Woolsthorpe Manor

Did you know that Isaac Newton had to stay in quarantaine here in this house? Half away the 17th century, the Great Plague hit London. Isaac Newton was in his early 20s when he was a college student at Trinity College, Cambridge. The cause of this horrible desease was not known, but as in the Covid-19 virus health cirisis of 2020, a version of “social distancing” was enforced. Cambridge sent students home to continue their studies. For Newton, that meant Woolsthorpe Manor, the family estate about 60 miles northwest of Cambridge. Without his professors to guide him, Newton apparently thrived during that period. The year-plus he spent away was later referred to as his annus mirabilis, the “year of wonders.”

And right outside his window at Woolsthorpe, there was an apple tree. The story of how Newton sat under the tree, was bonked on the head by an apple and suddenly understood theories of gravity and motion, is a bit of a legend and myth. But according to his assistant, John Conduitt, there’s an element of truth. All that happened during the big quarantaine. 

In London, a quarter of the population would die of plague from 1665 to 1666. It was one of the last major outbreaks in the 400 years that the Black Death ravaged Europe. Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667, theories in hand. Within six months, he was made a fellow; two years later, a professor.

Pascal Brackman