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Primary sourceArtifact17th century

Woolsthorpe Manor

17th century

The stone farmhouse in Lincolnshire where Isaac Newton was born and where he later worked on optics, calculus and gravitation during the plague years.

Newton's birthplace and the house where he carried out key early work during the plague years of 1665–67.

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A two-storey stone manor house with a steep tiled roof and two chimneys, seen from the front behind a wooden rail fence on a grassy lawn. Two people stand near the right fence gate.
Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton. National Trust.

About this source

What it is

Woolsthorpe Manor is a seventeenth-century yeoman's farmhouse in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire. It was built by the Newton family, who had owned the property since the 1620s. It is now owned by the National Trust and open to the public.

Why it matters

Isaac Newton was born here and returned in 1666 when Cambridge University closed due to plague. During this stay he carried out some of his most important early work on light and optics, and it is traditionally said to be where he began thinking about gravity after seeing an apple fall. The house shows the modest, rural setting that shaped one of history's most influential scientists.

Look closer

  • Why do you think this ordinary farmhouse became such an important historical site?
  • What does the house's simple, practical design tell you about the Newton family's way of life?
  • How might living away from a university, cut off by plague, have shaped the way Newton thought and worked?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Isaac Newton on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of the 1687 first edition of Newton's Principia. Large capitals read PHILOSOPHIÆ NATURALIS PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, with author credit, Imprimatur by S. Pepys, dated Julii 5, 1686, and London printing by Josephi Streater, Anno MDCLXXXVII.Book

Primary source

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica

Isaac Newton · 1687

Title page with a page number marked [1] at top, reading PHILOSOPHIAE NATURALIS Principia MATHEMATICA, followed by the heading Definitiones and Def. I, with a Latin definition of quantity of matter in italic type. Faint bleed-through text from the reverse page is visible.Book

Primary source

Principia Mathematica, Page 1: Definitions

Isaac Newton · 1687

Black-and-white line engraving of an elderly man with long, wavy white hair seated in a dark armchair, wearing a dark coat, waistcoat, and white cravat, with his hands resting on his knee. A column appears at the right. Inscribed beneath: 'ISAACUS NEWTON EQ. AUR. ÆT. 83', with 'I. Vanderbank pinxit 1725' at lower left and 'Geo. Vertue Sculpsit 1726' at lower right.Painting

Primary source

Sir Isaac Newton, line engraving by Vertue, 1726

George Vertue · 1726

Engraved diagram on a cream page within a book, showing a curved comet path from Sol at left, with dated positions such as Nov. 25, Dec. 12, Jan. 5 and Mar. 5, labeled orbit lines and a sphere intersection line.Document

Primary source

Principia Mathematica, Fold-out Diagram

Isaac Newton · 1687

Engraved portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, a man with long curled wig and dark robe, bust-length, against a shaded background. Caption below reads 'SIR ISAAC NEWTON' and publisher 'William Collins Glasgow & London'.Painting

Primary source

Sir Isaac Newton, stipple engraving by J. Scott after Kneller, 1702

J. Scott, after Sir Godfrey Kneller · 1702 (print made later)

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