Editing Woolsthorpe Manor (section)

== History ==
=== Before Isaac Newton’s birth===
Originally part of the estate of [[Colsterworth]] and still part of its [[ecclesiastical parish]], by the twelfth century Woolsthorpe was a separate [[manorial system|manor]]. It was the seat of various families including the Sleafords, the Pigotts, the Thimelbys, the Burys, and the Underwoods, who in 1623 sold it to Robert Newton, grandfather of Sir Isaac Newton. It was the Newton family's second property in Woolsthorpe and Robert then settled it on his eldest son Isaac as a wedding dowry in 1639. With the property went the title [[Lord of the Manor]]. However, by the 17th century the manorial rights had been largely eroded and the house acted more as a [[yeoman]]'s farmstead, principally rearing sheep. In April 1642 Isaac married Hannah Ayscough and died in October the same year, three months before the birth of his son.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Woolsthorpe|url= https://www.villagearchivegroup.com/woolsthorpe.php |publisher=Village Research Group|access-date=11 October 2024}}</ref>

=== Isaac Newton ===
Sir Isaac Newton was born in the house on Christmas Day 1642 ([[Old Style and New Style dates|N.S.]] 4 January 1643) and was baptised on New Year's Day (11 January) in the nearby parish church of [[Colsterworth#Religion|St John the Baptist, Colsterworth]]. At the age of three his widowed mother Hannah remarried and moved to [[North Witham]] a mile and a half away leaving Isaac to be raised by his grandparents, returning to Woolsthorpe after she was widowed a second time seven years later. When Newton was twelve he was sent to [[The King's School, Grantham|The King's School]] in [[Grantham]] and later worked with the local apothecary. He returned briefly at the age of 17; however, unsuited to and uninterested in a life of professional [[Animal husbandry|husbandry]], he soon returned to Grantham and in 1661 at the age of 18 left Lincolnshire for [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]] in [[Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Woolsthorpe Manor History|url= https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/nottinghamshire-lincolnshire/woolsthorpe-manor/history-of-woolsthorpe-manor |publisher=National Trust |access-date=11 October 2024}}</ref>

Newton returned to Woolsthorpe in 1666 when [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] closed due to the [[Great Plague of London|plague]], and performed many of his most famous experiments there, most notably his work on [[light]] and [[optics]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Woolsthorpe Manor – Year of Wonders 1665–1667 |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/woolsthorpe-manor/features/year-of-wonders |publisher=National Trust |access-date=19 June 2020}}</ref> This is also said to be the site where Newton, observing an [[Isaac Newton's apple tree|apple fall from a tree]], was inspired to formulate his [[law of universal gravitation]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

=== After Newton ===

When Newton died in 1727 the manor passed to his nearest male heir, John Newton, his uncle Robert's great-grandson. In 1732 the estate was sold to the Turnor family, based at the nearby [[Stoke Rochford Hall|Stoke Rochford Estate]], who leased the manor to a farming family named Woolerton. They remained the tenants for the next 200 years. In 1942 the manor was purchased by the [[Pilgrim Trust]] and the [[Royal Society]] who then gave it to the National Trust for preservation.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Woolsthorpe|url= https://www.villagearchivegroup.com/woolsthorpe.php |publisher=Village Research Group|access-date=11 October 2024}}</ref>

=== National Trust ===
Now in the hands of the [[National Trust]] and open to the public except in winter, it is presented as a typical seventeenth century yeoman's farmhouse.

New areas of the house, once private, were opened up to the public in 2003,<ref>{{cite web |title=Woolsthorpe Manor |url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/woolsthorpe-manor |publisher=National Trust |access-date=19 June 2020}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=June 2020}} with the old rear steps (originally to the hay loft and grain store, often seen in period drawings) being rebuilt, and the old walled kitchen garden to the rear of the house being restored.

One of the former farmyard buildings has been equipped as an interactive visitor experience of the [[Physics|physical]] principles investigated by Newton in the house.