In April 1655, during the year in which Isaac enrolled at the school, Henry More, one of many famous alumni, was visiting the school. The previous year when he visited, he had stayed at Mr William Clarke's house where the young Isaac lodged. These lodgings had been chosen for Isaac, as Hannah his mother and Mrs Katherine Clarke, formerly Storer, formerly Babington, were friends. Mr Clarke who was an apothecary, lived in a house next to the George Hotel. Mr Clarke had two children by his first marriage, Joseph and William Clarke, four step-children, Anne, Catherine, Arthur and Edward Storer and two children with his second wife Katherine, called John and Martha Clarke. Isaac did not get on with the boys and later admitted to 'stealing cherry cobs from Edward Storer' and 'denying that I did so'. He also remembered 'peevishness at Master Clarks for a piece of bread and butter'. Newton much preferred the company of girls and spent a lot of time with the Storer girls, a few years his junior, making them doll's furniture. As they grew up, Catherine and Isaac seemed to have developed a romantic connection, which was to be Newton's first and last romance. Many years later, as Mrs Vincent, she described Isaac as 'a sober, silent, thinking lad' and said that he 'never was known scarce to play with boys abroad'.

Sundial and carved head on a wall in Colsterworth Church 

  © The King's School, Grantham                                                 Page updated  December 2011