|
|
After 5 years offline, IsaacNewton.org.uk is being updated during 2006. Please bear with us while we track down all the dead links etc. Westminster Abbey Tomb of Isaac NewtonNewton was buried in Westminster Abbey in April 1727. John Conduitt, the husband of his niece, commissioned an elaborate memorial by William Kent and Michael Rysbrack. This was placed against the north screen, a few feet from the grave. It was completed in 1731 and described by The Gentleman's Magazine on 22nd April:
NotesThe reviewer may not have been aware of that Newton's years spent at a furnace were in the pursuit of the alchemical structure of matter. Conduitt had succeeded Newton as Master of the Mint and included detailed instructions about a reference to the Mint in his letters to the artists. The comet of 1680-1 was discussed in the Example for Proposition XLI of Principia Book III, and had prompted Newton to apply his gravitation to objects in the solar system other than planets. Newton had used the supposed position of the equinoxes at the time of Jason's voyage in the Argo to make a chronology of Greek history based on astronomy rather than oral tradition. Westminster Abbey has a page about Newton and his monument including an illustration and the text of the inscription. © 1994-2001 Andrew McNab. Back to isaacnewton.org.uk |