A Newman Family History

Todays new extract from the Newman family history website comes from the London and Southwark section.
Thomas George Newman (1840-1933), like his grandfather, Joseph Potter, answered the call of the sea to serve as an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy.

Thomas George Newman (1840-1933) was the fourth and youngest son of Samuel Hugh Newman and Elizabeth Myres Potter. As a grandson of Joseph Potter, doubtless he had been told many tales by his grandfather. Bored with school, from which he frequently truanted, and unhappy with living with an aunt who seemed to favour her dogs more than him, he began to think of running away to sea. Twice he set off for Chatham Dockyard but at that time was not tall enough to serve, so was brought back until, finally, having grown to 5 foot 6 inches tall, he was accepted on HMS Waterloo as a Boy 2 Class on 9 August 1857 for ten year’s service.

To see the rest of this article click here

Please check back for more updates and new discoveries posted daily.

Although Hugh Newman of Epsom (1689-1746) left a son Samuel (born 1733) his heirs appear to have been the descendants of his daughter, Mary (1725-1780), who on 13 November 1750 married William Storey (or Story), tailor, at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. The family retained ownership of property in Epsom as late as 1892, when what had previously been held by copyhold was converted to freehold.

You can read more on our forums, click here to go to the topic.

Joseph Potter was not only an important link between the older generation of Newmans and their later descendants, but also a remarkable character himself.

To read the rest of this article click here.

Here is an extract from our new website article on London in the 1840s to read more please click here.

Between 1843-1857 Samuel Hugh Newman and his family, lived at various addresses in Ship Yard, Strand. Ship Yard took its name from the Ship Tavern, which stood at the south corner, just at the east end of Butcher’s Row (which fronted the Strand to the rear of St. Clement Dane’s Church). To the left, marking the junction of Strand and Fleet Street, stood the historic Temple Bar. From the Strand, Ship Yard was barely visible as it was entered through a narrow archway beneath 246 Strand, the double-fronted Temple House, then occupied by Griffiths, Linen Draper. Ship Yard’s narrow entry gave on to a tiny court on the right before turning sharply to the left and opening out into a street almost as wide as Butcher’s Row itself. Its importance was increased, however, by the fact that it wasn’t a cul-de-sac but debouched into Little Shear or Shire Lane (a thoroughfare joining Boswell Court on the west with Shire Lane on the east).

To read the rest of this article click here.

Here is an transcribed extract from the last will and testiment of Robert Newman 1682, a photo of the original document can be found by following the read more link

In the name of God Amen the thirtieth Day of August In foure and thirtieth years of the Reigne of our Souv[er)aigne Lord Charles the Second By the grace of God of England Scotland France & Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c Anno Dom[ini] 1682. I Robert Newman of Dorking in the County of Surrey gent[leman] being sickly and diseased in Body But of Sound mind & good memory praised be the Lord therefore doe make and declare this my last will and testament And first and principally I will and bequeath my soule into the hands of Almighty God my creator trusting by the only Meritts Death and passion of my Deere and only Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ to have free and full pardon and remission for all my sins And to enjoy eternal happiness with those that are forever Blessed in the kingdom of heaven And I will my Body to the Earth from whence it was derived to be decently and Christianly buried at the discretion of my Executors hereafter named….. Read more

To view the rest of this document click here to go to the newman family history website

The story of nations is composed of millions of personal family histories and the launch of this Newman Family History website, following only a couple of weeks after the opening of our dedicated Forum, is a further step towards making the research on this particular Newman Family available online to all those with interested. At the present we are anticipating the detailed research in book form to be ready for the printers by the end of May, so we planning a June publication date.

This will be a significant step in almost half a century of gathering material relating to this family. Now seems to be an appropriate occasion to pay tribute to two of my kinsmen, whom sadly I never met, but whose work – quite independent of my own – will have been brought to completion. Bertha Voysey (1915-1996) and Leonard Townsend (1915-2001) were first cousins, whose mothers were two daughters of Thomas George Newman (1840-1933). Following their respective retirements, they embarked on their genealogical adventure, Bertha having the advantage of living close to the National Archives at Kew but Leonard making good use of early computerisation to collate data. Through their efforts much material has been preserved which otherwise would almost certainly have been lost.

The website will continue to be updated and, through its Forum, we intend to continue the task of unravelling and recording one family’s past.
Full can be found at http://newmanfamilyhistory.com
Visit our community forums at http://newmanfamilyhistory.com/forums

This week I visited Hayles Street, formerly Gibraltar Row. There is a late Victorian pub on the corner and one likes to feel that it is the successor of the Sign of the Castle where the inquest on Hugh Newman was held.

The street is now quite mixed with some late Victorian houses. There is also one terrace of brick houses on the west side called “Hayles Terrace” and dated 1853. Further down on the same side are some very plain brick houses which could date from around 1816 or any time up to the 1850s. In my opinion this could be the original Gibraltar Row as it is a single row of modest dwellings and therefore the earliest houses in the street. They could date from a few decades later but it would be unlikely that the earlier houses should be pulled down in the 1840s or 1850s only to be replaced by something almost identical. At the north end of this row is a recess called Fives Court (visible by the lamp post and blue sign on the wall in both photos), which leads into a serpentine passageway (with some old brick walls) which leads directly in East Place, West Square where we know that Hugh Newman’s nephew, Samuel Hugh Newman was living 1838-184. Knowing that the Newmans usually lived in very close proximity to one another, I think this is another confirmation that these houses constitute at least part of the original Gibraltar Row.

The fact that the Leedle household was at 24, Gibraltar Row suggests there were more houses than at present but I would venture the opinion that the ones in my photograph are from the original row, so that we can know what sort of house No. 24 would have been, even if we can no longer identify it (the numbers having been changed to accommodate the new houses).

Sometime it might be worth checking the 1841 & 1851 Census to see if one can ascertain anything about the increase in the number of houses in this decade.

Original Discussion: Join the forums

It gives me great pleasure to declare this Newman Family History Forum open and to welcome friends and kinsmen concerned to trace, preserve and record events relating to our progenitors.

As the founder of this website and author of the first published history of our family, “A Victorian Family: The origins and subsequent history of the family of Hugh John Newman” in 2006, I should explain why we have thought it desirable to erect this site and the purposes to which I hope it will be put.

My interest in family history began when I was a schoolboy, probably around 1961. Fortunately at that time my grandparents were still alive and several great uncles and aunts who remembered their grandparents and had anecdotes and verbal family tradition stretching back to the Regency period. As they died off and their effects were scattered, I began collecting family memorabilia: photographs, letters, pages from the family Bible and memorial cards, which otherwise would have been lost or made little sense to later generations.

Periodically, when I had spare time, I indulged my genealogical interests and tracked down further information from parish registers or in various public archives. It was this information which I used to compile my “Victorian Family.”
In a few short years, however, the widespread use of the internet has transformed the picture and made available resources previously scattered over many places, complete with search-engine facilities which can now retrieve data in minutes rather than requiring fruitless hours of trawling through records. The advent of the 1901 census online and the huge teething problems experienced with accessing it, was followed in rapid succession by making accessible online all the census returns from 1841. The publications of the 1911 census before the expiration of a full century is another wonderful boon to family history researchers.

In 2008 I realised that my history was already being superseded by new discoveries and a random message left on Ancestry.co.uk brought a rapid response from the first of many kinsmen who shared my enthusiasm for our family history, which has since continued to grow as others joined us. With their support and generosity in sharing their skills and their own precious resources, combined with a passion for research, we have made a formidable team and new discoveries have come thick and fast. The key to this success is simply collaboration and it is in this spirit that this website is launched.

The projected new family history, which we are hoping to have ready for the printer by May, is far more than a new edition. Although it contains the core of the earlier history, at approximately 55,000 words it is five times larger and includes the earlier history, chronicling events before the Newmans moved to London in about 1784. Apart from sharing our common heritage it is hoped that the launch of the book and its associated website will widen the net to link even more descendants of our particular family of Newmans. Hopefully, through these contacts and further internet resources (especially the London Metropolitan Archives) coming online, there will be a need for a subsequent edition before too long !

Thank you for visiting and I hope to see you in the forums soon.

Full site coming soon at http://newmanfamilyhistory.com/
Visit our community at http://newmanfamilyhistory.com/forums/
From Sylvan Surrey to Babylon – The Newman Family of Dorking, Epsom and London: Book due out at the end of May 2009