Edwin Newman
1803 - 1885
Outline Edwin's Life:
Edwin was born in 1803, and was probably the first Newman
to be educated at Sherborne School. John Harden, Secretary of the Old Shirburnian
Society confirmed to me in Nov 2003 that Edwin attended the school around
1815 and sent five of his sons there between between 1837 and 1844. (The
three youngest sons were presumably all educated at Rubgy School where Edwin's
father went.)
Edwin's father was the younger brother of Francis
Newman who had absconded to the USA after the loss of the family's fortune,
just a few years before Edwin's birth. Perhaps it was as a result of these
events that Edwin became the first Newman to take up a profession (outside
of the Church) and the first to start his own business - a law firm in partnership
with Francis Paynter, a solicitor from
Penzance in Cornwall. The firm had its head-office in Edwin's home at Hendford Manor, Yeovil, Somerset, and became
Newman Paynter & Gould when
Mr Gould joined and brought with him a London office at 1
Clements Inn in London. See separate
page for the story of the firm.
Edwin bought Hendford Manor in 1840 according to Marion
Paynter who records that it was "a large Georgian house that he made
additions to soon after he bought it. It is now a local authority office,
and the fine old stable block (is now) a museum". Baptismal records
for his children (as sent to me by Jennifer Day, August 2002) suggest however
that he moved to Hendford sometime between the baptism of Charlotte daughter
on September 3 1833 when he was recorded as a Solicitor living in Vicarage
St Yeovil, and the baptism of Joseph Jekyll on January 28 1835 when Edwin
was recorded as a Solicitor of Hendford.
The 1851 census index for Yeovil
shows "Caroline Newman" living with Edwin (21), William (19), Arthur
(7), Rowland (5) and Henrietta (2). She is described as "wife of Edwin
Newman esq., solicitor, now of the Temple, London". Edwin's first wife
was called Charlotte, not Caroline, but errors in census records were not uncommon.
[Note - it is possible that the words "now of the Temple, London"
applied to Edwin's eldest son who was then an articled clerk, but my deduction
is that the note was added to explain Edwin's absense from Yeovil at the time
of the census.]
Edwin may have owned a home in London at this time, since his
youngest child and only daughter, Henrietta,
is said to have spent time in London in her youth. Her daughter Edith
Paynter recorded that her mother lived in a house overlooking Hyde Park
where she used to ride as a child. Henrietta was married at St. George's Church,
Hanover Square in London in 1868, and the 1861
census shows Edwin's eldest son Edwin's
family living at 19 Bolton Street, Mayfair,
which is in the parish of St. George's, Hannover Square, and less than a mile
from Hyde Park. Anyway, all the other census records (from 1861 to 1881) show
Edwin living in Yeovil. [Note: I have not yet located his daughter
Henrietta in the 1861 census, when she
would have been 12 years old. She is not shown as living in Yeovil at the time.
Those present at Hendford in 1861 were: Edwin and Charlotte, and their sons
Edwin (then a solicitor aged 32) and Charles Octavius (19, undergraduate).]
In 1868 Edwin travelled to Alnwick in Northumberland to
purchase Freelands - a story recounted in my
notes about his daughter Henrietta and
his son-in-law (later step-son) Henry
Augustus Paynter.
The 1871 census
shows Edwin at home at Hendford, Yeovil, with Charlotte and their youngest
son Rowland, who was then the Officiating Minister at Lufton. Edwin
is described as "Attorney at Law".
After the death of Charlotte, in 1876, Edwin married the widow of his partner,
Catherine Augusta Paynter. Thus
Henry Augustus Paynter became not only son-in-law, but step-son as well. Possibly
he married her out of kindness, since rumour has it that her first husband Francis
(Edwin's partner) went bankrupt before he died and may have left her destitute.
In November 1876, Edwin was presented with a large
black mantelpiece clock by some grateful clients. This clock is now in my
possession in China. Whilst the inscription makes no mention of his retirement,
my father told me that the clock was a retirement present to Edwin. If so, then
the theft of the firm's funds by the head clerk (as told by my father) must
have taken place after Edwin's retirement if my father's recollections are correct
that this occured in 1880 (see Walter Ernest's
page for story). On the other hand, the 1881
Yeovil census describes Edwin (then 77) as a solicitor, so perhaps he was
still working then. With him at 12 Hendford was his grand-daughter Charlotte C. Newman (born at
West Lydford, and then 23 years old). He also had a bulter, housemaid, cook
and kitchen maid. The gardner next door might well have worked for him too.
His second wife Catherine had died the year before.
When he died, Edwin left an estate of £31,189 4s
2d (a tidy sum in those days) - see letter from Somerset Archives dated
28 May 2002. Ownership of Edwin's Yeovil house, Hendford
Manor, passed to Catherine's youngest son James
Bernard Paynter, who by then was a partner in the law practice. Edwin's will divided up
the bulk of his estate between seven of his surviving children, their widows
or children - those being (1) Edwin's (the eldest son's) widow(?)* Sophie,
(2) George's daughter, Charlotte (Lottie), (3) Walter, (4) Charles Octavius,
(5) Arthur, (6) Rowland and (7) Henrietta. Joseph's widow collected "five
thousand pounds …. on a Policy of Assurance ….. on the life of
… her late husband", while Henrietta appears to have been given
an extra £2000 as a special concession (it is always said she was
the spoilt one!) . William was left nothing, and I presume that he must
have predeceased Edwin and died without issue. James Bernard Paynter was
empowered to purchase "any part of Edwin's real and personal estate
at any sale or sales thereof at public auction or by private contract …."
which presumably answers the question as to how he ended up owning Hendford
Manor.
Executors of the will were his son Walter Newman, and his step-sons
Henry Augustus Paynter and James Bernard Paynter. Interestingly, both step-sons
Henry and James were younger than all of Edwin's children. I guess Edwin chose
them because they were both lawyers whereas two of his surviving sons were all
in the church. It would be interesting to know why he didn't nominate his other
son, Charles Octavius, as
an executor.
April 2002: I discovered a letter from Edwin's grand daugher
Evelyn Newman written to my father Harold Ernest Montague Newman in 1945, with a
delightful story about the young Edwin:
"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. She was the daughter of the Rector "Jekyll".
I presume they were married at West Coker. She bore him 10 or 11 children
some died in infancy. Henrietta - your
grandmother - was the only surviving girl - (the reason she was so spoilt).
Of the boys - my uncles - I've known Uncle Edwin
(the eldest), Uncle Joe, Uncle
Charlie, Uncle Arthur
and Uncle Rowland - and of course Father. He came in before Uncle Joe. Lotties
father was, I think, "George". Anyway, Father was "quintus"
Newman at Sherborne school!!
The letter ends with a lovely description of old Edwin
as Evelyn remembered him:
"I think you would have liked old Grandfather and
he would have appreciated you. He was very proud of Eddie
[Evelyn's eldest brother, Edwin Montague Browne Newman] and was very
good to him. Mercifully Grandfather died about a month before Eddie
was killed in the Sudan. It would have been a great blow to the old man.
He was such a fine upright old figure always dressed in beautiful Cwad(?)
cloth - black - with a fob, with his seals hanging. He had a big head, always
wore a topper, rather at the back of his head. He was much respected and
loved by all around him, townsfolk and country folk alike. I can see him
now, walking up the isle of St John's and on one occasion I think the Harvest
Festival, they had put a scrowl (sic) over the alter with 'sanctus sanctus
sanctus' on it. This upset Grandfather completely, and he kept on uttering
"Popery! Popery!" as he stalked along. Feelings ran high in those
days!
Henry Brown Newman: I have only two references (that I am aware of) to Henry Brown
Newman. One (incorrect one) comes from my father's records which state blandly
that Henry Brown Newman was Rector of Sparkford. The second reference comes
from Tony
Newman in the Newman Chronicle where he states:
"Henry Brown NEWMAN (1798) - (11 JAN 1878) m. Elizabeth
HOOPER, matriculated Wadham College, Oxford 06 Dec 1815 aged 17, scholar
1816-25, B.A. 1819, M.A. 1825, Fellow 1825-38, of Babcary, Somerset in
1838 - trustee of land in Blandford Forum (Reg. of Voters), Rector of Little
Bromley, Essex 1838, until his death in 1878."
This latter version is to some extent confirmed by the
1871 census which shows Henry Brown Newman, 72, born at Shepton (Shepton
Mallet?), Somerset, Rector of Little Bromley, Essex, living in Church Road
with his wife Elizabeth, 65, who was born in Yeovil, Somerset. No children
are recorded staying with them.
My father's information is wrong since it can be seen from
the listing of Rectors
hanging inside Sparkford church, there were no Newmans appointed rector
there after Henry Brown Newman's father Edwin
Sandys Newman, who died in office in 1836. Edwin Sandys Newman was succeeded
by Henry Bennett, a descendent of James Bennett who had purchased the reversionary
rights to Cadbury and Sparkford estates from Edwin's uncle Francis
in the early 1790s. James Bennett nephew succeeded to these estates, and
he in turn left the Cadbury estate to his eldest son James and the Sparkford
one to his younger son Henry, who also became Rector of Sparkford after
the death of Edwin Sandys Newman.
Baby Charles: Somerset Records Office shows Charles being born July 25 1838,
and baptised on February 15 1839. They also show his burial as May 15 1839
at the age of 9 months. There is a contradiction here.
Updates: 12 July 2005 -
1861 census data added; reference to Edwin's "retirement" clock changed,
and references to 1881 census modified.
20 Feb 2005 - 1871 census data added relating to Henry Brown Newman.
2 Feb 2005 - link
added to 1851 census page; correction of Edwin's name in 4th paragraph of
"Outline of Edwin's life"; clarification of note about "Now
of the Temple, London".
