Was issac newton gay

gay scientists

There is a narrative travelling the Internet now that Sir Isaac Newton was actually gay, had a lifelong relationship with another man, and had a mental breakdown when said relationship ended. And of course, a counternarrative that that was just a friendship, and Newton was too Puritan for that. Sir Isaac Newton was a cold, austere and difficult man. The slightest criticism of his work drove him into a furious rage, and his life was blighted by vicious feuds with other eminent mathematicians.

A hypochondriac, obsessive, neurotic homosexual, he had no friends to speak of. Newton never married, and is sometimes claimed to have died a virgin. He did have very close relationships with male friends, although there is no evidence that these were sexual. Thus some modern writers have claimed that he was gay or bisexual, but the truth will probably never be known. And Fatio then formed another close same-sex relationship, leading further credence to the idea that he may have been gay, and by implication that his relationship with Newton was physical, or at least romantic.

1. Leonardo da Vinci The archetypal Renaissance man made significant contributions to various fields of the sciences and the arts—and lived his life as an openly gay man, according to Walter Isaacson’s recent biography of the artist and inventor. 2. Sir Francis Bacon. Isaac Newton supposedly boasted on his deathbed that he had never known a woman.

Most people interpret this to mean that Newton died a virgin but is this true? Had he perhaps known a man? Anybody setting out to write a biography of Isaac Newton has a problem, what can you do to make your biography stand out from all the ones that have already been written and there are a lot of them out there. Even Richard Westfall, whose Never at Rest [1] is without doubt king of the pack, has written three different Newton biographies!

Michael White who could be described as a profession writer of intellectual biographies decided to go the shock, horror, did you know? To quote the good Dr Higgitt:. In recent years the major popular interest in Newton has related to alchemy and prophecy, and such presentations tend to be accompanied by the suggestion that this is a surprising and novel revelation.

White was of course aiming for the general lay public with his popular biography so he might have surprised some of his readers with his alchemical revelations, however he definitely did cause quite a stir with another revelation in his book, the claim that Newton was homosexual. In this post I want to examine the evidence that White puts forward for this claim and give my views on the question, was Isaac Newton a homosexual?

Equally important in my opinion is the question; does it matter? There is no actual solid evidence that Newton was homosexual that is, he never outed himself, as we would say today, and none of friend acquaintances or enemies ever outed or denounced him as being so. Newton acquired enough enemies throughout his long and cantankerous life, several of whom would happily have wished him to the devil so I think if there had been even a hint that he was homosexual one of them would have made the information public with malicious glee.

This being the actually situation as far as our biographical knowledge of Newton goes White is reduced to circumstantial evidence and plausible assumption. We know next to nothing about Wickins one of the few sources being a brief note written by his son Nicolas Wickins to Robert Smith in White can offer no evidence that their relationship was anything other than just roommates but believes there is a smoking gun.

He writes:. There is no hard evidence of their relationship being sexual in nature, only speculation surrounding the intensity of their bond as indicated by the absolute and clinical manner of its breaking. He and Newton separated in under a cloud and, despite Wickins living for another thirty-six years, the two men never met again. There is nothing unusual in people who have been friends for long periods of time after they part, for whatever reasons, completely losing contact with each other.

Having moved around quite a bit in my life I could quote quite a few examples out of my own life. With John Wickins, the young pensioner he met on a solitary walk in the college, he continued to share a chamber until Wickins resigned his fellowship in for the vicarage of Stoke Edith. Wickins was frequently absent for extended periods, and during the final five years he was hardly there at all.

It appears more likely that their friendship simply drifted apart as many similar friendships do. Fatio c. Fatio, as he is known, having previously studied with Cassini in Paris and becoming friends with Huygens and Jakob Bernoulli, travelled to London in , where he met many of the leading scholars including John Wallis and was elected a member of the Royal Society.

This relationship lasted about four years with Newton offering to lend his young friend money and at times entreating him to come and share his chambers with him so that he can care for the health and wellbeing of the young scholar. There is no evidence that their relationship was ever physical but there is little doubt of the affection that it entailed.

Was it a homosexual love affair? It seems very likely on the evidence of the correspondence however it could also be explained with a father son relationship; Newton having perhaps seen something of himself in the young Fatio and having adopted him like a mother hen. I personally think there was at least a non-physical love relationship between Newton and Fatio and one could be justified in including Newton in the very small number of known homosexual scientists.

This of course raises the question included in my title, does it matter? People are discriminated because of their gender, their skin colour, their sexual orientation, their religion etc.