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Here are some Newton stories and accounts over the years:

The Newtons at Barr's Court

Barr's Court near Bristol was first under the Barr family and then passed through two different Newton families, one from nearby Yatton and the other from Lincolnshire.  The place was referred to as a "fayre old manor place of stone" in 1540.  By the 1650's, when Sir John Newton was in residence, it was probably in its heyday.  Sir John had demolished the old castle nearby and reused the stone on his house.

There are tombs and monuments of the Newton family from Yatton, East Harptree in nearby Bitton church. Sir John, who died in 1699 and was buried there, was described as follows: "a most loving husband, careful father, faithful friend, pious, just, prudent, charitable, salient, and beloved of all."

In the 1700's Barr's Court passed into the hands of Sir Michael Newton who had married a certain Margaret, Countess of Coningsby from Herefordshire.   They had one son John who died when an infant.  There are several rather extravagant stories about his death.  One version is that he was dropped from the roof of the manor house after having been carried there by an ape.  Another says that he was dropped down a stairway by his nurse when she was surprised by the sight of an ape.  Whatever the truth of the matter, upon the death of Sir Michael Newton in 1743, the baronetcy became extinct.

It was at the time of the death of his wife in 1746 that the manor house of Barr's Court was destroyed.  The explanation appears to be that it was decreed in the will that, as there were no heirs, then the house was to be razed to the ground.  And so it was.  It is said that from the air the outlines of the foundations are to be seen and that in a dry period it is possible to make out the contours of the moat.

Woolsthorpe Manor

A small plain limestone manor house in Lincolnshire was the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton.  His family had taken possession of Woolsthorpe Manor in 1623 and Isaac was born prematurely and sickly on Christmas Day in 1642.  Isaac's father, a prosperous Lincolnshire farmer, had died two months before his son's birth.  His mother went on to raise a second family nearby.  But Isaac remained at Woolsthorpe and spent an introverted and isolated childhood in the care of his grandmothers.

His genius soon became obvious and an uncle declared that it would be wrong "to bury so extraordinary a talent in rustic business."  In 1661 Isaac Newton left Lincolnshire to continue his studies at Cambridge. However in 1665 and 1666 he was forced to return to Woolsthorpe to escape the plague.

It was at Woolsthorpe Manor that Isaac Newton formulated three great discoveries - the principle of differential calculus, the composition of white light and the law of gravitation.  He later observed: "In the two plague years I was in the prime of my age for invention and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since."

Woolsthorpe, with its simple T-shaped plan and mullioned windows, is a typical early-17th century manor house.  The house, suitable for a well-to-do gentleman farmer of James I's reign, was built on the site of an earlier building sometime after 1623.

The Newton Plantation and Slave Burial Ground

Samuel Newton started up his sugar plantation at Christ Church parish in Barbados in the 1660's.  It ran on slave labor for the next 170 years until emancipation in 1834.  The slaves were initially supplied by slave traders. Later they were creolized, in other words born in Barbados.  The numbers ran around two to three hundred, generally more women than men.

It is estimated that a thousand slaves died on the Newton plantation over its 170 years of existence, of which 570 were buried in the cemetery (some in low earthen mounds, some in non-mound burials). Excavation of these mounds has allowed researchers a glimpse into their lives. 

This is the only communal excavated slave burial ground that exists.  A sign near Sunbury marks the place. But there is little evidence that anyone has been taking notice.

John Newton in the Eye of the Storm

The Greyhound had been thrashing about in the north Atlantic storm for over a week.  Its canvas sails were ripped and the wood on one side of the ship had been torn away and splintered.  The sailors had little hope of survival but they mechanically worked the pumps, trying to keep the vessel afloat.  On the eleventh day of the storm, sailor John Newton was too exhausted to pump.  So he tied himself to the helm and tried to hold the ship to its course.  From one o'clock until midnight he was at the helm.

With the storm raging fiercely, Newton had time to think.  His life seemed as ruined and wrecked as the battered ship he was trying to steer through the storm.  Since the age of eleven he had lived a life at sea. Sailors were not noted for the refinement of their manners.  But Newton had a reputation for profanity, coarseness, and debauchery which even shocked many a sailor.

He was known as "The Great Blasphemer."  He sank so low at one point that he was even a servant to slaves in Africa for a brief period.  His mother had prayed he would become a minister and had early taught him the Scriptures and Isaac Watts' Divine Songs for Children.  Some of those early childhood teachings came to mind now.  He remembered Proverbs 1:24-31 and, in the midst of that storm, those verses seemed to confirm Newton in his despair:

But that day at the helm, March 21, 1748, was a day Newton remembered ever after: "On that day the Lord sent from on high and delivered me out of deep waters."

   

Early Newtons in America

	Birth		Death
Richard Newton	1603	England	1701	Mass (Marlborough)
Rev. Roger Newton	1608	England	1683	Connecticut (Milford)
John Newton	1639	England	1697	Va (Westmoreland co)
Richard Newton	1710	England	1760	Massachusetts
Ebeneezer Newton	1723	Penn (York co)	1812	North Carolina
Rev. John Newton	1732	Penn (Kent co)	1790	Georgia (Jefferson co)
Giles Newton	1735	Virginia	1804	South Carolina
Isaac Newton	1735	unknown	1799	N. Carolina (Duplin co)
John Newton	1750	Va (Lunenburg co)	1799	South Carolina
Peter Newton	1755	Va (Caroline co)	1823	Kentucky (Bullitt co)

Moses Newton Repelling An Indian Attack

On March 26 1676 the Indians attacked Marlborough during King Philip's War.  Moses Newton is generally given credit for being the hero of the day.

"On the Sabbath, when Mr. Brimstead was in sermon, the worshipping assembly was suddenly dispersed by an outcry: 'Indians at the door.'  The confusion of the moment was instantly increased by fire from the enemy.  But the God whom they were worshipping shielded their lives and limbs, with the exception of the arm of one, Moses Newton, who was carrying an elderly and infirm woman to a place of safety.  In a few minutes they were sheltering in their fort with the mutual feelings peculiar to such a scene.

Their meeting house and many dwelling houses, being left without protection, were burnt.  The fruit trees pilled and hacked and the other valuable effects rendered useless perpetuated the barbarity of the savages for many years after the inhabitants had returned.  Many had left their farms until the threat of war was further removed."

Hudson in his history of Marlborough stated that Moses Newton "received a ball in his elbow, the effects of which he never fully recovered from." 

 

The Fig Newton

The Fig Newton is a brand of fig bar pastry filled with fig jam.  The biscuit was created in 1891 by Charles M. Roser for the Kennedy Biscuit Company, a Massachusetts-based bakery.  This company merged with other regional bakeries in 1898 to form the National Biscuit Company, now Nabisco.  The Fig Newton is now a trademarked product of Nabisco and is sold across the world.    

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