For years it has been my understanding, based on my father's advice, that his faimily's law firm was established by his two great grandfathers, Edwin Newman of Yeovil and Francis Paynter of Penzance. I have, however, failed to find any evidence that this was so, and indeed there is much evidence to suggest that it was not.
It appears that Edwin set himself up with his own law practice around 1834 at the time he bought Hendford Manor in Yeovil, which for the next 120 years remained the headquarters of what became the family firm. If Edwin did form a partnership with Francis Paynter then it would have been many years later since Ian Caldwell in his "Story of Francis Paynter"records that the earliest connection that he can find between the Newman and Paynter families is February 1856, which was only seven years before Francis's death. Furthermore all indications are that Francis Paynter never moved away from his base in Penzance and that he ran his own separate office in Cornwall, rendering it improbable that he ever operated in close partnership with Edwin Newman.
At least two of Edwin's sons followed him into the legal profession, namely his eldest son Edwin (b. 1829) and his much younger brother Charles Octavius Newman (b.1841). Edwin probably joined the firm before the 1851 Yeovil census which gives Charlotte (misnamed Caroline) as head of the household at Hendford, being the "wife of Edwin Newman Esq., solicitor, now of the Temple, London". It is possible that the words "now of the Temple, London" applied to the younger Edwin whose name appears on the following line since he was then an articled clerk. However it seems more likely that the note was added to explain his father's absence from Yeovil at the time of the census. At any rate, this census implies that by 1851, Edwin's firm had opened an office in London.
By 1861, young Edwin was married and living in Mayfair, and he remained in London for the rest of his life, retiring sometime before 1881 (according to the census of that year). It seems probable therefore that he worked from (and probably ran) the firm’s London office during this period since the 1861, ‘71 and ‘81 censuses suggest that old Edwin, his father, was living in Yeovil throughout that time. Charles Newman, also lived in or near London, the 1901 census showing him employed as a solicitor and living in Belvedere (a South London suburb).
In 1866 or early 1867 (three or four years after Francis Paynter’s death), Francis's fourth son Henry Augustus Paynter, a young man of just 20 years, moved to Alnwick in the far northeast of England, taking up a position with a local law firm owned by a Mr Foster. In April 1868 Henry married Edwin's only daughter Henrietta, whereafter the couple settled in Alnwick, spending the rest of their married life there, living in a house (Freelands) that Edwin Newman had purchased for them 18 months after their marriage. Henry became a partner in the Alnwick firm which became Foster and Paynter, its office being located in the town centre. My father’s recalled that Henry ran the Alnwick branch of the Newman Paynter firm, but it is seems far more likely that the Alnwick firm was quite independent of the Yeovil outfit.
A few months after the death of his wife Charlotte in 1876, old Edwin married Catherine Augusta Paynter, widow of Francis Paynter, thereby making his son-in-law Henry Paynter and his four surviving brothers, his step-sons. The youngest of the brothers, James Bernard Paynter, was probably working for the firm at this time since by 1881 he had become a partner - quite possibly being the first and only Paynter to join the firm.
The earliest record so far discovered of the Newman-Paynter firm comes from the London Gazette of 8 Apr 1881 in which a notice was published under the name of Newman, Jeans, Newman, Paynter, and Gould of Clements Inn (London) and Yeovil. Prior to that the Gazette recorded the name of the firm as Newman Jeans & Co, hence it is possible that before 1881 John Jeans was Edwin Newman's sole partner. The London Gazette for 23 May 1879) gives Clements Inn, London as the firm's address, and the 11 March 1881 Gazette gives it as Yeovil.
The London Gazette of 6 Mar 1883 confirms the firm's name as Newman, Jeans, Newman, Paynter, and Gould and gives the names of its partners as follows:
The reason for listing their names is that this edition of the Gazette reported the dissolution of the partnership because of the retirement of Jeans on 18 Jan 1883. Presumably Edwin Newman, Charles Newman, Bernard Paynter and Frederick Gould formed a new partnership to take the firm forward.
Old Edwin's name is mentioned in the London Gazette of 18 May 1883 as an executor for Emma Maria Alston, by when the firm's name had been reduced to Newman, Paynter and Gould. This might mean that in the intervening two months, Edwin had retired and that Charles had taken over as senior partner.
The name Newman, Paynter and Gould continued to be used through 1885 (the year of Edwin's death). Indeed, the London Gazette of 16 Jun 1885 specifically mentioned the death of old Edwin on the preceding 22nd January, and identified Frederick Gould as being from the London office. It included an intriguing reference to “an Order of the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, made in an action in the matter of the estate of Edwin Newman, deceased, Newman vs. Newman, 1885, N., No 84” in relation to which creditors of Edwin Newman were requested to send full particulars of their claims.
My father always believed that old Edwin Newman retired from the firm in 1876 when he was presented with a mantelpiece clock by a grateful client. However the inscription on the clock does not mention retirement, saying only: "Presented to Edwin Newman Esq of Yeovil by the Four Sons of the Late John Valentine of Somerton in remembrance of much kindness shown to their father. NOVEMBER 1876" (see pictures). It seems likely that he retained a financial interest in the firm in 1880 if the theft of the firm's funds had been a financial blow to him (see below). Furthermore, as discussed above, the evidence from the London Gazettes of the period suggest that Edwin did not retire until c1883, and the 1881 Yeovil census describes Edwin as "Solicitor" implying that he was still working then.
As recorded elsewhere in these pages, Bernard Paynter purchased Hendford Manor from Edwin's estate following Edwin's death in Jan 1885, and it may be assumed that he took charge of the Yeovil office at the same time. [Bernard along with his brother Henry Augustus Paynter and Edwin's oldest surviving son, Walter Newman, were nominated as executors of Edwin’s will.] Later that year , the firm must have taken on a new partner, because the London Gazette of 18 Dec 1885 gives its name as Newman Paynter Gould and Williams, the Newman presumably being Charles Newman who must have been in charge of the London office. This partnership continued until at least 1901 when the same name appeared in the 12 Jul London Gazette of that year. By then, another Newman had joined the firm, namely Edwin’s grandson Walter Ernest Newman (1864-1947).
Walter's father, the artillery officer Walter Newman, became impecunious in his retirement due to gambling debts, with the consequence and his father (old Edwin) had to pay the school fees for his two sons, Edwin Montague Browne Newman and Walter Ernest Newman. However, according to my father, Edwin's firm suffered a "severe financial blow" in 1880 when the head-clerk made off with the firm's funds, the result of which was that young Walter's school career was summarily curtailed and he was sent up to Alnwick to begin his articles in Henry Paynter's office. There he fell in love with his first cousin (Henry’s daughter) Lilian (who he later married). It was when he completed his articles that Walter was posted to the firm’s London office, probably around 1896.
Walter was not immediately offered a partnership in the firm, and may not have secured one until 1908 when, in the 6 June London Gazette of that year, the firm's name is recorded as Newman Paynter Gould and Newman. Presumably Charles was still senior partner in London because the 1911 census records him a being a solicitor (69) living in Chelsfield, Kent (a 18 mile commute from the city). [Note: it is not yet known when Charles retired from the firm, nor when he died.]
By my father'saccount, Frederck Gould retired around 1920, however the name Newman Paynter Gould and Newman appears regularly in the London Gazette up until 25 Mar 1930 after which only the shortened name Newman Paynter & Co appears. Perhaps the continued appearance of Gould in the firm's name up until 1930 was associated with the presence of another Gould (Frederick's son?), Herbert Frederick Gould, who according to the London Gazette dated 18 Oct 1938 was working out of the Yeovil office in that year. [This gazette records the death of Charlotte (Lotty) Campbell Newman, daughter of George Henry Newman.] However the name of the firm may no longer have reflected the names of the partners, since Bernard Paynter had died in 1927 and there is no indication that any other Paynter took his place. The Paynter connection was retained in the name of the firm from 1930 onwards when all further issues of the London Gazette refer to the firm as Newman Paynter & Co.
It is reported (probably by my father) that when Bernard died in 1927, he left Hendford Manor to his eldest son Camborne, who sold it to Yeovil Town Council in 1935. Meanwhile, Bernard's partner, a Mr. Lovegrove, kept the firm going in Yeovil but abandoned Hendford Manor. Yet according to the records of the London Gazette, Newman Paynter & Co continued to use the 12 Hendford address in Yeovil that it had always used until 1952 when it moved up the road to 35 Hendford.
The London Gazette confirms that the firm made its final move to 10a Wine Street where it was still extant in 1980. According to my father, Lovegrove retired in 1984 and the business was taken over by another Yeovil firm, Mayo & Co., rendering Newman Paynter & Co defunct, almost exactly 150 years after Edwin Newman first set up his business in Yeovil..
As to the London office, my father recorded that Mr. Gould retired in the early 1920's, leaving his father, Walter Newman, as senior partner there. Then in the early 1930s, Walter selected a young lawyer named Woolmer to join the firm, enabling his own retirement in 1937. Woolmer was called up in WW2 whereupon the Clements Inn office was abandoned and the branch was absorbed into Messrs Denton, Hill & Burgin of Chancery Lane.
It was my father’s belief that the "Alnwick branch
of the firm" (as he believed it to be) collapsed on Henry Paynter's death
in 1919. Most likely it was the “Foster, Paynter” office that closed
at that time.
Updates:
27 Mar 2012: text revised again throughout with information gained from London
Gazette
22 Mar 2012: text heavily revised.
9 Feb 2011: new photo added of Edwin Newman's clock
12 Jun 2009: New ideas added about the London office of the firm
11 Jul 2005: minor wording changes, links and photos added.
2nd Feb 05 - link to 1851 census added; clarification relating
to the note: "now of the Temple, London"
