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  Rare Autograph Manuscript Fragment in the Hand of Sir Isaac Newton Documenting his Ancestry

  NEWTON, Sir Isaac [1642/43–1727].

  Sir Isaac Newton Autograph Manuscript Fragment on the Newton Family Lineage.

  ca. 1700-1708.

  Autograph manuscript fragment on the Newton family lineage. [England, undated]. A single leaf bearing autograph text in the hand of Sir Isaac Newton on both sides. 2.25 x 0.75 inches (approx. 5.7 x 1.9 cm). Transcription, recto: "Of the older family I am ... whom I take to be my ... of William Newton baptized 1541, whom ..." Transcription, verso: "for had by a ... was next heir at law ... infants and to that purpose ... of her daughter with his ..." A working genealogical note in Newton's hand, evidently drawn from a longer document, in which he traces a line of descent through one William Newton, baptized 1541. The verso references questions of heirship and minor children, suggesting the fragment formed part of Newton's private inquiry into the legal and lineal standing of the Newton family. Newton's documented genealogy situates him within the rural gentry of early modern England. He was born at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, to Isaac Newton, a yeoman farmer who died before his son's birth, and Hannah Ayscough, daughter of a local clergyman. The paternal line can be traced to his grandfather Robert Newton, also of Woolsthorpe, indicating a family of modest landholding status. The maternal Ayscough line connected Newton to the educated clerical class, a milieu that may have...

  Price: $12,800.00     Item Number: 151722

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