* From an unnamed source handed down to me from my father.

Joseph must have been named after his uncle Joseph Jekyll, rector of Hawkridge and Withypool, however it appears that he did not follow his uncle into the priesthood. Described as a "Surveyor" in the 1871 census, it is not known what occupation he actually pursued.

My father's information says that Joseph (or Joe as he was called) married someone called "Amy" and had a child called "Birdie". My unnamed source confirms that he "married Amy Seagram(?) of Warminster. One child Beidie(?) married Glovemie(?) Neidi(?). Death a mystery". The reference to Warminster is correct - see 1871 census record.

Edwin Newman's will left Joseph's wife Amy "a legacy of ten guineas slight token of my affection, she already having received a sum of five thousand pounds fee of legacy duty on a Policy of Assurance effected by me on the life of my son Joseph, her late husband". Hence Joseph had already died by the time Edwin wrote his will in November 1884.

Joe's neice, Walter's daughter Evelyn, wrote the following in a letter to my father (Harold) in 1945:

"Uncle Joe married an Aunt Amy and they had a daughter. After Uncle Joe's death, Amy and daughter lived in Italy and the latter married an Italian cavalry officer called Nardi, and she was therefore "Nardi Newman". They had 2 or 3 sons but she wasn't happy - (I fancy he wasn't true to her). I used to correspond with her & when he was ordered down to Eritrea (or whatever part of N. Africa was Italy's at that time), and she went with him and wrote to me from there & had a very lonely time as he had to be away nights at a time, and she had to sleep with a revolver beside her and keep off wild beasts - she died down there. Aunt Hen always had it that he "got rid" of her down there, - no-one knows. But the point is that we have cousins in Italy called Nardi and they would be about in their 60s now. I wonder which side they are on? Weird world!"

From John Newman May 2002: "Joseph Jekyll. Sherborne 1843- ? Died before 1900."

The 1871 census shows Joseph Newman living with his wife Amy F. Newman and daughter Amy J. Newman, living in Sunnyside Road, St Mary Islington, London. Joseph, 36, is described as a "Surveyor". Amy F, 28, is confirmed as having been born at Warminster. Young Amy was 9 years old and recorded as born at Bradford Abbas, Dorset (less than five miles from Yeovil).