Newton, Isaac

Autograph draft of his pedigree, 1 page (11 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 300 x 184 mm); soiled, a few stains, clean mended tear in lower outer corner, a few tiny mends in upper left corner. Green half-morocco clamshell box, gilt-stamped title on spine.

See C.W. Foster, "Sir Isaac Newton's Family", Reports and Papers of the Architectural Societies of the County of Lincoln, County of York, Archdeaconries of Northampton and Oakham, and County of Leicester, 39 (1928–9), 1–62

"The genealogical items that survive among Newton's papers, including this one, mostly date from 1705. On 16 April 1705, Queen Anne knighted Newton in Trinity College, and, on 22 November, he filed his family tree with the College of Arms. Sensitive perhaps to the speed of the advance of his family's fortunes, Newton was keen to emphasize his relationship to Sir John Newton of Thorpe, who entered a submission at the College of Arms in support of his kinsman. Towards the end of his life, however, Newton altered his interpretation of his family's early history, suggesting that his grandfather or great-grandfather had come from East Lothian, arriving in England with James I" (Newton Project at Cambridge University).

The present draft was sold in the Viscount Lymington's sale of  Newton Papers (Sotheby's 14 July 1936), lot 177, (7) partial, which part was eventually acquired by John Maynard Keynes. Other items from the lot may now be found in the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem; the Babson Collection (on deposit in the Dibner Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts), and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin.