Who was the headmaster who convinced Newton's mother to send him to Cambridge?

Henry Stokes was the headmaster who recognized Newton’s ability and persuaded his mother to return him to school so he could prepare for university. Stokes was master of the King’s School in Grantham, where Newton had studied as a boy.

Newton’s mother, Hannah, recalled him from school around 1659 or 1660 so that he could help manage the family farm at Woolsthorpe. He showed little interest or aptitude for farming. According to the traditional account, Stokes argued that Newton’s talents should not be buried in rural work and that further education offered a better future.

Stokes’s intervention led Newton back to the Grantham school, where he completed the preparation needed for Cambridge. Newton entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1661. His uncle, William Ayscough, also had Cambridge connections and supported his education, which explains why Ayscough sometimes appears in accounts of Newton’s route to university.

The precise story comes largely from later biographical testimony, but Henry Stokes is the canonical answer to this quiz question.