Newton

            Isaac Newton's life can be divided into three distinct periods. The first is his childhood days in 1643 up to his appointment to a chair in the Royal Society in 1669. The second period lasted from 1669 to 1687 and was Newtons highly productive period in which he was a Lucasian professor at Cambridge college. The third period, which was as long as the other two combined was where Newton was a highly paid government official in London with little or no interest in mathematical research. .
             Isaac Newton was born in the manor house of Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England on January 4, 1643. Newton came from a family of farmers but never knew his father, who was also named Isaac Newton. His father died in October of 1642, three months before his son was born. Isaac's father owned property and animals which made him a wealthy man, he was completely uneducated and could not sign his own name. .
             Isaac's mother was named Hannah Ayscough, who remarried to Barnabas Smith the minister of a church at North Witham, when Isaac was two years old. Newton, who was only two years old at the time was left in the care of his grandmother Margery Ayscough at Woolsthorpe. Treated like an orphan, Isaac did not have a happy childhood. His grandfather was James Ayscough, and was hardley mentioned by Newton. There is no doubt that Newton had bitter feelings towards his mother and his step-father Barnabas Smith.
             With the death of his stepfather in 1653, Newton lived in an extended family consisting of his mother, his grandmother, one half-brother, and two half-sisters. Shortly after this time Newton began attending the Free Grammar School in Grantham. The school was only five miles from his home, but Isaac lived with the Clark family at Grantham. However he seems to have shown little interest in academic work. His school reports described him as "idle" and "inattentive". His mother, who was now of reasonable wealth and property, thought that he was the right person to manage her affairs and her estate.