Person    | Male  Born 4/1/1643  Died 31/3/1727

Sir Isaac Newton

Categories: Science, Seriously Famous

Born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, on Christmas day, according to the calendar in use at the time. Died in Kensington (where he had gone in search of country air). The exact dates of birth and death vary from source to source. Buried Westminster Abbey.

He entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1660. He propounded the laws of motion, universal gravitation, optics and the basis of differential calculus. He was Master of the Mint from 1699 - 1727, President of the Royal Society from 1703 - 26 and was knighted in 1705. Used to feature on the £1 note.

It is sometimes said that he lived in Leicester Square, but he actually lived nearby at 35 St. Martin's Street.

It is also said that Newton was practically an agelast, as Maths pages tells us: Isaac Newton's assistant at Cambridge claimed that during five years he saw Newton laugh only once. Newton had loaned a copy of Euclid {geometry} to an acquaintance, and the gentleman asked what use it was to study Euclid, "upon which Sir Isaac was very merry".

It's said that Newton loved animals and invented the cat-flap. Despite this, Newton may not have been a very nice man - he enjoyed witnessing the executions of the counterfeiters he pursued as part of his job at the Mint, and he had a major falling out with Robert Hooke, not speaking to him for the rest of his life. He fought a vicious feud with Leibniz over who invented the calculus. Newton's allegation that Leibniz had stolen his ideas was aggressive and destructive. It is now accepted that Newton wrote down the calculus first and Leibniz was the first to publish, while most schoolboys wish it had never been invented at all.

Buried in Westminster Abbey.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Isaac Newton

Commemorated ati

British Library - Newton

Bronze, 12 foot high (and he's sitting down).  Via Facebook Henri Hudson has ...

Read More

City of London School 4 - Newton

{On the statue's plinth:} Newton

Read More

Isaac Newton bust

Isaac Newton, 25 December 1642 - 20 March 1727, scientist, mathematician, phi...

Read More

Show all 10

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Sir Isaac Newton

Creations i

St Stephen's School - Boys entrance

The two S's probably indicate 'St Stephen's'.

Read More

Other Subjects

Sir George Cayley

Sir George Cayley

Scientist and pioneer of aviation. Born Scarborough.

Person, Aviation, Science

2 memorials
Chambers Nicholson

Chambers Nicholson

Chemist and dye manufacturer. We found this man in Grace's Guide: Born in Lincoln as Edward Chambers Nicholson. 1845 became one of the first students at the Royal College of Chemistry. 1853 he form...

Person, Science

1 memorial
Sir Frederick Hopkins

Sir Frederick Hopkins

Biochemist. Born Frederick Gowland Hopkins at 16 Marine Parade, Eastbourne. He studied at Guy's Hospital, where he received the University of London gold medal. In 1897 he became the first lecturer...

Person, Science

2 memorials
William Farr

William Farr

Epidemiologist, a founder of medical statistics. Born Kenley, Shropshire.

Person, Medicine, Science

1 memorial
Edward Westermarck

Edward Westermarck

Philosopher and sociologist.  Born Helsinki.  Learnt English in order to read Darwin and others.  Came to England in 1897 and frequently thereafter.  Probably homosexual himself, he wrote on subjec...

Person, Science, Finland

1 memorial

Previously viewed

C. K. McColloagh Kinsman

C. K. McColloagh Kinsman

Student at Lincoln's Inn

Person

War dead, WW2
1 memorial
Arthur Joseph Mullett
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Leon Blanding

Leon Blanding

Lieutenant Colonel Leon McFaddin Blanding was born on 30 October 1918 in Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina, USA, the youngest of the seven children of Donald McQueen Blanding (1868-1934) and Ge...

Person, Armed Forces, USA

War served, WW2
1 memorial
Frederick Ernest Joslin
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Private Bertie Doe

Private Bertie Doe

Resident of Willesden who volunteered and died in the Anglo Boer War, 1899-1900. Died of dysentery at Ladysmith. Our colleague, Andrew Behan, has endeavoured to research this man who is shown as '...

Person, Medicine, South Africa

War dead, Other war
1 memorial