If you’re interested in the History of Science as I am you will be pleased to know that the Royal Society has just added several important manuscripts to its digital collections including the famous biography of Isaac Newton written by the stonehenge antiquarian William Stukeley, Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life. The text of Stukeley’s memoirs is already available online however this is the first time the manuscript itself has been available to the public.
Stukeley did not complete the memoirs until 1752, twenty-five years after Newton’s death, however he recalls one of the most famous anecdotes in the annals of science: Newton’s encounter with the falling apple. He writes about a conversation he had with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726:
After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden, & drank thea under the shade of some appletrees; only he, & my self. amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. “why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground,” thought he to himself, occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. “why should it not go sideways, or upwards? but constantly to the earth’s center? assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. there must be a drawing power in matter. & the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earth’s center, not in any side of the earth. therefore does this apple fall perpendicularly or toward the center. if matter thus draws matter; it must be in proportion of its quantity. therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple.”
& thus by degrees he began to apply this properly of gravitation to the motion of the earth, & of heavenly bodys: to consider their distances, their magnitudes, their periodical revolutions;
The story was likely embellished by Newton himself over the years. Regarding Stukeley’s memoirs, Keith Moore, the Royal Society’s head of library and archives told the Guardian UK:
“Scholars know where the apple story comes from, and clearly it’s an anecdote Newton polished. What we want is for the public to see the manuscript itself. It wasn’t just Newton that polished it, succeeding generations put a gloss on it as well – that story just humanises him just a little bit.”
Both Scientific American and the Guardian UK have articles on the Stukeley manuscript.
The Royal Society’s new Turning the Pages digital collection includes
| Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s life, by William Stukeley | William Stukeley’s recollections of Isaac Newton’s life, 1752 |
| Fossil notebook, by Henry James | A field notebook containing drawings of trilobites by Henry James FRS, 1843 |
| Anatomical studies, by Andrew van Rysmdyk | Anatomical studies of the lymphatic system, by Andrew van Rysmdyk, 1774 |
| On iron bridges, by Thomas Paine | Letter from Thomas Paine to Joseph Banks on an iron arch bridge made at Mesrs Walkers Iron Works, 1789 |
| Specimens of calligraphy and natural history illustration | Specimens of calligraphy and natural history illustration, 17th Century |
| Constitutions of Carolina, by John Locke | The fundamental constitutions of Carolina, by John Locke & others, 1681 |
| British grasses and wild flowers, by Richard Waller | Illustrations of British grasses and wild flowers by naturalist Richard Waller, ca. 1686-1688 |





