Early Life
She was the second daughter of Robert Barton and his second wife, Hannah Smith, half-sister of Isaac Newton, and baptized at Brigstock, Northampton on 25 Nov 1679.
She was remarked upon by several men to be beautiful, witty and clever. Sometime after her uncle Isaac moved to London to become Warden of the Mint in April 1696 she moved there to live with him. She was known as a brilliant conversationalist, and attracted the admiration of such famous figures as Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Her uncle Isaac was also fond of her; an excerpt of an uncharacteristically warm letter from Newton survives, regarding her contraction of smallpox: "Pray let me know by your next how your face is and if your fevour be going. Perhaps warm milk from ye Cow may help to abate it. I am Your loving Unkle, Is. Newton."
Voltaire insinuated that Newton's preferment to the Royal Mint was the result of her alleged affair with Charles Montague. However, although it is true that Isaac was appointed under the patronage of Charles Montague, it is clear that Catherine Barton came up to London and met Montague after the appointment, not before.
Read more about this topic: Catherine Barton
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)