Later Life of Isaac Newton - Sir Isaac Newton's Final Years

Sir Isaac Newton's Final Years

In the last few years of Newton's life he was troubled by urinary incontinence probably due to a kidney stone. In January 1725 he was seized with violent cough and inflammation of the lungs which induced him to move to Kensington. In the next month he had a case of gout and then had an improvement of health. His duties from the mint were terminated and thus he seldom left home. On 28 February 1727 he went to London to preside at a meeting of the Royal Society but his health condition forced him to return to Kensington on 4 March when it was determined he had a kidney stone. He endured great suffering. On 18 March he became delirious around 6pm and stayed in that state until Monday 20 March 1727 when he died between one and two in the morning. His body was taken to London and on Tuesday, 28 March it lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster Abbey, and then was moved to his burial location in the Abbey. (Note: the date of Newton's death is 20 March 1727 in the "Old Style" Julian calendar and 31 March 1727 in the "New Style" Gregorian calendar).

His considerable liquid estate was divided equally between his eight half-nieces and half-nephews — three Pilkingtons, three Smiths and two Bartons (including Catherine Barton Conduitt). Woolsthorpe Manor passed to his heir-in-law, a John Newton ("God knows a poor representative of so great a man"), who, after six years of "cocking, horse racing, drinking and folly" was forced to mortgage and then sell the manor before dying in a drunken accident.

Towards the end of his life, Newton took up residence at Cranbury Park, near Winchester with his niece and her husband until his death in 1727.