There are many certain errors in this family history and many questionable statements (as listed at the bottom of the page). It may however include elements of fact, which makes it worthwhile publishing on this website.

The name NEWMAN comes from Old English, meaning 'newcomer', and implies that originally the families of Newman were simply foreigners to the Saxon hamlet. As a 'man' was not a serf, it has also been held to imply a created position of trust during Norman feudal times. Norman-French barons would frequently select friendly Saxon 'ealdormen' commanding proven allegiances to assist them in pacifying local communities. Some Newmans hold that their name was originally 'NEWNHAM', meaning of the new homestead, a surname which survives in its original form and is especially associated with the town of Nuneham Courtenay in Oxford. The name is commonest in the West Midlands, but seems to have been imported there from further south given its distribution.

Whatever the origins of the surname, the Newmans of Wessex (10) were a clerical family who clearly possessed Norman connections and patronage at an early date, and would have been fluent in Latin and French. Prior to the abolition of the monasteries, they seem to have been well-established in central Wessex as priests of Fifehead, their original home. They followed the custom of early English churchmen by marrying, contrary to edicts of Rome and Canterbury in this matter. By the beginning of reliable genealogical records, they had become associated with the Cathedral of St.Thomas at Salisbury. Our ancestor, Robert Newman, will dated 1558, became abbot of Stour Provost and of St.Austyns Abbey, Bristol. He witnessed and probably assisted the reformation of the local Church under Henry VIII, and his son appears to have been well-provided for, since he is recorded as the Squire of Fifehead Magdalen Manor, co.Dorset. He predeceased his father by two years.

The original grant of arms to Newman (§.i) was at an early date, since the grant is exceptionally simple, consisting of three silver mullets on a black field. After 1066 only the feudally enrolled were granted arms by the Heralds, implying ownership of substantial property and a French bloodline. The arms were quartered (§.ii) with an even more ancient family whose shield was plain silver without any devices. The ownership of this grant, and the heiress who bequeathed it, have been lost in the mists of the late dark ages, but she was possibly of one of the families of the SAXON EARLS. The three mullets appear to be stars but are actually spurs, and probably represent a medieval play on the word 'Martlet', the family's heraldic beast. A mythical bird, scaly, half-fish and without legs, the Martlet can never rest in one place.

By Tudor times the Newmans had acquired the feudal right of advowsans¹ (sic) over the Rectorship of Fifehead in Dorset, and installed members of their own family. In 1663, Humphrey Newman of Wincanton died without a male heir², and the advowsans passed to his second cousin, Richard Newman of Fifehead Magdalen Manor, who had meantime purchased the investiture of the parish of Sparkford from Lovel, baron of Castle Cary. Richard married into wealthy families twice. He married first on 5th May 1614 Elizabeth SYMONS of Woodford Castle, co.Somerset, who died in childbirth leaving him with a daughter, Anna, later married to Robert WHESTE of Dorset. He married secondly Elizabeth de Guise PERRY, of Castle Kenn, Somerset, sole heiress of the fortune of Christopher Perry and Elinor de Guise. This marriage to the grand-daughter of Sir William GUISE of Elmore, Bart.Royal, established his children in court circles close to their distant cousins Charles I and Queen Henriette Marie.

On 30th October 1635, Thomas Newman of Fifehead, scholar of Pembroke College Oxford aged 15 years, matriculated with his younger brother Richard. He died unmarried in 1664³, the same year as his father, leaving his estates to Colonel Richard Newman, barrister-at-law, first of Evercreech Park (11). This Richard had formed a close bond with members of the royalist faction, and during the Civil Wars was elevated to the War Cabinet as High Steward, roughly equivalent to the office of Prime Minister. He gave large sums from the Perry-Guise fortune to the Stewart kings Charles I and II. At the Battle of Warwick (1651), he held the gates of the City to enable Charles II's retreat, a valiant feat of arms which earned his grandson a baronetcy in posthumous gratitude following that King's restoration. The arms of all descendants of Colonel Richard were also commanded to be augmented by a 'portcullis or surmounted by a crown' representing service to the crown before the Gates of Warwick (§.iii). Richard Newman married Anna, daughter of Sir Charles HARBORD, Surveyor-General to Charles I and II, some time before Charles I was beheaded in 1649⁴, and by her had a large family. He died in 1695, aged 75 years.

Richard was succeeded by his senior grandson, Sir Richard Newman of Preston Hall, who as we saw was created a baronet on 19th December 1699 (§.iv) in recognition of his grandfather's services to the Stewart kings. He married Lady Frances, daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas SAMWELL, baronet of Upton Hall, Northampton, and died on 30 December 1731, leaving his estates and the baronetcy to his son Sir Samwell Newman who died without issue in 1747. The estates of Preston Hall, Evercreech Park and Fifehead Manor passed to his surviving sister Frances Newman, and were sold when she died unmarried on 25th August 1775. She had adopted in her will the grandchildren of her aunt Anne Newman, and they on 8th September 1775 assumed by Royal License the Newman surname and arms, first of Farnham Hall.

Anne Newman, eldest child of Richard Newman of Evercreech and Grace née EDMONDS, was senior granddaughter of Colonel Richard Newman cavalier of Westminster (see above). She married Ashburnham TOLL of Greywell, co. Somerset. Several generations of a junior Toll branch went by the names 'NEWMAN-TOLL' and 'ASHBURNHAM- NEWMAN- TOLL' before changing this name by deed poll to 'GOODENOUGH'. The Newmans of Farnham Hall (57), 25 kms west of Evercreech in Nth.Dorset, were descendants of the senior Toll branch. This was evidently a large family, and a number of these, now represented by the 'BARTLETT' family, emigrated to Canada at an early date, leaving Farnham Hall to the present line which continued there, in considerable prosperity, for several generations. One of these was Elizabeth, daughter of William Newman (fl. 1800) of Farnham Hall. Her descendants were the 'KETTLES' of Sussex and Ross-on-Wye (58).

Surviving male lineal descent was through Francis Hollis Newman, Sheriff of Somerset, 4th son of Colonel Richard. Francis was the first Newman of (North) Cadbury (12). This was an immense, rambling country manor just north of the archaeological site of Arthur's Camelot, close to Castle Cary. He was buried in the grounds of Cadbury on 13th October 1714 aged ca.50 years, having married Elianor née MOMPESSON of Brewham, one of four daughters of Thomas Mompesson, on 16th March 1689, by whom he had 9 children. Francis [II] Newman, 2nd of Nth.Cadbury, born 5th May 1691, succeeded his father, and was created High Sheriff for Somerset in 1738 and 1744. He married Dorothy GIFFARD of Boreham, Wiltshire, but died without issue, buried at Nth.Cadbury, 26th August 1754⁵. In 1747 he had inherited the investiture of Sparkford from his cousin Sir Samwell Newman.

Francis was succeeded by his nephew Francis [III] Newman, 3rd and last of Nth.Cadbury and of West House, both co.Somerset. This Francis speculated on, bought, and built Newman Street near Oxford Street, London, and Newman Hall, co.Essex⁶, both purchased on credit from William Berner. He married Jane, daughter of Henry SAMPSON, Clerk Prebend of Wells, and seems to have lived a life of extravagant pleasure. By her he had three daughters. The eldest, Frances, fought with her father, eloped and married her cousin Francis at Piddletrenthide, co.Dorset in 1778. On May Day 1788, the two younger daughters were married in a lavish double wedding at North Cadbury, probably in the fashionable rococo style, to Rev.James ROGERS of Newnton, Wiltshire, Vicar of South Cadbury, and to Sir William YEA, baronet of St.James, Taunton. Fond of gambling, alone in a large house (his wife had predeceased him in 1784), and with mounting debts, Francis lost house and everything he owned in an all-or-nothing gaming bet one evening in 1789/90. Berner foreclosed on the properties in London and Essex. Disowned by his two flamboyant younger daughters, he was taken in by and reconciled to his elder daughter Frances and nephew Francis [IV] at Piddletrenthide on the Piddle River. He died there on Christmas Day 1796. His only surviving grandchild was Frances Charlotte, who married Robert COX, an alderman of the City of London and Justice of the Peace.

The second surviving son of Francis Hollis Newman of North Cadbury, was Charles Newman of Sherborne, who was born in his parents' house in 1694 and buried there on 23rd November 1734. He married Hannah, daughter of Rev. John SANDYS, by whom he had Francis [III] who inherited North Cadbury after his uncle's death, and Rev.Henry Newman, Rector of Shepton Beauchamp, who was instituted to the Rectory of Sparkford in 1757⁷. This second son Henry married Ann UNDERWOOD of Leicester, leaving two sons, Francis [IV] of Piddletrenthide⁸, the elder, who deserted his wife and died in America in 1811/17, and Edwin Sandys Newman, Curate of Babcary and Rector of Sparkford (instituted 14th April 1798⁹), the younger. Edwin was educated at Magdalen College, Cambridge, gaining a Bachelor of Laws in 1791, and seems to have practiced as a Barrister before a career as Curate. He married Frances daughter of Allen LYDE of Lavender House, Berry Pomeroy, co.Devon, and died 19th April 1836, buried at Babcary.

Edwin was succeeded by his only surviving son, Edwin [II] Newman, first Squire of Hendford Manor (13), Yeovil, co.Somerset, born ca.1795. A farmer¹⁰, he also inherited the advowsans rights over Sparkford¹¹. Hendford Manor appears to have been a very large farm manor with many rooms and rising damp. Animals were regularly brought into the house for warmth during cold spells, and several generations and related families lived under the same roof. In 1834/5 Edwin married Charlotte JECKYLL who developed active tuberculosis due to the extremely cold, damp conditions of the manor house, and may already have carried the infection. She passed it on to four generations of descendants¹². Edwin is recorded as having a 'gift of living [right of investiture] of the parish of Hawkridge with Withypool' as well as Sparkford¹³. He died 22 January 1885, aged ca. 90 years, the only Newman of Hendford to be 'TB-free'.

Five sons of the Squire of Hendford were successively educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, each occupying the same room, now known as the 'Newman Room'. The eldest, Edwin and George, founded the firm 'Newman, Newman, Newman and Paynter, Solicitors'¹⁴, whilst a daughter, Henrietta, married the partner Henry Paynter¹⁵, and a grandson, Walter Newman (b.1865/6) married Lily Paynter. Another grandson, Edwin [III] was killed in action in Ireland during the rebellion of 1884¹⁶. Walter's son Harold Newman, farmer (b.ca.1895), sold Hendford Manor¹⁷, and his descendants represent the senior branch of Newman in the United Kingdom (13a). A sixth son, Rowland Newman, became Rector of Lufton (1871), and later of 'Yeovil, Hawkridge with Withypool' (1876). Ordained in 1870, he was dead of TB by 1890¹⁸, together with brothers Joseph and Charles to the same illness. His son Rowland [II], born ca.1885, was invested as Rector of Sparkford by his cousin Harold¹⁹ before the right of advowsans was abolished by Act of Parliament during the 1939-45 War. He suffered from bone TB, losing both arms and a leg during lifelong illness. He finally refused surgery to amputate his other leg, and died of the illness in 1954 aged ca.69 years²⁰.

Arthur Newman, born 9th October 1843 at Yeovil, sixth son, 4th of the 'Newman Room' Trinity College, gained his BA in 1867, MA in 1873, but had already been created Vicar of Wemdon in 1870. On completion of his BA, he married on 21st February 1867, at Royal Ascott, Charlotte daughter of Rev. James Peers TWEED of co.Essex. One of the last 'hunting, shooting and fishing parsons', he achieved notoriety in the strange case of George Chilcott, labourer, a parishioner declared dead who Rev. Newman refused to bury, instead keeping a coffin vigil for 3 days 'whereafter Mr.Chilcott showed signs of life and later made a full recovery' [reported in Bridgwater Times, c.1880]. A capable high churchman, he was created Chaplain of Bridgwater Union (1885), and Vicar of Axminster, co.Devon (ca.1900). In midlife he absconded from his parish with a mistress, ready to embark for America. Intercepted by his son on the ship just before departure, he was persuaded to return, but found a petition from the parishioners of Axminster nailed to the locked door of the Church barring him from entry. Effectively sacked, he died at Cumberland Lodge, Parkstone, co.Dorset, 2nd January 1915 aged 72 years. A staunch Tory [conservative], he had disinherited his son for espousing liberal [Whig] causes. His wife Charlotte survived him, dying 23rd March 1924 at their son's Vicarage in Whittlesey, co.Cambridge, aged ca.80 years. A descendant of the CROMWELL, DISBROWE and WALFORD 'roundhead' families of East Anglia, and of Spurgeon TWEED cloth-maker, two generations of her descendants bore the name 'Tweed Newman' (14)

Arthur Edwin Tweed Newman, Vicar of Whittlesey, co.Cambridge, was born 8th December 1867 at Hendford Manor. Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he became President of the Union and gained a BA Honours in 1889. Ordained in 1893, he served as London Curate of the Holy Trinity Church at Hoxton (1892-5), Vicar of St.Barnabas South Kensington, co.Surrey (1895-7), and of Granborough, Buckinghamshire (1897-1907). A radical liberal [Whig], from the 1890s he became an election orator, financed by friends Baron Rothschild and Lord Wedgwood. Disinherited by his father and dismayed by the deaths of his first wife (1907) and elder son (1915), and by the decline of the Liberals after the Great War (1918), he devoted the remainder of his life to writing sermons as Vicar of St.Andrew's Whittlesey (1907-44), despite bouts of consumption [he had TB from Hendford throughout his life], depression, and binge drinking. Before and during World War II his sermons gained wide notoriety and drew large congregations which spilled out into the street. He died on 28th May 1944, buried at East Preston, co.Surrey, aged 76 years, survived by 6 sons and 2 daughters.

Colonel Charles Edwin Tweed Newman of the Rajputana Rifles, Indian Army, later of New South Wales, was his eldest surviving son after Arthur Maurice Tweed Newman was killed in action at Aubers Ridge in France on 9th May 1915. Born 2nd July 1898 at The Rectory, Granborough, co.Buckinghamshire, Charles was sponsored with his brother Maurice to go to Christ's Hospital School in London by a wealthy benefactress, Mrs.Thompson. Occasionally she would drive them about in her carriage-and-four with dogs and liveried coachmen. Slightly dyslexic, Charles left his homework to his brother Maurice whilst he played cricket. On enlisting at age 16 years, he was asked which position he played, and after telling his Commanding Officer he played 'slips' was given the job of catching German grenades in the trenches, a job which carried a life expectancy of just 6 weeks. Surviving on his wits for 18 months, with some inevitable 'drops' and 'near misses', he was subsequently decorated for bravery and asked if he wished to accept a commission, which he gained at Sandhurst in 1918. From 1919 to 1945 he served as an Officer in India, and as Major again saw active service on the NW-Frontier [Afghanistan] in 1929. During the Second World War he became Brigade Commanding Officer (Acting Brigadier) of the 7th Battalion, XIX Hyderabad Regiment (1943-45), training troops for action in Burma against the Japanese Imperial Army. Due to disagreements, and following Courts Martial over petty squabbles for precedence, he retired Lieutenant Colonel in 1945.

An avid hunter and sportsman, he travelled to Australia in 1926 to buy ponies for polo cross, where he met and married the following year Kate Agnes Margaret Annabella CAMPBELL of Yarralumla Station, Canberra (39), whose father Frederick insisted that all descendants bear the name and arms of Campbell in addition to or instead of those of Newman. Frederick died just before his first grandson Maurice Charles Campbell Newman (15) was born in Sydney on 21st December 1928. He was baptized twice, once as 'Charles Campbell', then in a second ceremony the same day as 'Maurice Newman'. Since 1950 the family has been associated with Bellevue Hill, Sydney. Colonel Charles Newman died 20th March 1985, aged 87 years.

After 1928, the arms of Newman and Campbell were supposedly merged, although the change was never registered with the College of Arms. Due to the rules of heraldry which forbid or [gold] and argent [silver] fields being quartered, the change required a bar [bisection with a band of separation]. The proper colour for the separation was azure [blue] since this derived from an existing colour (third quarter field of the Campbell of Duntroon shield), and when melded the two sets of heraldic devices could be set off without ambiguity against the azure (blue) field. This is at least poetically pleasing, suggesting the twilight before the night (§.v) [cf. Campbell Alexander Newman, born 25th April 1957, Mischa Alexander Campbell Newman, born 11th March 1989, and Anoushka Julijana Campbell Newman, born 21st January 1991]. Alternatively, separated by a more pleasing vert (green) spring field, an upper Campbell gyronny with Newman mullets below (§.vi) [cf. Sascha Nikolai Campbell Newman, born 28th December 1991], suggests the supremacy of the other world (the gyronny taken to represent the 'Annwn' or 'Celtic heaven'). The Newman motto Lux mea Christus ('Christ my light') is retained, taking precedence over the Campbell one Agite pro viribus ('work with all your might') which follows. The Martlet flies above, whilst the Boar's Head of the Campbells has been reduced to an insignia atop the ship's mast, the defeated Gordon clan's 'hairy arm' at the prow.

C.E.T.Newman once said that he was the descendant of a gambler, a laggard, a rake, and a drunk. If there are common themes, they are restlessness and risk-taking, whether shrewd or impulsive. Adventurism has led to opportunism, with attendant fortunes and wrecks along the way, and to a compensating strain of reactionary conservatism; but also on occasion to courageous and decisive inspiration.

    

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Notes:

1 - Right of Advowson: Advowson, in the Christian Church, the right of selecting a person to a church living or benefice (Church office with an endowment that covers living expenses); a form of patronage. It is normally held by the diocesan bishop but may be held by some other patron - a secular or clerical individual or corporation. The possibility of a secular patron holding the right of advowson survives from an originally much more extensive system of control exercised by feudal lords over the churches on their estates in medieval Europe. However, the diocesan bishop retains the right to veto a patron's nomination.

In most Roman Catholic countries, the right of advowson has died out, though it survives in a few places. In the Church of England, where it still exists, the right of advowson may be held by anyone who is not a Roman Catholic or an alien (non-citizen). English law treats an advowson as a right of property that can be transferred by gift. Occasional scandals related to the right have led to attempts to limit this type of patronage and its transfer. [Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.]

2 - Humphrey Newman of Wincanton: The statement that Humphrey died without male heir (and the tree above which indicates that son Richard died in infancy) is in conflict with the information that I have, which suggests that Humphrey's son Richard moved to Ireland and settled in Cork.

3: - Thomas Newman of Fifehead: I'm inclined to believe that it was this Thomas Newman, elder brother of Richard, who did indeed die in 1664 and who lies buried near the entrance to the churchyard at Fifehead Magdalen. However it does contradict the Latin inscription found on brother Richard's memorial inside the church which says "Filios, Thomam flore juventutis febre abreptum" which I am lead to believe means "Son Thomas, taken away in the prime of life by an attack of fever". Or does the reference to "Son Thomas" relate to Richard's youngest son (also called Thomas) who died young?

4: - Anne Harbord: If the date I have for Anne Harbord's birth is right (1634), then she would have been a very young bride if she married Richard before Charles I's execution in 1649. Not impossible in those days, I guess.

5: - Francis Newman and Dorothy Gifford: It would appear that it was Dorothy who was buried August 20, 1754 in North Cadbury. Francis, her husband, was buried there 14 year later on 13th April 1768.

6: - Newman Hall , Essex: I have only seen one other references to Newman Hall in Essex, and that appears in the Newman Chapel at Fifehead in an memorial dedicated to Thomas Newman, in which it is claimed that Thomas is descended from the Newmans of Newman Hall in Essex. However, since Thomas died in 1649, the reference doesn't fit with the suggestion above that Newman Hall in Essex was built (or bought) by Francis [III] Newman, 3rd and last of Nth.Cadbury and of West House. who wasn't born until about 1720. (See note on Thomas's web page)

7: - Henry Newman: According to the list of Rectors displayed in the church at Sparkford, Henry became rector there on 25 January 1756.

8: - Francis Newman: This is the first time I've seen his name recorded as Francis of Piddletrenthide. It's also the first time that I've read a history where his role in the loss of the family fortune has been downplayed and the blame placed on his uncle Francis III's shoulders.

9: - Edwin Sandys Newman: According to the list of Rectors displayed in the church at Sparkford, Henry became rector there on 14 April 1796.

10: - Edwin Newman: This is the first time I've ever heard Edwin being referred to as a "farmer", and I find it hard to imagine him as one. I know nothing of his early life or of his education. Born in 1803, the earliest anecdote I have of him is from the quotation of his granddaughter Evelyn who wrote "Grandfather [Edwin Newman], as a young man, rode out to the Rectory on business & as he entered the drive which sweeps round to the front porch, he caught sight of a lady sitting in the window, back to him with her arm out-stretched & he made up his mind she was to be Mrs. Newman." Presumably the Rectory was in Sparkford or Shepton Beauchamp where Edwin's father was rector, and presumably he was in his early 20s (he had his first child at the age of 27 or 28, so probably married at 25 or 26). It's hard to imagine a Rector's son who was going out "on business" in his early 20s and who at around 30 had established himself with a legal practice in Yeovil, having spent time as a farmer. It's not unlikely that he invested in farming land in later years, but it's hard to picture him actually being involved in the practice himself. After all, he didn't retire from his legal practice until 1876 or thereabouts (I have a clock that was given to him on his retirement), and some 10 years before that, it seems he was living in an expensive area in London where his youngest daughter Henrietta is reported to have lived in a house overlooking Hyde Park when she was a girl.

11: - Advowson Rights over Sparkford: I doubt that Edwin had any rights of advowson over Sparkford. After his father's death in 1836, the Sparkford rectorship was taken up by Henry Bennett, according to the listing of Rectors hung inside the church. Henry Bennett was a descendant of James Bennett who had purchased Cadbury and Sparkford estates and from my understanding there was no love lost between the Bennetts and the Newmans (the Bennetts reputedly "expunging" all traces of Newman habitation from Cadbury Court). If that is the case, then it is hard to believe that Edwin Newman would have awarded the rectorship of Sparkford to a member of the Bennett family if he had held the advowdson (or right to appoint rectors) over the parish.

12: - Hendford Manor and TB: There are several points of interest and of questionability here:

Firstly, was Hendford Manor really a manor house attached to farming land in the mid-19th Century? The only reason I ask this is that its location is very close to the centre of Yeovil as can be seen from the map on the Hendford Manor page where it can be seen that High Street (in the centre of the town) is at the bottom of Hendford, the street in which Hendford Manor sits. I have no basis on which to make a judgement on the matter, but I have difficulty with the idea that a young man establishing a reputable law firm (as it became) would choose to do so in a rural farmhouse rather than in urban premises, let alone to allow farm animals to share the premises with his family. (Or did he not run his office from the house, as I understood him to have done?) Even more difficult is to imagine this happening in his later life, when it appears that he had a residence in a fashionable part of London and had achieved considerable wealth (his estate was worth over £31,000, or something approximating £1,000,000 in Year 2000 currency - see Edwin's Will).

I also wonder about the suggestion that several generations of several families lived under the one roof, since there is no suggestion that this was the case in the two census records that I have for Edwin's house (1851 and 1881). [Note - it is interesting that his house number changed from No 23 Hendford in 1851 to 11 Hendford in 1881. Did the house numbers change, or did he move house?]

As to Charlotte transmitting TB to several generations of descendants, there was one descendant who didn't die of TB and that was Edwin's youngest daughter Henrietta (who died of diabetes). This raises two fascinating questions: did Edwin bring up Henrietta (who was his only daughter and reportedly very spoiled) in London to escape the TB endemic at home in Yeovil? And had this anything to do with Edwin's decision to purchase a house for Henrietta and her new husband in the wilds of Northumbria, as far away from Somerset as it was possible to travel within the boundaries of England? I wonder. Incidentally, Edwin was 81 when he died (not 90).

13: - Edwin's 'gift of living [right of investiture] of the parish of Hawkridge with Withypool' as well as Sparkford: I have never heard this suggestion before and confess to having some doubts about it, as I do about his Advowson Rights over Sparkford (see comment 10 above). In the case of Hawkridge and Withypool, so far as I am aware, the benefice wasn't awarded to anyone in the family until 1882 (three years before Edwin's death, and long after his retirement from legal work), when his youngest son Rowland took the position at the age of 37, having earlier been Rector of Lufton, just outside Yeovil. Still, it's by no means impossible that old Edwin did exercise an ancient right sent him off to work in the wilds of Exmoor.

14: - Founding of the firm Newman and Paynter: I am certain the statement that "The eldest, Edwin and George, founded the firm 'Newman, Newman, Newman and Paynter, Solicitors' is incorrect. It was, I am sure, their father Edwin and Francis Paynter who started the firm of Newman Paynter and Co sometime in the 1830s (see separate page dedicated to the Law Firm)

15: - Henrietta's marriage: Henrietta married Henry Paynter who was the son of Francis Paynter, the founding partner. They moved immediately to Northumberland where Henry established a legal partnership of his own. See Henrietta's and Henry's pages for details.

16: - Edwin Montague Browne Newman: Edwin's grandson Edwin Montague Browne Newman was killed in action in the Sudan in 1885, not in Ireland in 1884. A description of the battle in which he died (including a description of his death) is to be found in the story of The Mahdist Revolt, 1884-1885.

17: - Harold Newman, Walter's son Harold Newman was not a "farmer" though he ran a small-holding in Somerset after his retirement from the army in 1949. He was born in 1900 (not 1895) and became a professional soldier in 1918. He had nothing to do with the sale of Hendford Manor which was sold to old Edwin's son-in-law, original partner's son and later partner, Bernard Paynter some 10 or 15 years before Harold was born.

18: - Rowland Newman: - If Rowland died of TB, he lived a lot later than 1890. He died in 1919 aged 73 (I have a photo of his gravestone in Hawkridge which says that he was buried the Feb 17 1919). Charles appears to have been alive in 1901 since his name appears on that year's census in Alnwick. Joseph certainly died young, aged 41, in Islington.

19: - Rowey Newman: Rowey certainly seems to have succumbed to bone TB, but he lived till the age of 80, dying in 1958. I knew him in the last years of his life, and remember well that he had only one arm. But he always had two legs when I knew him, and he is shown with at least one in the photo that I have of him. John Newman who knew him better than I did makes no mention of him losing more than one arm (to TB in the elbow).

20: - Rectors of Sparkford: There is no record of any Newman being Rector of Sparkford after Edwin Sandys Newman who died in 1836. I quite sure that my father Harold Newman never had any rights of advowson, let alone exercised them in finding a beneficiary for Rowey. He certainly had made no mention of them in his multitudes of writings.

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