Catherine Barton

Catherine Barton (1679–1739) was an English homemaker who oversaw the running of the household of her uncle, scientist Isaac Newton. She was reputed to be the source of the story of the apple inspiring Newton's work on gravity, and his papers came to her on his death. She was rumoured to have been the mistress of the poet and statesman Charles Montagu and later married politician John Conduitt. Early life Barton was the second daughter of Robert Barton and his second wife, Hannah Smith, half-sister of Isaac Newton. She was baptized at Brigstock, Northampton on 25 November 1679. Barton's social circle Barton was remarked upon by several men to be beautiful, witty and clever. She was known as a brilliant conversationalist, and attracted the admiration of such famous figures as Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Her uncle 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." Sometime after her uncle Newton moved to London to become Warden of the Mint in April 1696 she moved there to live with him. Barton was said to have been the source of the story about Newton and the apple, as she told the story to Voltaire who later wrote about it in his Essay on Epic Poetry of 1727.