Lieutenant-Colonel Richard de Villamil (1850–1936) was a British Army officer and physicist, who wrote a biography of Isaac Newton.
[3] He was later posted to Cork in Ireland,[4] and then, in 1886, to Jamaica,[5] where he spent four years, during which time he built the Victoria Battery at Port Royal.
Following the publication of his article, de Villamil visited Barnsley Park and identified 860 books as having belonged to the scientist.
[8] He had previously also traced an inventory of Newton's estate at the time of his death in the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which were kept at Somerset House.
[9] de Villamil described the list as "so complete and so detailed that we could easily re-furnish every room in Newton's house (if it still existed) as it was at the time of his death".