After the publication of Baily's Account of Flamsteed, Rigaud, Edleston and De Morgan further extended Newtonian scholarship through the investigation of defined topics and publication of manuscript collections. Brewster's second biography of Newton, the Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, had to tackle the perceived charges against Newton's character and incorporate the new information made available in these texts. The reviews of his 1831 Life of Newton had criticized him for relying solely on secondary sources so, because of this and the fact that he was tackling a series of works that were based on large amounts of primary material, it is unsurprising that Brewster began his research among the Portsmouth Papers. His new reliance on such sources can therefore be seen as dictated by his need to find an authoritative means of defence. The contents of his book were also reactive to the work of other writers, tackling the problematic issues identified in the previous three decades. This counteractive and defensive element of the Memoirs of Newton is identified in this chapter through Brewster's research and writing process and through his treatment of the controversial themes in comparison to the approach of his critics, especially De Morgan. The topics that caused Brewster most anguish were Newton's quarrels with Flamsteed and Leibniz, his Antitrinitarianism and his interest in alchemy. Brewster published new evidence on all these points which, although it significantly altered his portrayal of Newton, was presented as positively as possible. Brewster also considered occasional suppression justifiable. However, despite Brewster's continued insistence that Newton's ‘social character’ was ‘modest, candid, and affable, and without any of the eccentricities of genius’, his evidence projected a very different image. What Brewster left implicit was to be presented explicitly by many of his reviewers. Brewster's defensiveness appeared in one further area: his treatment of the history of optics.