Catherine Barton

Catherine Barton (* 1679 ; † 1739 ) was Isaac Newton's half-niece (the daughter of his half-sister), whom he later adopted as his daughter. She looked after him for the last years of his life and administered Newton's estate after his death.

One of the stories that Newton developed his law of gravity after an apple fell at his feet in the garden of Woolsthorpe Manor goes back to Barton, who told Voltaire who in turn disseminated it to the public. Voltaire, who was friends with Barton, said his niece's charms in the London climate of the time were more important to Newton's appointment as head of the Royal Mint than his scientific discoveries.

Newton's papers on his heretical views on Christianity and on his alchemical research were kept under lock and key, so that they did not become public knowledge until 130 years after Newton's death. They came to light in 1936 when Lord Lymington, Earl of Portsmouth , a direct descendant of Barton, had them auctioned at Sotheby’s . The documents were received with great skepticism, both because of their origin and because of their unusual content, but they turned out to be genuine. John Maynard Keynes managed to acquire most of them.

Catherine Barton

Described by contemporaries as an attractive and charming woman, Barton was admired by Jonathan Swift , among others . Swift dedicated poems to her, the subject was taken up again in the 20th century by the poet Alfred Noyes :

“Was it a dream, that low dim-lighted room
With that dark periwigged phantom of Dean Swift
Writing, beside a fire, to one he loved, -
Beautiful Catherine Barton, once the light
Of Newton's house, and his half-sister's child ?
Yes, Catherine Barton, I am brave enough
To face this pale, unhappy, wistful ghost
Of our departed friendship. "

- Alfred Noyes

Barton was in a relationship with Charles Montagu , 1st Earl of Halifax, after his wife's death in 1698. He left her the then staggering sum of £ 5,000 in cash and £ 20,000 in land for the pleasure and happiness I have had in her conversation .

From 1707 Newton's house was run by Barton. Barton married Newton's disciple John Conduitt in 1717 , who succeeded him as head of the Royal Mint.

Catherine Barton in the novel

Barton is a character in Neal Stephenson's System of the World , volume three of the Baroque trilogy.

A fictional C. Barton plays an important role in the novel "Newton's Shadow" (Reinbek 2003, "Dark Matter", 2002) by the British author Philip Kerr .

literature

• D. McKie and G. de Beer, G: Newton's apple. In: Notes and Records of the Royal Society. vol 9, 1952, pp. 46-54, 333-5
• Augustus De Morgan: Newton: his friend, and his niece 1968, ISBN 0712903305 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joel Levy: Newton's Notebook . The Life, Times and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. The History Press Ltd, Stroud 2009, ISBN 978-0-7524-5493-1 (English).
2. ^ Alfred Noyes: Watchers of the Sky . 1922, ISBN 978-0-7812-0390-6 , 5th Newton ( Read book online ).