William Beard Newman
& William Elver Newman
William Beard NEWMAN
Born 29th December 1790, Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England.
Baptised 16th January 1971 Castle Combe,
Died Jamaica 4th January 1839
William Beard was the second child and eldest son of Elver Newman
and his wife, Sarah, nnée Coleman. He is the elder brother of my
2 times great grandfather, Thomas Newman, but I know more about
William Beard than I do about my own ancestor, Thomas. William
Beard became a surgeon and practiced in Corsham, a town not far
from Castle Combe. On 4th July 1816 he married Ann Deborah
Newman (yes the same name as his own) who was the daughter of
Richard Newman, Governor of Melksham, St Elizabeth, Jamaica.
Melksham was a sugar plantation which in 1820 had 24 slaves.
Richard Newman also had other plantations, Chippenham with 58
slaves and Corsham with 102 slaves. It is interesting that he
named his plantations after Wiltshire towns. In the Corsham
Parish Records the baptism of one of Richard Newman's mulatto
slaves, called George Newman (aged 20) is recorded on 26 October
1808. (Was he a child of Richard's by one of his slaves?)
I can find no record of William Beard having a sugar
plantation so perhaps he just practised as a surgeon in Jamaica.
There could well have been a need for his services there.
He died in Jamaica on 4th January 1839.
In 2010 I have been in contact with Grant Hayes in Australia
who has been tracing the family of William Elver NEWMAN. He sent
me the following information:
Richard Newman owned the Corsham Plantation in
1810,William [ Beard ] Newman owned Pickwick in 1812, In 1818
both William and Charles owned Pickwick for a few years After
Richard died in 1922. Charles took over.These 3 owned Plantations
in the Manchester area suggesting they were family So It would
seem Richard came first followed by his Son Inlaw and Son. There
was alot of money to be made up until 1833 which was the end of
slavery It may have lingered on until 1840 with Charles still
owning Corsham by this time many Plantations were abandoned 40%
and the value decreased dramatically.I feel certain the person
listed as William would be William Beard.
William Beard and Ann Deborah had at least five children other
than William Elver who were baptised in Corsham:
1. Charles John Coleman Newman, baptised 26 January 1820
2. William Elver Newman, baptised 3 December 1821
3. Ann Maria, baptised 15 October 1824
4. James George, baptised 26 August 1829
5. Thomas Edward, baptised 9 July 1831 and
6. Mary Rebekah Elizabeth, baptised 25 June 1833.
William Beard appears to have been a cultured man and at one time was
involved with Sir Richard Colt and Mr Crocker on Roman
excavations on a field in Castle Combe where many valuable finds
were made.
William Elver NEWMAN
Born in 1821, Corsham, Wiltshire, England.
Married Sarah Eleanor COLLETT, on 22nd June 1840, Corsham, Wiltshire, England
It was only because the family name of Elver was used that I
was able to connect William Elver Newman with my own family.
I have now been able to obtain the marriage certificate of
William Elver Newman to Sarah Eleanor Collett. William Elver was
a minor but Sarah Eleanor was 'full age'. From information I
have had from Elwyn Richard Brice in Australia it seems that
William Elver Newman became a doctor like his father. He had a
daughter, Ellen Sarah Newman who married Charles BRICE. He
appears to have married again in Jamaica.
I have obtained various pieces of information about the NEWMAN
family in Jamaica and their properties and slaves as well as some
background information about Jamaica itself from a Jamaican
website http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/ and am including
this with the family history I have produced.
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