Tag Archives: Website

The Four Hughs

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Todays new extract from the Newman family history website comes from the London and Southwark section

A brief biography on four generations who shared the same significant first name. Click here to view the article.

This historic photograph taken on Boxing Day 1910, shows four generations of Newman, each bearing the name Hugh whose lives span a period of a century and a half. The first Newman of our family to be given this name was Hugh Newman (1689-1746), a bricklayer and builder of Epsom. The name passed to several cousins and nephews, who took pride in his success, and provides a link between the family before and after its move to London.

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Joseph Potter’s wealthy relations

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Todays new extract from the Newman family history website comes from the Joseph Potter section

Joseph Potter recalls an uncle who made his fortune in eighteenth century London as a diamond cutter as well as two of Joseph’s half-brothers who inherited his wealth.

In his Memoirs, recalling the year 1792, Joseph Potter writes:

“We arrived safe in the River Thames and moor’d her abreast of the Tower of London. It came into my mind concerning a rich uncle I had in London which I had never seen, likewise two of my father’s oldest sons of his first wife’s children, Thomas and Ralph Potter …… He died possessed of about one hundred thousand pounds besides all Bell Alley, Coleman Street, belonged to him. He died when I was an infant and my mother alive, but Thomas and Ralph never once wrote to acquaint my mother with his death as the two shared the effects between them….”

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The Tragic death of a Court Crier

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Todays new extract from the Newman family history website comes from the London and Southwark section

Hugh Newman, was Court Crier of the Rolls Court, but met his end at his own hands.

Hugh Newman (1778-1827) was the fourth son of John & Margaret Newman. He was six when the family moved to London. In 1805 he married a young widow, Ann Mathews, who bore him one son before her own early death. Hugh was employed as Porter and Court Keeper (Crier) of the Rolls Court in Chancery Lane, Westminster but lived with his infant son, George, in the same house as his brother-in-law, William Leedle, in Gibraltar Row, St. George’s Fields, Southwark.

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The Stickens

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Todays new extract from the Newman family history website comes from the Distaff & families descended from Newmans section.

Between 1850-1900 the population of Australia rose from 405,000 to 3.7 million, the majority of whom came from emigrants from the British Isles.

Between 1850-1900 the population of Australia rose from 405,000 to 3.7 million, the majority of whom came from emigrants from the British Isles. One of these was Mary Jane Newman (1851-1905), eldest surviving daughter of Samuel John Newman (1826-1886) and Mary Jane Pollard. At the age of 17 she undertook the fourteen week voyage, probably disembarking at Melbourne in March 1868.

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Tom the sailor

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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.

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Ship Yard, Strand & the Newmans

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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).

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Extract from the will of Robert Newman 1682

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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

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A Newman Family History website opens

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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

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A Newman family-history forum opens!

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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

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