Born in the village of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England, in 1643 (by today’s calendar), the only son of prosperous farmer Isaac Newton, this baby of the same name was premature, tiny, weak, and not expected to live.

But he did. His father had died three months before he was born. His mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, remarried when Isaac was three to a well-to-do minister named Barnabas Smith. Hannah went to live with the Reverend Smith leaving her son with his maternal grandmother.

The experience left Isaac with an indelible feeling of insecurity which would manifest itself furiously later in life. When young Newton was 12, Hannah returned, the Reverend Smith having gone to his eternal reward leaving three more children. Isaac had been attending the King’s School in Grantham where he lodged with the local apothecary. It was there that Isaac developed a fascination with chemistry.

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