After rejoining the King’s School Isaac Newton showed his intellectual brilliance and educational prowess. He was declared the most promising and proficient student of the school. Isaac was then a 18 years old lad, who was born orphan, premature and later abandoned by his mother. He was always hungry for affection and love. This was denied to him when he was a child. When he came second time to resume his studies a new arrangement for his lodging had to be made. He was put up in a room of the house of a chemist and drug store owner called William Clark. By a coincidence Mr. William Clark had a daughter who was of the same age as Isaac. Soon Isaac found out that the girl Catherine was not the real daughter of William Clark. Infact widowed William had remarried a woman who already had a daughter by her previous marriage. Catherine was the step daughter of the chemist.
The story of the Catherine was very much like his own. Isaac Newton had sympathy for the girl. He knew well what it was to have a step father. Then Isaac was at a age when every teenager felt attraction towards the members of the opposite sex. Being in similar situation and the age group it is but natural for a boy and a girl to fall in love. Isaac lost his heart to the girl. Catherine was also a student and often sought the help of Isaac in studies and that was his strong point. It brought them closer and their hearts came still closer. In no time the love blossomed.
Isaac Newton was very handsome boy with impressive personality. It was the only gift that his father of the same name whom he never saw gave him in heredity. The time spent by Isaac in farming had blessed him with a robust body and good health. Any girl could feel attracted to him easily. Catherine and Isaac Newton decided to get married as soon as it became viable.
But soon a twist was coming in their love story. Only a year later when Isaac was 19 years of age his education at Grantham School finished. For further studies he had to go to Cambridge University. Thus Catherine and Isaac got separated but love was aflame and his decision to marry still on. At Cambridge his hunger for knowledge flared up. He began to camp in Cambridge university library and voraciously read all the knowledge books could cater.
It may be possible that he felt separation from his love Catherine unbearable and to take his mind off it he delved into the depths of the books. After all, the first time in his life Isaac had experienced the true love, affection and caring for after meeting Catherine but the books brought out another aspect of Isaac, his innate love for knowledge and education which was equally overwhelming and engaging. At the Cambridge Isaac had become very serious about his educational progress and had buried himself in books. Meanwhile, Catherine pined at Granthum. She had no surrogate obsession. It was England of 1663 when the daughter was supposed to be prudent and correct as the honour of the family depended on her conduct.
Isaac became busy with his educational progress and the association with knowledge imparting books. The love letters between Catherine and Isaac gradually tapered off. But it does not mean that Isaac’s love for Catherine had weakened or waned off. May be, he wanted to pay concentrated attention to studies to finish his education as soon as possible to find a posting to be able to marry Catherine. But the two were not fated to unite.
William and his wife Vincent got their daughter Catherine married to a suitable young man. With her first love buried in her heart the girl went to live with her wedded husband. For months Isaac had no idea that the girl he pined for and he dreamt to marry was now out of his reach. No one had bothered to inform Isaac about the engagement and wedding of Catherine.
He learnt about it only when he went to Grantham in vacation after one year in Cambridge. It must have been shocking news for Isaac Newton. We do not know what his reaction exactly was at the time when he learnt of the marriage of Catherine. But we can only guess by the fact that after that experience Isaac Newton never again showed any interest in any woman throughout his life. After Catherine affair there is no evidence of any kind to show that Newton ever again developed any relationship of romantic kind with any woman. No woman found a place in his heart and none entered his life till the end.
Thus, till his educational voyage to Trinity College of Cambridge University the early life of Isaac was a tragic recipe. It was the ingredients of under cooked flesh (Premature birth), pain, anguish, abandonment, angst, resentment, despair, a touch of romance and garnish of failed love. But it had the redeeming flavour of academic excellence. During his Grantham days Isaac had written his signature on the window frame of the King’s School library which still exists there preserved by that lucky institution for the posterity as its greatest treasure. In the first three years at Trinity college of Cambridge University Isaac Newton had to wait on the rich boys in the hostel mess and sweep their rooms to pay for his own meals, upkeep and the fee. After three years his academic brilliance was recognized and he became a Sizar, a student who was awarded scholarship to enable him to continue his education. The organizing body of the college consisting of the teachers realized talented Isaac needs encouragement, support and his pride protected. It was becoming clear that Isaac Newton was very special student.
