac and the Reverend never got along and the Reverend would not have a child that was not his living with him.

Isaac stayed with his grandparents when his mother went to live with the Reverend in North Witham. His maternal grandmother raised Isaac until he was ten. It is believed that his mother’s second marriage and her leaving caused many problems for Isaac as a child. While living with his grandparents he attended day school nearby in Skillington and Stoke. Many cousins and other family members in the area surrounded Isaac though, “He formed no bond with any of his numerous relatives that can be traced later in his life”(Westfall 11). In 1653 his mother returned after her second husband died.

With her she brought one half brother and two half sisters. Although it is not known, bitterness may have inflicted Isaac when his three new siblings arrived. Never the less, two years later at the age of twelve he was sent to Grantham to attend grammar school. While attending grammar school Isaac lived with the apothecary Mr. Clark(Westfall 12). Mr.

Clark had three stepchildren from the first marriage of his wife, Miss Storer, who were also living in his house. In school and at home Isaac was apparently different and did not get along with any other boys.