In thermodynamics, the Gibbs free energy or Helmholtz free energy is essentially the energy of a chemical reaction "free" or available to do external work.  Historically, the "free energy" is a more advanced and accurate replacement for the thermochemistry term “affinity” used by chemists of olden days to describe the “force” that caused chemical reactions.  The term dates back to at least the time of Albertus Magnus in 1250.
According to Nobelist and chemical engineering professor Ilya Prigogine: “as motion was explained by the Newtonian concept of force, chemists wanted a similar concept of ‘driving force’ for chemical change?  Why do chemical reactions occur, and why do they stop at certain points?  Chemists called the ‘force’ that caused chemical reactions affinity, but it lacked a clear definition.
During the entire 18th century, the dominant view in regard to heat and light was that put forward by Isaac Newton, called the “Newtonian hypothesis”, which stated that light and heat are forms of matter attracted or repelled by other forms of matter, with forces analogous to gravitation or to chemical affinity.
In the 19th century, the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot and the Danish chemist Julius Thomsen had attempted to quantify chemical affinity using heats of reaction.  In 1875, after quantifying the heats of reaction for a large number of compounds, Berthelot proposed the “principle of maximum work” in which all chemical changes occurring without intervention of outside energy tend toward the production of bodies or of a system of bodies which liberate heat.