Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, in Lincolnshire, near to Grantham. Newton's father was a yeoman farmer who died shortly before his son's birth. Initially, and hardly surprising, the idea was that he would grow up to work and run his father's farm. "At school he showed some learning and mechanical skills; being able to learn is a skill as much as the latter, which were required later with his experiments with light and also when he constructed the first reflecting telescope (Berlinski 19)." Like John Harrison he found it necessary to make everything himself. Today we rarely have to make anything ourselves. For example, today one could probably get away without being able to use a pen. Typing and e-mail make life relatively easier for those without the ability to use a pen.
When he finished school and was living at home, it quickly became plain to see that the prospect of farming was far from his mind. Instead of learning about the farm, he spent his time experimenting and even constructing mechanical models. As a result, and through his mother's doing, he was sent to Trinity College in Cambridge because she could see that farming was not for him. He lived at .
Cambridge starting in 1661, continuing on for the next 35 years. The greater part of his mathematical work was done there. From 1693 onward, Newton became increasingly involved in administrative and political affairs. In 1696 he became warden (and later master) of the Mint, a secure administrative position that provided him with a steady income. He was knighted in 1705 and presided over the Royal Society from 1703 to the end of his life. He died in Kensington on 20 March 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abbey after a state funeral. .
Newton's mental leap of understanding gravity was not a simple move forward because while most people follow steps in order, he did not. He moved understanding of the universe to another level.
