On 21 December 1671 he was proposed as a candidate for admission to the Royal Society by Dr Seth Ward, bishop of Salisbury, and on 11 January 1672, he was elected a fellow of the Society. At the meeting at which Newton was elected, he read a description of a reflecting telescope which he had invented, and "it was ordered that a letter should be written by the secretary to Mr. Newton to acquaint him of his election into the Society, and to thank him for the communication of his telescope, and to assure him that the Society would take care that all right should be done him concerning this invention."