Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth


Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth MA DL JP was a British Peer and the son of Newton Fellowes, 4th Earl of Portsmouth and Lady Catharine Fortescue.

Early life

Portsmouth was born as Isaac Newton Fellowes, but later resumed the family surname and arms of Wallop without Royal License when he succeeded to the peerage in 1854. He was the son of Newton Fellowes, 4th Earl of Portsmouth and Lady Catharine Fortescue, daughter of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue.
He was educated at Rugby School and matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge.

The Newton Papers

In 1872 Lord Portsmouth donated to his alma mater, Trinity College, Cambridge, a vast collection of papers by Sir Isaac Newton which had descended through Newton's great-niece Catherine Conduitt, daughter of John Conduitt and Catherine Barton, into the Wallop family by her marriage to John Wallop, Viscount Lymington.
A committee chaired by John Couch Adams and Sir George Stokes was appointed by the University to review the papers. Adams and Stokes selected only Newton's scientific papers, not wanting to blemish his reputation as an enlightened intellectual and scientist. After spending sixteen years cataloging Newton's papers, Cambridge University kept a small number and returned the rest to the Earl of Portsmouth.

Marriage and issue

He married Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert, daughter of Henry John George Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, by his wife Henrietta Anna Howard, daughter of Lord Henry Thomas Howard-Molyneux-Howard on 15 February 1855.
They had twelve children:
Lord Portsmouth declined the elevation to a Marquessate and the offer to become a Knight of the Garter from Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, thinking them 'beyond his merits'.

Death

He died on 4 October 1891 aged 66 and was succeeded in the Earldom by his son, Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth.