“The late Sir Richard Newton of Newton, Bart., chief of that name, having no male children, settled the estate and barony of Newton in East Lothian county upon his relation Richard Hay Newton, Esq., son of Lord William Hay.”[138]—“It cannot be discovered how long the family of Newton have been in possession of the barony, there being no tradition concerning that circumstance further than that they came originally from England at a very distant period, and settled on these lands.”—“The celebrated Sir Isaac Newton was a distant relation of the family, and corresponded with the last baronet, the above-mentioned Sir Richard Newton.” The preceding documents furnish the most complete evidence that the conversation respecting Sir Isaac Newton’s family took place between him and Mr. Gregory; and the testimony of Lord Henderland proves that his own uncle, Richard Newton of Newton, the immediate successor of Sir Richard Newton, with whom Sir Isaac corresponded, was perfectly confident that such a correspondence took place. All these circumstances prove that Sir Isaac Newton could not trace his pedigree with any certainty beyond his grandfather, and that there were two different traditions in his family,—one which referred his descent to John Newton of Westby, and the other to a gentleman of East Lothian who accompanied King James VI. to England. In the first of these traditions he seems to have placed most confidence in 1705, when he drew out his traditionary pedigree; but as the conversation with Professor James Gregory respecting his Scotch extraction took place _twenty years_ afterward, namely, between 1725 and 1727, it is probable that he had discovered the incorrectness of his first opinions, or at least was disposed to attach more importance to the other tradition respecting his descent from a Scotch family. In the letter addressed to me by the learned George Chalmers, Esq. I find the following observations respecting the immediate relations of Sir Isaac. “The Newtons of Woolsthorpe,” says he, “who were merely yeomen farmers, were not by any means opulent. The son of Sir Isaac’s father’s brother was a carpenter called John. He was afterward appointed gamekeeper to Sir Isaac, as lord of the manor, and died at the age of sixty in 1725. This John had a son, Robert, (John?) who was Sir Isaac’s second cousin, and who became possessed of the whole land estates at and near Woolsthorpe, which belonged to the great Newton, as his heir-at-law.[139] Robert (John?) became a worthless and dissolute person, who very soon wasted this ancient patrimony, and falling down with a tobacco-pipe in his mouth when he was drunk, it broke in his throat, and put an end to his life at the age of thirty years, in 1737.” No. II. LETTER FROM SIR ISAAC NEWTON TO FRANCIS ASTON, ESQ., A YOUNG FRIEND WHO WAS ON THE EVE OF SETTING OUT UPON HIS TRAVELS.