1 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: This is an I heart original Newgate Jail was built 2 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,640 Speaker 1: into the old Roman walls that had once bounded the 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 1: city of London. It had been a fixture of the 4 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,959 Speaker 1: landscape since, and the interviewing years hadn't done much to 5 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 1: change its essential nature. Newgate was a horrible, horrible place, 6 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: full of desperation, damp, and disease. It was home to 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 1: highwaymen and murderers, rapists and thieves, as well as petty criminals, pickpockets, 8 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:40,880 Speaker 1: and political activists who had fallen afoul of the establishment. Men, 9 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:44,159 Speaker 1: women and children were crowded into the same words, and 10 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:48,919 Speaker 1: there was no distinction between crimes. When William Challoner shuffled 11 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: into Newgate in August, heavy iron shackles at his ankles 12 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: and wrists, it was at least his third day in 13 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:02,120 Speaker 1: London's most notorious prison, and by now he knew his 14 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: way around. Chalder's first objective would have been to get 15 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: some coins, some real, actual coin, into the hands of 16 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: the jailer. To get those shackles off easy enough. Newgate 17 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: was so corrupt that the guards would allow robbers out 18 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:19,680 Speaker 1: at night to go thieving in exchange for a cut 19 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: of the profits. Chalder's next job would have been to 20 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 1: sort out the basic necessities. Newgate was said to be 21 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:31,840 Speaker 1: so filthy, so disgusting, that the floors were carpeted in 22 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 1: lice and bed bugs, and open sewer flowed through the 23 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 1: middle of it, and people sometimes tried to escape that way, 24 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:43,039 Speaker 1: but not everyone survived. Typhus was so endemic, but it 25 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:46,040 Speaker 1: was called jail fever. In the main cells, there were 26 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: no beds, just to fit a bare board or straw 27 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:52,640 Speaker 1: to sleep on. The water was tainted, the food was spoiled, 28 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: and everywhere was cold, dark and airless. Chaloner would have 29 00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: spent some more coin to procure a real betting and 30 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 1: better food, and maybe even some wine or beer. He 31 00:02:04,480 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 1: might have even gotten a cell to himself, depending on 32 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:08,720 Speaker 1: how much of his ill gotten coin he wanted to 33 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: part with. That sorted, his next step was obvious, sit 34 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: down and figure out exactly what kind of mess he 35 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: was in and how to get out of it. There 36 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: would be a trial soon, maybe in a few months time, 37 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:25,760 Speaker 1: and challenger, of course, had no defense attorney, no one 38 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: did he knew. The warden's case rested on the testimony 39 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: of Thomas Holloway, and though Halloway was his friend, his 40 00:02:33,480 --> 00:02:38,400 Speaker 1: long time accomplice, Chaloner knew that loyalty only went so far. Certainly, 41 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,720 Speaker 1: Chaloner was loyal to no one but himself. But Joner 42 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,600 Speaker 1: also knew that, beyond Holloway's testimony, the evidence Student had 43 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: on him was thin. Challenger's first move was to start 44 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:52,399 Speaker 1: talking in the hopes of earning and out the same 45 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: way most other people did, informing he accused Aubrey Price 46 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: of several criminal acts, counterfeiting among them. Price had been 47 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 1: part of that convoluted plan that led to Challenger's arrest. 48 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 1: But the problem was Aubrey Price was already in prison, 49 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: a man of quote good parentage but poor morals. Evidently, 50 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: he was later executed for forging banknotes, which was a 51 00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:23,240 Speaker 1: capital offense. So that didn't work. But Chaloner had another plan, 52 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: one that involved removing Thomas Holloway from the picture. For 53 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, I'm Linda Rodriguez, Mcrabbie and this is 54 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: Newton's Law and I heard original podcast episode six Quicksilver, 55 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:35,279 Speaker 1: Act one Rotten Apple. While Shanoner was trying to figure 56 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: a way out of his current jam, Newton was just 57 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:43,360 Speaker 1: a three mile walk away through London's crooked, smoky, filthy streets. 58 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 1: He now lived in Westminster, much quieter, less smelly than 59 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:53,640 Speaker 1: his home at the Mint had been. He sat alone thinking. 60 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: Newton could have been reviewing all the depositions, all the 61 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: information he'd collected since he'd first scotten wind of challengers 62 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: Eggam operation. He would have been looking for something, anything, 63 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: that would give him leverage. If Chaloner knew that Newton's 64 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: case against him was thin, then Newton certainly did too. 65 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: Or maybe his mind drifted a bit. He might have 66 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:21,120 Speaker 1: been thinking about his work on optics, for example, experiments 67 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: and research that had talled somewhat since he arrived in London. 68 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,159 Speaker 1: He might have been thinking about his theological studies, ideas 69 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,359 Speaker 1: that sometimes took him to the brink and beyond of heresy. 70 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,040 Speaker 1: Or he might have been thinking about how he Isaac Newton, 71 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:40,599 Speaker 1: born on a lincoature farm to rise to scholarly fame, 72 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:45,400 Speaker 1: had gotten here sitting in his London study, struggling with 73 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: a different kind of problem, how to nail down a 74 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: slippery criminal mastermind. Newton was no stranger to introspection as 75 00:05:57,200 --> 00:05:59,839 Speaker 1: a teenager, and in his first years at Cambridge he 76 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:05,400 Speaker 1: the ledger of his quote sins making Pies on Sunday night, 77 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 1: missing chapel, twisting accord on Sunday morning, using Wilford's towel 78 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,760 Speaker 1: to spare my own wishing death and hoping it to 79 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: some striking many having on clean thoughts, words and actions 80 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:27,159 Speaker 1: and dreams. Also on the list, trying to spend a 81 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: bronze and therefore counterfeit groat, which is well ironic. Newton's 82 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:39,359 Speaker 1: childhood and adolescence hadn't been exactly pleasant. His father was 83 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,599 Speaker 1: a relatively well off farmer who died before Newton was born. 84 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:45,960 Speaker 1: His mother remarried when little Isaac was just about three 85 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,360 Speaker 1: years old. Her new husband was more than twice her age, 86 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: a widower, and as part of their marriage contract, she 87 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: was meant to move in with him alone. Little Isaac 88 00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:59,040 Speaker 1: was to be left in the care of his grandparents 89 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: at the farmhouse where was born. When her second husband 90 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 1: died eight years later, his mother returned with three smaller 91 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: children into Biographers have suggested that this early perceived rejection 92 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: by his mother left Isaac Newton with a few issues. 93 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,800 Speaker 1: Punching my sister, rubbing my mother's box of plums and sugar, 94 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: threatening my father and mother to burn them. I'm the 95 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 1: househover them with my mother, with my sister. Newton's brilliance 96 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,480 Speaker 1: carried him into university. His years in academia were characterized 97 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:42,720 Speaker 1: by intense study and also by a lack of connection 98 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: with other people. During his Cambridge years, he rarely left 99 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: his rooms at the college, and when he did, he 100 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: was usually unkempt, with his hair uncombed, and he tended 101 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: to draw mathematical equations in the dust by the river 102 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: cam that sort of thing. Newton wasn't exactly happy in 103 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,680 Speaker 1: his solitude, but neither did he particularly enjoy the company 104 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: of other people. For I see not what there is 105 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:09,840 Speaker 1: desirable in public esteem. Where I able to acquire and 106 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:14,640 Speaker 1: maintain it, it would perhaps increase my acquaintance the thing 107 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: which I chiefly study to decline. Still, Newton could only 108 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,160 Speaker 1: stand the intellectual isolation for so long. Newton had been 109 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 1: restless in his last few years at Trainee College, around 110 00:08:25,760 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: the time that he was looking for another job in 111 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: a way out of Cambridge. But that wasn't the only 112 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: explanation for his abrupt departure from academic life for London. 113 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:39,840 Speaker 1: In the Mint in the years before he left, Newton 114 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:45,319 Speaker 1: was behaving erratically. I am extremely troubled at the embroilment. 115 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: I am in. I have neither ate nor slept well 116 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:54,240 Speaker 1: this twelve month, nor have my former consistency of mind. 117 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: Newton confessed this to his friend, the ubiquitous Samuel Peeps 118 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: in a letter from sixty nine three. Not sleeping or 119 00:09:02,480 --> 00:09:05,160 Speaker 1: eating is a bad sign, even from Newton, who tended 120 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,199 Speaker 1: to be too distracted by work to do either consistently. 121 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:12,400 Speaker 1: But there was more. I must withdraw from your acquaintance, 122 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: and seeing neither you nor the rest of my friends anymore, 123 00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:19,640 Speaker 1: if I may leave them quietly. Newton did have a 124 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:23,200 Speaker 1: reputation for being quick to lose people if they offended him. 125 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:25,199 Speaker 1: He once stitched a friend for telling a dirty joke 126 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: about a nun, even though he definitely wasn't Catholic and 127 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:31,840 Speaker 1: didn't seem to have any particular respect for nuns. And 128 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:37,240 Speaker 1: Newton could be for sure petty and vindictive. He fought 129 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:40,080 Speaker 1: with many of the leading scientists of the day, in 130 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: some cases physically. In the sixteen nineties, Newton visited John Flamsteed, 131 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 1: the first astronomer Royal, out at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, 132 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,160 Speaker 1: and the two got into an actual wrestling match over 133 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:56,560 Speaker 1: one of Flamsteed's Instruments. Flamsteed says that Newton called him 134 00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:00,199 Speaker 1: all the names that he could think of. Poppy was 135 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:03,120 Speaker 1: the most innocent of them. But Newton's declaration that he 136 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 1: intended tosevered ties with peeps and others was strange worrying. 137 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,560 Speaker 1: Just three days after his letter to Peep's, Newton wrote 138 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:16,400 Speaker 1: to philosopher John Locke, one of his closest allies, being 139 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: off opinion that you endeavored to embroil me with women 140 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,120 Speaker 1: and by other means. I was so affected with it 141 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,760 Speaker 1: that when one told me you were sickly and would 142 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 1: not live, I answered to a better if you were dead. 143 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:37,120 Speaker 1: Locke's reply was graceful and kind, and he clearly forgave Newton. 144 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: But Newton's response to that was, if anything more worrying, sir, 145 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:48,800 Speaker 1: the last winter, by sleeping too often by my fire, 146 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: I got an ill habit of sleeping, and a distemper 147 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: which this summer has been epidemical, put me farther out 148 00:10:56,920 --> 00:10:59,280 Speaker 1: of order, so that when I wrote to you, I 149 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,360 Speaker 1: had not up to an hour and night for a 150 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,199 Speaker 1: fortnight together, and for five days together. Not a wink 151 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:09,640 Speaker 1: I remember, I wrote to you. But what I said, 152 00:11:09,679 --> 00:11:14,760 Speaker 1: of your book, I remember not. Newton's letters worried peeps 153 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:18,520 Speaker 1: so much that peeps wrote to another Cambridge academic, John Millington. 154 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:22,280 Speaker 1: I had lately received a letter from him, so surprising 155 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: to me, for the inconsistency of every part of it, 156 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:27,960 Speaker 1: as to be put into great disorder by it, for 157 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:32,760 Speaker 1: the concernment I have for him, I mean a discomposure 158 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:37,600 Speaker 1: in head or mind or both. Peeps asked Millington to 159 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:41,840 Speaker 1: check in on Newton discreetly. It wouldn't do anyone any good, 160 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:44,679 Speaker 1: at least of all Newton, to have people start suspecting 161 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:47,839 Speaker 1: that the great genius of Trinity was having a breakdown. 162 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:51,400 Speaker 1: For I own too great an esteem for Mr Newton 163 00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:54,080 Speaker 1: as for a public good to be able to let 164 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:56,679 Speaker 1: any doubt in me of this kind concerning him lie 165 00:11:56,679 --> 00:12:00,080 Speaker 1: a moment uncleared where I can have any hopes of 166 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 1: helping it. New news quote frenzied state, and the flurry 167 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:11,680 Speaker 1: of paranoid letters coming from him prompted all kinds of 168 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,360 Speaker 1: schaden freda, as well as real concern from the gossipy grades. 169 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:19,040 Speaker 1: At the time, Dutch physicist Christian Hygens heard it from 170 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 1: his friends in England. He told mathematician and philosopher Godfried 171 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,160 Speaker 1: Wilhelm von Leibnez, who spread it around to his circle. 172 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 1: By the time Newton's frenzy made it back to England 173 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 1: via German philosopher Johann Christoph Sturm to a Dr. Wallace, 174 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:38,520 Speaker 1: Newton had been quote reduced to very ill circumstances by 175 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:42,240 Speaker 1: a quote disturbance of mind caused by a supposed fire 176 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:45,199 Speaker 1: that destroyed his lab, his home, and all of his 177 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:48,600 Speaker 1: worldly possessions. It was like the longest game of telephone ever. 178 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: Have you heard of Newton's frenzied state that newton fancies pace? 179 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:59,679 Speaker 1: I'm concerned about Newton's dancing. Wait, okay, so there hadn't 180 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:03,959 Speaker 1: been in a lab destroying fire in Newton, unlike many 181 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,360 Speaker 1: other educated people in his time, didn't believe that his 182 00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:10,240 Speaker 1: periods of frenzy were the product of the influence of 183 00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:15,400 Speaker 1: the devil or evil spirits. But there was definitely something 184 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:31,600 Speaker 1: going on in Newton's head Act two. The alchemist. Newton had, 185 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:36,000 Speaker 1: according to some sources, struggled with depression at several points 186 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:39,640 Speaker 1: in his life, times when he'd retreat to his inner 187 00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:42,839 Speaker 1: world and cut off what few ties he had with 188 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 1: friends and fellow academics, But this particular episode seemed so 189 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: much more profound and incomprehensible to his worried friends. Something 190 00:13:53,280 --> 00:13:58,840 Speaker 1: was going on, and it's possible that something was mercury poisoning. 191 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:04,720 Speaker 1: Newton had for years been a semi secret practicing alchemist. 192 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:09,160 Speaker 1: Alchemy was an ancient science with roots in Eastern cultures. 193 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:13,520 Speaker 1: It was largely concerned with pulling substances of heart and 194 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:16,559 Speaker 1: trying to put them back together in more valuable ways, 195 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:21,360 Speaker 1: for example, transforming lead into gold. In the seventeenth century, 196 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: alchemy was branching in two directions. There was a branch 197 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,440 Speaker 1: that would eventually become what we'd consider chemistry today, and 198 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:33,640 Speaker 1: the branch that stuck with the more metaphysical stuff that's 199 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:37,400 Speaker 1: kind of alchemy was regarded as more or less madness. 200 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: Newton was sort of between the two branches. He was, 201 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:47,280 Speaker 1: as John Maynard Keynes later wrote, The Last of the Magicians, 202 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:51,960 Speaker 1: But he wasn't interested in power or living forever. Rather, 203 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:55,800 Speaker 1: Newton was trying to find God in his work. All 204 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:58,720 Speaker 1: of his work. He had written the Principia, he said, 205 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: not with it design of betting defiance, but to enforce 206 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: and demonstrate the power and superintendency of the Supreme Being. 207 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:15,880 Speaker 1: Many of Newton's meticulous notes on his alchemical experiments survive 208 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:21,520 Speaker 1: one million handwritten words describing his interpretations of scripture, of 209 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:25,360 Speaker 1: the essences of elements, the movements of the heavens. Arcane 210 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 1: potions meant to prolonged life, but Newton's search for divinity 211 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: through experimentation also meant messing about with some fairly toxic substances, 212 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:44,120 Speaker 1: like mercury. Mercury is an element number eighty on the 213 00:15:44,160 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 1: periodic table, although the periodic table wouldn't actually be created 214 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:51,240 Speaker 1: for another hundred and seventy years. It's the only metallic 215 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 1: element that's a liquid at room temperature, giving it the 216 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:59,840 Speaker 1: historic and popular name quicksilver. If you've ever accidentally cracked 217 00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:03,040 Speaker 1: up in a thermometer, young people, thermometers used to have 218 00:16:03,160 --> 00:16:07,000 Speaker 1: mercury inside them. True story, you probably remember the way 219 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:10,880 Speaker 1: that the silvery liquid coalesced into little blobs like a 220 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:15,200 Speaker 1: bad guy in Terminator two. For eighteen years, Newton carried 221 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,720 Speaker 1: out hundreds of experiments involving all kinds of metals gold, silver, lead, 222 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:23,480 Speaker 1: and mercury. He would often heat things up and then 223 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:27,479 Speaker 1: intentionally breathe in their fumes or even taste the results 224 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: once they cooled. When he was on an experimental bender, 225 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:34,200 Speaker 1: he tended to sleep in his laboratory by the fire 226 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: while his experiments bubbled merrily away, releasing fumes into the air. 227 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:43,320 Speaker 1: Newton used quicksilver so much in his experiments that he 228 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:46,440 Speaker 1: once joked, quite possibly his only joke ever, that his 229 00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:51,239 Speaker 1: hair had turned prematurely silver because of it. But mercury 230 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,960 Speaker 1: is toxic, hence why thermometers aren't made with mercury anymore. 231 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: Exposure to mercury can lead to mercury poisoning. The mercury 232 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:03,240 Speaker 1: builds of in your system over time, eventually resulting in 233 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,920 Speaker 1: serious neurological issues. You can suffer ill effects from ingesting mercury, 234 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:10,639 Speaker 1: of course, although nineteenth century doctors used to prescribe it 235 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,280 Speaker 1: as a laxative because it's so dense it just moves 236 00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: right through you. But it's most damaging when it's inhaled 237 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: in vapor form, moving quickly from the lungs into the 238 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:23,000 Speaker 1: blood into the brain. The symptoms of mercury poisoning we 239 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: know now include irritability, depression, anxiety, problems with memory. I 240 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:32,200 Speaker 1: remember I wrote to you, but what I said of 241 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,720 Speaker 1: your book, I remember not insomnia. I had not slipped 242 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 1: an hour and night for a fortnight together. In quote 243 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:45,119 Speaker 1: pathological shyness, I must withdraw from your acquaintance. Researchers are 244 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:48,480 Speaker 1: divided on the impact of mercury on Newton's health, certainly, 245 00:17:49,119 --> 00:17:51,960 Speaker 1: and it's never a really good idea to diagnose the 246 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,520 Speaker 1: physical and mental problems with someone who died nearly three 247 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:58,359 Speaker 1: years ago. But if we're looking for a suspect and 248 00:17:58,480 --> 00:18:03,399 Speaker 1: the quote madness of Isaac Newton, mercury poisoning seems like 249 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:07,720 Speaker 1: a prime one. But that wasn't all that was going 250 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,760 Speaker 1: on in Newton's life right now. His mind was traveled, 251 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,840 Speaker 1: and so is his heart. Newton had never married or 252 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:18,360 Speaker 1: seemed to show the slightest romantic interest in anyone at all, 253 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,800 Speaker 1: but it's possible that in six Newton was dealing with 254 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: a romance, or at least a very strong emotional attachment 255 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,880 Speaker 1: that ended badly. A few years earlier, Newton had begun 256 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: paying a lot of attention to a young Swiss mathematician 257 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: and philosopher called Nicola Fatiou to Julie. Newton wrote to 258 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:43,639 Speaker 1: Fatio with a kind of warmth that he rarely showed 259 00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:46,159 Speaker 1: in letters to other people, not even to his own relatives, 260 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:51,840 Speaker 1: and Fatio seemed to return his regard. I could wish 261 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:55,720 Speaker 1: to live all my life, or the greatest part of it, 262 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: with you, if it was possible. When Newton found out 263 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:05,440 Speaker 1: that Fattio was desperately ill in September, he was truly distraught. 264 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:11,359 Speaker 1: Ah last night received your letter with which how much 265 00:19:11,440 --> 00:19:16,480 Speaker 1: I was affected. I cannot express pray, procure the advice 266 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:19,479 Speaker 1: and assistance of physician before it is too late, And 267 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:24,280 Speaker 1: if you want any money, I will supply you with 268 00:19:24,359 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: my prayers for your recovery. I rest he signed it 269 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:34,960 Speaker 1: your most affectionate and faithful friend to serve you. Newton 270 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,960 Speaker 1: tried to send presidents, medical remedies, even money, but Fattier 271 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,160 Speaker 1: didn't take them. In February nine three, Newton even suggested 272 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:45,760 Speaker 1: that Fattio come live with him in Cambridge so that 273 00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: Newton could take care of him. Fattia refused, saying he 274 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: didn't want to be a burden, and then Fattio seemed 275 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,600 Speaker 1: to end it. Fatio wrote Newton to say that he 276 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: had made a new friend in London, a good and 277 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:04,199 Speaker 1: upright man. Newton rushed to London. But what happened there 278 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:08,880 Speaker 1: we can only guess. After that, letters between the two 279 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:18,760 Speaker 1: largely ceased. It's possible that Newton was in love with Fatio, 280 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,200 Speaker 1: although there was no indication that this relationship was ever 281 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,359 Speaker 1: physical or sexual. A much older Newton later told a 282 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:31,520 Speaker 1: relative that he had quote never violated chastity with anyone. Ever, 283 00:20:32,280 --> 00:20:36,600 Speaker 1: the way to chastity is not to struggle with incontinent thoughts, 284 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,720 Speaker 1: but to avert the thoughts by some employment, or by reading, 285 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:48,600 Speaker 1: or by conversation, or by meditating on other things. But 286 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: whatever his attachment to Fatio, it appeared to be one 287 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,880 Speaker 1: of the very few deep relationships Newton had ever been 288 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,959 Speaker 1: able to form with another human being, and its loss 289 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,720 Speaker 1: would have cut him to the bone. Later in s 290 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:06,679 Speaker 1: John Millington, Newton's Cambridge colleague, paid Newton a visit at 291 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:11,720 Speaker 1: Peeves's request. Millington reported back to Peep's that Newton seemed fine. 292 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:15,919 Speaker 1: At least Newton still seemed to have his intellect. He 293 00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,199 Speaker 1: is now very well, and though I fear he is 294 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:22,720 Speaker 1: under some small degree of melancholy, yet I think there 295 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,800 Speaker 1: is no reason to suspect it hath at all touched 296 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:30,040 Speaker 1: his understanding and I hope it never will. But Millington's 297 00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,280 Speaker 1: response contained another clue as to what was grieving Newton. 298 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:37,360 Speaker 1: Millington said that it was a sign, not a good one. 299 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,719 Speaker 1: It seemed of how much the love of learning and 300 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: the honor of the nation was looked after. When such 301 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,440 Speaker 1: a person as Mr Newton lies so neglected by those 302 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:55,480 Speaker 1: in power, Newton was feeling overlooked, less relevant. Though the 303 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 1: publication of Brinkipia had been a triumph that was now 304 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,000 Speaker 1: behind him, and his work following Principia wasn't a failure 305 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: by any means, but he was conscious that it wasn't, 306 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:08,280 Speaker 1: you know, explaining the universe. At the same time, his friends, 307 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:11,000 Speaker 1: people like Peeps in Locke, had long been trying to 308 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,960 Speaker 1: find him work outside of Cambridge, with little success. What 309 00:22:15,119 --> 00:22:19,560 Speaker 1: it all added up to was a crisis. Dr Patricia Farah. 310 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:23,880 Speaker 1: He certainly does seem to have had some sort of breakdown. 311 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,000 Speaker 1: I imagine life was a bit difficult for him. He 312 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:31,280 Speaker 1: perhaps wasn't the easiest man in the world to get 313 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:36,320 Speaker 1: on with. Perhaps he was worried about his failing mathematical paths. 314 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,480 Speaker 1: That's something that a lot of mathematicians talking about when 315 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: they get to the age about forty or fifty that 316 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:46,120 Speaker 1: there past their creative best. I don't think there's any 317 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,240 Speaker 1: single reason, and I'm not sure we even really know 318 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:55,439 Speaker 1: exactly why, so new to this period of disordered mind. 319 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: Could have been a lifelong struggle with depression compounded by 320 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,040 Speaker 1: mercury pois ning. Or it could have been a love 321 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,480 Speaker 1: affair gone south. Or it could have just been a 322 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: regular old midlife crisis. He was in his early fifties, 323 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 1: after all, and he'd been trying for years to get 324 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:12,919 Speaker 1: out of Cambridge, where it could have been all of 325 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:18,320 Speaker 1: the above. But whatever it was, Newton needed a new purpose, 326 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:23,920 Speaker 1: finding counterfeiters and sending them to the gallows. Well maybe 327 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:35,520 Speaker 1: that was it. Act three, no face, no Case. In 328 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:40,200 Speaker 1: s and Pillsbury, a poor woman who lived in Westminster 329 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,879 Speaker 1: went to a bakery with her young daughter to buy food. 330 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 1: A night near bread please, and a night me a chase. 331 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:56,119 Speaker 1: The shop, however, was run by an informant of Newton's, 332 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 1: and he believed that the sixpence that she tried to 333 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:03,400 Speaker 1: pay with was fake. You consider me a fool. He's 334 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,960 Speaker 1: not legitimate coin of the crown. The informants searched her 335 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,760 Speaker 1: right there in the shop, finding a good sixpence between 336 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,359 Speaker 1: her bodice and stomach, evidence that she knew she had 337 00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:16,920 Speaker 1: been passing bad coin, as well as evidence of the 338 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,239 Speaker 1: shop owner wasn't at all concerned about being brought up 339 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: on sexual assault charges or humiliating poor Anne. He then 340 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,600 Speaker 1: brought her to Newton himself. Newton ordered her and her 341 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:33,159 Speaker 1: daughter searched again, well, search again, both of them, this 342 00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:36,119 Speaker 1: time finding more counterfeit coins wrapped in paper and hidden 343 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: in the child's clothing. You dare embroyal the girl in 344 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:44,439 Speaker 1: your petty scheme, please, sir. The bat six pinches off 345 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: a person? What sells linen cloth in streets? They made it, 346 00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:52,000 Speaker 1: and that was There's no word on what happened to 347 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,560 Speaker 1: Anne and her daughter next, but it's possible, and I 348 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:57,400 Speaker 1: really hope this is the case, that she became another 349 00:24:57,560 --> 00:25:01,520 Speaker 1: of Newton's informants rather than being packed off to Newgate. 350 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,960 Speaker 1: Patricia Farra again, I mean, these people who were being 351 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: persecuted as criminals were often living on the edge of poverty. 352 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:13,080 Speaker 1: They were very ignorant, they hadn't got any work. And 353 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:16,159 Speaker 1: although there was the most criminals like Challoner who managed 354 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,639 Speaker 1: to become quite rich, a lot of the petty theft 355 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 1: going on was just so that people could survive. Newton 356 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,200 Speaker 1: was not moved by the plight of the people he 357 00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,679 Speaker 1: squeezed for information or even sent to the gallows, and 358 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,840 Speaker 1: his industriousness in pursuing counterfeiters and clippers might have been 359 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:38,280 Speaker 1: fueled or at least aided by this darker side of 360 00:25:38,280 --> 00:25:42,880 Speaker 1: his personality. But as it turns out, it was precisely 361 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: this unforgiving character, combined with his laser like focus, that 362 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:51,639 Speaker 1: made him so good at being a cop. And in 363 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: William Chaloner, Newton had found his equal and opposite, so 364 00:25:55,960 --> 00:26:00,159 Speaker 1: to speak. Where Challenger was garrulous, charming and friend lee, 365 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:05,320 Speaker 1: Newton was terse, introspective, quick to anger, where Challenger seemed 366 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:08,560 Speaker 1: too so anarchy. Newton wanted to order, He wanted to 367 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,480 Speaker 1: use his scientific abilities to fix things, where Challenger was 368 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:15,240 Speaker 1: happy to twist and bend the law to break it. 369 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:18,719 Speaker 1: Newton was devoted to the oath he took to protect 370 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,639 Speaker 1: the mint and its machines. Tom Levinson m I T. 371 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:26,280 Speaker 1: Science writer and author of Newton and the Counterfeiter Does 372 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:28,280 Speaker 1: he really see him? I think in this as as 373 00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,359 Speaker 1: as one three dimensional person rather than as Newton the 374 00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: scientists new in the mathematician, ding the magician, whatever it 375 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:37,639 Speaker 1: may be, because you really see the two to me 376 00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:42,240 Speaker 1: dominant characteristics of Newton's mind at playing in his confrontation 377 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:47,119 Speaker 1: with Chaloner. On the one hand, he's just really smart. 378 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:49,679 Speaker 1: He has a disciplined mind, He defines problems, all that 379 00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:51,720 Speaker 1: kind of stuff that you think of as Newton, the 380 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,640 Speaker 1: great mind that we know him as. But I think 381 00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:59,080 Speaker 1: you also see something that is often underestimated in the 382 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 1: lives of great scientists. They are persistent and focused in 383 00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:06,679 Speaker 1: a way that most other people are not. They have 384 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: power of concentration combined with stamina that's really distinctive. And 385 00:27:13,760 --> 00:27:18,879 Speaker 1: Newton stayed with the problems over months and years and 386 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 1: with Challenger, and Challenger was a problem. In March, Newton 387 00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:29,440 Speaker 1: received a pleading letter from Thomas Carter, one of challengers colleagues, 388 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:34,080 Speaker 1: who was then languishing in Newgate jail. Carter promised, all 389 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:38,199 Speaker 1: kinds of information, I should have the irons put on 390 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,879 Speaker 1: me tomorrow if your worship not older. The contrary, being 391 00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:45,640 Speaker 1: clapped in irons sounds like something that happened to pirates 392 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 1: because it was, but it was also extremely painful. Heavy 393 00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: iron shackles were secured around the prisoners ankles, leaving bruises, 394 00:27:54,200 --> 00:28:00,959 Speaker 1: broken skin sores. It sounds a lot like torture. Newton 395 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:03,879 Speaker 1: was undoubtedly willing to let people be hurt in his 396 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,240 Speaker 1: pursuit of justice. He once said, of a counterfeiter in prison, 397 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: better to let him. But to be fair, there's not 398 00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,159 Speaker 1: a lot of evidence that Newton was torturing people to 399 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:17,600 Speaker 1: get his information. That reference is the only one that survives, 400 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,600 Speaker 1: although he did burn much of his records concerning counterfeiters. 401 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:26,119 Speaker 1: The idea of Newton as this aggressive, sadistic inquisitor comes 402 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:28,640 Speaker 1: in part from a biography of him written by Frank 403 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:33,400 Speaker 1: Manuel In that read his role as warden through a 404 00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: union psychoanalytical lens. Manuel saw Newton's evident zeal for the 405 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,920 Speaker 1: job as working out his anger with his deceased stepfather 406 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 1: on a socially acceptable object, the treason his coiner that's 407 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:50,160 Speaker 1: probably not really merited at all. Manuel suggested that Newton 408 00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,360 Speaker 1: was unusual in his passion, but the fact was not 409 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,640 Speaker 1: a day went by in the late sixteen nineties of 410 00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: the government wasn't talking about counterfeiters. In some way, Newton's 411 00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: interest was an excessive, nor were his methods of getting information. 412 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,960 Speaker 1: The pressure Newton applied was already there. Many of his 413 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: informants were already facing the gallows, and irons were part 414 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:16,600 Speaker 1: of the prison toolkit. Newton's attitude was shared by his contemporaries. 415 00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:21,320 Speaker 1: But where Newton did differ was in just how dogged, 416 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: thorough and analytical his pursuit of coiners was, and just 417 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:34,360 Speaker 1: how much they hated him for it. Tom Levinson, again, Chaloner, 418 00:29:34,520 --> 00:29:39,880 Speaker 1: like many others, really underestimated Isaac when he came to London. 419 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:44,320 Speaker 1: They would have seen this Cambridge professor, this mathematician, this 420 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: person whose mind was in the stars, who wouldn't stand 421 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,760 Speaker 1: a chance, wouldn't last a week in the rough and 422 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,720 Speaker 1: tumble real world of you know, London and all its 423 00:29:53,920 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 1: bustle and joyous crime and exuberance and misery. Well they 424 00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:04,440 Speaker 1: were wrong. Newton did just fine. He had no problem 425 00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,080 Speaker 1: dealing with the real world. And I think Chaloner was 426 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:11,760 Speaker 1: was really unprepared to confront somebody who wasn't the sort 427 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,920 Speaker 1: of airy, fairy boffin that he may have imagined he 428 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:22,320 Speaker 1: was facing. Newton so far had proven a lot tougher, 429 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,560 Speaker 1: a lot more ruthless, a lot more tenacious than Challenger 430 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:29,680 Speaker 1: had imagined. But that didn't mean that Challenger was done. 431 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: Thomas Holloway was out of jail. He was to be 432 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:39,720 Speaker 1: Newton's star witness in just a few weeks, whenever the 433 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:42,920 Speaker 1: next sessions of trials were to be held. He sat 434 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: in a quiet corner of the Bolt and Ton Inn 435 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: on Fleet Street, just around the corner from where William 436 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:53,080 Speaker 1: Challenger sat in his Newgate cell. He waited, tankred a 437 00:30:53,120 --> 00:30:56,080 Speaker 1: veil in front of him for a man called Michael 438 00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:01,080 Speaker 1: gilling Him. Gilling Him was a longtime associated Challengers. He 439 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: was a useful publican who kept an ale house by 440 00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:07,760 Speaker 1: Charing Cross Road and who did jobs for local criminals. 441 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,480 Speaker 1: He'd even done a bit of counterfeiting himself. The rumors said. 442 00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,080 Speaker 1: Chaloner had passed word to Gillingham, probably through one of 443 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:19,800 Speaker 1: Newgate's notoriously corruptible jailers, to find Holloway and get him 444 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:24,480 Speaker 1: out of the picture. No, he wasn't gonna have him killed. 445 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,320 Speaker 1: Challoner is a con man, He's not a murderer. This 446 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:31,920 Speaker 1: isn't going to turn into that kind of podcast. What 447 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 1: Challoner wanted was for Holloway and his family, including his 448 00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:40,000 Speaker 1: wife Elizabeth and their five children, plus their maid servant 449 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 1: to just disappear for a while. He offered Holloway, through 450 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,400 Speaker 1: gilling him twenty pounds to make a run for Scotland. 451 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,600 Speaker 1: Despite sharing a monarch, England and Scotland were separate kingdoms still, 452 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,760 Speaker 1: so making a run for Scotland meant that English law 453 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:59,000 Speaker 1: couldn't touch him there, though, Challoner was offering a fairly 454 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: substantial some of money. Fairly substantial, about four thousand pounds today, 455 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,520 Speaker 1: enough to buy then like three horses, or pay for 456 00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:09,560 Speaker 1: the Halloways expenses for a bit. Halloween didn't take it 457 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: at first. Maybe he liked having a bit of power 458 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,080 Speaker 1: over Challenger. Maybe he was holding out for a bit more. 459 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:17,320 Speaker 1: Maybe he just didn't want to leave the city he 460 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 1: called home for an uncertain journey north. Maybe he was 461 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:27,160 Speaker 1: worried about his family. Challenger, however, wasn't a man to 462 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,440 Speaker 1: be trifled with. He was playing nice now, offering money, 463 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,840 Speaker 1: but he could just as easily flip the script turn 464 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:38,640 Speaker 1: informant on Holloway. Halloway's wife, Elizabeth, she was also embroiled 465 00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:41,600 Speaker 1: in this too. She had been challengers utterer. She had 466 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:45,280 Speaker 1: passed fake coins into circulation and It's not like Challenger 467 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,000 Speaker 1: hadn't snitched people right into the gallows before, wasn't trying 468 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 1: to do so right now with Aubrey price. A few 469 00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:59,120 Speaker 1: weeks went by, and the trial was getting closer and closer. 470 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:04,320 Speaker 1: In at October, Halloway finally agreed, but he refused to 471 00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: make a promise until he and gilling Him were in 472 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:10,600 Speaker 1: front of a man called Henry Saunders. Holloway evidently trusted 473 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,480 Speaker 1: Saunders and wanted to make sure that there were witnesses 474 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,800 Speaker 1: to the deal he was making with gilling Him and Chaloner. Holloway, 475 00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:19,680 Speaker 1: gilling Him, and Saunders met at yet another pub, the 476 00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,480 Speaker 1: Turk's Head and Whopping near the river. This was where 477 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,320 Speaker 1: condemned men about to hang at execution docks. They're like 478 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,360 Speaker 1: buccaneers and pirates and smugglers and mutineers would have their 479 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,760 Speaker 1: last pint at the Turk's Head. Halloway went over the plan. 480 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: Gilling Him would take care of the kids and the 481 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:38,640 Speaker 1: maid servant for a few weeks while Halloway and his 482 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,840 Speaker 1: wife got on some horses and rode north. He'd send 483 00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:43,960 Speaker 1: the children and the maid up the coast by boat, 484 00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:47,480 Speaker 1: paid for of course, by William Chaloner. Gilling Him paid 485 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,280 Speaker 1: Holloway part up front, and then a few days later, 486 00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,000 Speaker 1: gilling Him and Saunders escorted Holloway and his wife to 487 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: the livery, where they collected their horses, mounted up and 488 00:33:56,640 --> 00:34:01,440 Speaker 1: left town. Gilling Him and Saunders went Newgate that day 489 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: to tell Challenger the news. Charleona then seemed to be 490 00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:09,280 Speaker 1: very joyful and said a fault for the world. Challenger 491 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,799 Speaker 1: declaring a fart for the world was actually in the 492 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 1: deposition of Saunders that Newton took as in this Saunders 493 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:20,920 Speaker 1: person told Newton directly that Challenger said, quote a fart 494 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,720 Speaker 1: for the world. I don't even know what that means. 495 00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:28,520 Speaker 1: The Halloways were now out of the picture, and Newton's 496 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:33,440 Speaker 1: most important witness was gone because two other witnesses recanted, 497 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:37,480 Speaker 1: although exactly how Challenger threatened or bought them off is unclear. 498 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:41,640 Speaker 1: Tom Levinson, you know, it is a classic sort of 499 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:47,279 Speaker 1: mafia what we now think of as mafia organized crime techniques, 500 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:52,200 Speaker 1: of just systematically dismantling the case that's about to be 501 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,520 Speaker 1: presented against you until there was nothing left. And that's 502 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,360 Speaker 1: what happens Newton. He had the case just fell apart, 503 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 1: went to trial by late October Newton's case against Challenger 504 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:08,920 Speaker 1: had crumbled. The judge overseeing the case dismissed the charges. 505 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 1: Newton was fuming. He knew it was a weak case 506 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,360 Speaker 1: from the start, but he'd been pressured by the Lord's 507 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:21,520 Speaker 1: justices to pursue it. And Newton hated losing, hated it 508 00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,799 Speaker 1: if he got on the wrong side of it. Took 509 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,320 Speaker 1: heroic efforts to sort of heal the breach, and and 510 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,600 Speaker 1: and most and most often people didn't. And so Challenger 511 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: had come along this you know, this criminal, this blaggard um, 512 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:39,680 Speaker 1: this this you know, annoying horse fly nipping at at 513 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: Newton's flanks. In November, that annoying horse fly buzzed out 514 00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:53,000 Speaker 1: of Newgate Jail a mostly freeman. Now we know that 515 00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:56,520 Speaker 1: Challenger is not a man content to slink away and 516 00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:59,000 Speaker 1: feel lucky to have escaped this brush with the law 517 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,800 Speaker 1: in certain death. We also know that seven weeks in jail, 518 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,520 Speaker 1: paying jailers for basic necessities, paying off the witnesses against him, 519 00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: had left Chaloner pretty much broke. He needed money, but 520 00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:20,960 Speaker 1: luckily he had a plan, the word three coming up 521 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:26,360 Speaker 1: on Newton's law. Ask no questions, but if you knew 522 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:31,640 Speaker 1: who my friend was you'd allow he was as great 523 00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:37,960 Speaker 1: a master as Charlonough In June or July law, Mr Challoner, I, 524 00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:42,160 Speaker 1: Mr Davis came to my mistress's lodging and Mr Challon 525 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,759 Speaker 1: and locked himself in a room upstairs. Well I was curious, 526 00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:52,279 Speaker 1: so well, I don't through the Kale. Newton's Law is 527 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,360 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. It's written and hosted 528 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:59,600 Speaker 1: by Me Linda Rodriguez mccrobie. Our senior producer is Ryan Murdoch. 529 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,720 Speaker 1: Our producer is Emily Marina. Our executive producer is Jason English. 530 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:09,000 Speaker 1: Original music by Alice McCoy with editing help from Mary Do. 531 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,239 Speaker 1: Sound design and mixing by Jeremy Thal, Research and fact 532 00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:17,520 Speaker 1: checking by Me and Jocelyn Sears. Voice acting by Keith Fleming, 533 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:21,759 Speaker 1: Robbie Jack, Ruthie Stevens and Paul Tinto. Special thanks to 534 00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:25,440 Speaker 1: Dr Patricia Farah and Tom Levinson. Our show logo is 535 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:28,480 Speaker 1: designed by Lucy Cantonia. Thanks for listening.