Following John Newton's death in 1844, his widow Elizabeth became the proprietor the family's soap and tallow chandlery business in Worcester. Elizabeth Newton was head of the household. She appears to have provided her children with a very strict and secluded upbringing. Her youngest son William greatly regretted not having mixed more with boys of his own age.
INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST CLEMENT WORCESTER. JOHN NEWTON'S GRAVESTONE HAS BEEN MOVED. HOWEVER STONES BEARING HIS AND OTHER NEWTON FAMILY NAMES CAN BE FOUND GROUPED TOGETHER AT THE BACK OF THE CHURCH.
The second of Elizabeth's sons "Ned" is believed to have "run away" from home and the family business. More of him later.
Elizabeth would not permit her daughter Sarah to marry Tom Matthews. More of them later.
While Elizabeth Newton continued to run the business, the younger members of the family finished their schooling. All seem to have received a good formal education. While it may have been intended for some of the sons to have taken up a profession (or the church) following their father's death it was not financially possible. Instead, the men were destined for commerce, and the Civil Service, while the younger women worked towards financial independence, first as governesses and later propietors of an independent preparatory school "Comer House" in St Clements, Worcester.
Anne Newton, (Elizabeth's eldest daughter and my GGGgrandmother) had been crippled since girlhood by a curvature of the spine. She is said to have been an engraver and an "artist in her own right". Perhaps she undertook some form of apprenticeship [possibly in the Matthews' engraving business and workshop in Broad Street Worcester] but nothing at all is known about this.
But to back-track and tell more about "Will" Newton. His relationship with the emigrant Matthews family is an important link in our understanding of the family's identity.
WILLIAM MELVILLE NEWTON (1839 - 1915) "UNCLE WILL" WAS ANNE LOADMAN MATTHEWS' BROTHER
William Melville Newton. So far no clues have come to light regarding the middle name "Melville", but let us suppose that he is named after some eminent forebear! [All the Newton children had middle names.] Born in 1839, Will was two and a half years old when his father died. His life's story is tied up with those of his brother Ned (who died on Vancouver Island), and his sisters Ellen (who became headmistress of a private school) and "Our Anne" who married Edward Matthews and emigrated to New Zealand.
William was born in 1839 while his parents were living at 22 Broad Street Worcester of parents (in case you have forgotten) Edward and Elizabeth Newton. Will's father, the Wax and Tallow Chandler, had died in 1844 when Will was two and a half years old. From his own account, Will's childhood was oppressive. He was secluded from contact with children beyond his immediate family. He may at times have lived with his maternal aunts and uncles while attending school. The 1851 census shows "scholars" William and Ellen Newton, aged twelve and eight respectively, present in Uncle William Davis' household at Lower Wick, which is just a few miles from Broad Street in Worcester city. The Matthews family lived nearby at 11 Broad Street.
A VERY OLD ENGRAVING OF WORCESTER'S OLD BRIDGE ACROSS THE RIVER SEVERN
William suggests in a letter to Anne that his cloistered childhood had ill prepared him for the world; he believed that as a young man he was easily "put down" (to use his own term), he had no self confidence, and was bashful and shrinking in company. He propounds to Anne his views on a more liberal approach to child-rearing. (Of course, he never married and had no children!) However it is obvious that William's education was of a superior order.
Will's scrap-book (if such a title can be given to a bound, gilt edged tome) tells a great deal about Will's talents and interests. These include travel, fine art, religious art, architecture, engineering, engraving, design, and photography - as are indicated by the many splendid images which have been pasted into the book.
PHOTOGRAPH OF CARNARVON CASTLE FROM WILL'S SCRAPBOOK
Well-composed photographs of churches, ruins, stately homes, countryside and seascape occupy many of the pages. The three watercolours paintings are unsigned but would seem to be the work of this modest man. A pencil sketch of mother and child and a pen and ink drawing of a knight and his lady are probably his own work. His family remembered him as a very interesting man, who had seen a great deal of the world. Photographs and engravings in the scrap book are from England, France, Switzerland, British Columbia, and New Zealand.
In 1864 we hear of Will, aged 25 in Dublin. In March 1860 he had been appointed to the Royal Engineers Department of the War Office. He served in Ireland from 1860 to 1865. Later the same year he was appointed Clerk 2rd Class, in the Works Division, of the War Office in London, where he seems to have spent the rest of his Civil Service career.
A search of War Office service records revealed the following information:
1883 WAR OFFICE William Newton. Late Clerk, Works Division, War Office. Appointed to the Royal Engineer Department March 1860. Services:- Ireland 1860 - 1865, War Office 1865 - 1880. Retired on Re-organization, March 1880 on a pension of £160 a year with a gratuity. [Commuted May 1880] Appointed Lieutenant in 5th West York Militia June 1868.
A researcher in England, Gillian Hughes found the following:
From 1866 it would seem he had moved to the War Office in London, employed as a clerk in the Office of the Director of Works Branch, Barrack Branch in Pall Mall, where he was one of four 3rd Class Clerks. By 1874 he was a 2nd class Clerk. By 1875 he is listed under the Inspector - General of Fortifications and Director of Works Division, Horse Guard, London. Will was "Appointed Lieutenant in 5th West York Militia June 1868". He also qualified to become a "Chelsea Pensioner".
In March 1880, following re-organization of the War Office his and leaving the Service, Will cashed up his superannuation and took the sum of £2063.14.0. He would have been forty-one years of age. Plenty of time to see the world or branch out into business. A photograph of Will Anson (whose fate is otherwise unknown) carries the information that he had worked with Will Newton in the London Slums.
WILL'S PHOTO AT CATHEDRAL STEPS. NOTE THE WOMAN'S CRINOLINE WHICH HAD GONE OUT OF FASHION BY THE MID 1860'S.
Will's retirement pension from the Civil Service would have amounted to £160 per annum, but of course he did not receive it. Later (1893) he says that he can not go back to H M H (whatever that is - perhaps it was the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital?) to live. Perhaps he had spent some time living there before leaving London. Who knows where he lived, or what he was doing between leaving the Service and surfacing in Canada? Did he remain in London? Was this the time of seeing the world and claiming his piece of the good life? He would have been fifty years of age in 1889. In any case nothing personal has reached us about Will from 1864 in Dublin to the time in 1890 when his nephew Newton Matthews (Edward and Anne's son) made contact with him in North America.
Will was living at about that time at Port Crescent, Washington County, on the West of the United States. Will an "Agent", seems to have had his fingers in many pies, was portly, prosperous, and in high spirits. His brother Ned lived in Canada across the Strait at Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Early in 1891 Will has "entered into a fine tract of 7160 acres on a Lake Front", his English friend had entrusted him to invest £4000. Life seemed to be full of promise. With the news of Ned's death, however comes the information that "all those favourable items of business which were afloat when Newton was here, have come to nothing." Recession had hit North America. Business had ground to a halt. A new firm of land agents had opened shop in the area with unlimited capital and threatened to overwhelm Will's corner of the market.
Ned's lonely death on Vancouver Island in 1891, only a ferry ride from Port Crescent, must have preyed on Will's mind. "I ought to have been there", he wrote. But telegrams which had been sent by Ned's friends to summon Will, had not been delivered. Will felt an absolute despair of loneliness. "It is hard to know what will become of me". 1893 saw Will still in North America, eking out a precarious existence. Towards the end of the year some accident overtook him when on his way to inspect a mine, and his family in New Zealand were concerned for his welfare " 'ere his last dollar is gone".
We next hear of Will in 1896, when his sister Susannah writes to the New Zealand family. Invitations had been extended to Susannah, Nell and Will Newton to come to New Zealand. Will was still in business, possibly at Rossland or Roselands - wherever that is - in North America. However, Susannah died in England within a few months of writing a letter in response to the Matthews' invitation.
Will and Nell were to remain in England for some years longer, although it is possible that Nell went out to Will in North America before embarking for New Zealand. Exactly when Will returned to England is not known, but possibly in 1896, the year of Susannah's death. There is a photograph taken in Worcester of Will with two women, one probably being Nell, the second possibly their niece [Tom and Sarah's only child] Bessie Matthews. In that year Will would have been aged fifty-seven and Nelly fifty-five. Bessie would have been aged thirty. There is a letter of Will's written in 1904 addressed from Tinstall, Bromsgrove. Nelly and Will may have travelled to New Zealand together, probably arriving in 1905. Nancy believes that Nell stayed with Newton Matthews' family at Remuera in Auckland at the time of her birth; another clue suggests that Nell Newton was living near the Newton Matthews family.
In any case, Nancy long treasured the Newton silver table spoons and the blue vases which eventually came to her from Nell Newton. The spoons are still in the family, but the blue vases and other "treasures" which Nancy Matthews gave into the keeping of the Auckland Institute and Museum in 1984 seem to have been lost. [These included a pair of English Blue and White vases and pair of Chinese Blue and White vases and pair of blue salts (Leeds) and cup saucer and plates (Spode about 1840) and small white vase 1880's and an EPNS biscuit barrel and glass porpoise bottle - the blue vases from Ellen Newton.]
GREAT UNCLE WILL IN NEW ZEALAND
The Matthews children thought their "Great Uncle Will" as they called him, a great old chap, and were very fond of him. He was always full of yarns, and had done many interesting things. He specialty was giving oranges to his niece and nephews. Nancy believed that Uncle Will had lost his money in a citrus plantation in California, (but it may have been another of her uncles who had suffered this misfortune). Will certainly lost money in his venture in North America. Victor had remarked to his family that at times during his youth the young people had been required to stay at home and look after Uncle Will, on occasions when they would have greatly preferred to have been out and about with their friends!
For a time "Great Uncle Will" lived at Onehunga in Auckland, just across the road from the Gray family, cousins of Nellie Matthews'. Another connection with the Gray family was through "Our Anne's" son Howard, who married Augusta Gray in 1906. Perhaps Will and Nelly Newton attended their nephew's wedding, for there may have been some forward planning concerning their date of arrival in New Zealand in about 1906 and the marriage of Howard Matthews to Ada Gray.
Will's last address was Mount Albert Road, Onehunga. He died January 10th 1915, at the "General Hospital", Auckland aged 75. His profession "Late War Office Employee, London". He was buried two days later at Waikaraka Cemetery, not far from Onehunga in Auckland. He had been in New Zealand ten years.
Nancy's memories of Aunt Nell are of another sort. She wrote, "Aunt Nell came to stay with mum when I was a baby and then again after uncle [Will] died." Brother and sister had lived at Onehunga. Visits to see Aunt Nell were not looked forward to by Nancy or her brothers. Nell was very strict (crabby was the word Nancy used) and expected children to be seen and not heard. "I remember riding over there with Dad on Sundays to see Aunt Nell when she was on her own. When she got older and needed a little more [care] she went down to Paengaroa. Aunt Eva looked after her. I think I was down there when she died." In March 1920 Nell Newton was about to depart for a fortnight with Edward, Bill, Ada and Eva at Paengaroa. Her Auckland address had been C/o Miss Bemrose, Mount Smart Road, Onehunga.
Ellen Newton died April 3rd, 1922, and is buried at the old Te Puke Cemetery, not far from Paengaroa. The Matthews "Aunts and Uncles" are buried nearby.
William Melville Newton lives on in our memories and in our enjoyment of the images he selected for his scrap-book.
REGARDING THE IMAGES.
The scrapbook belongs to Roger Matthews of Paengaroa. These images were photographed in 2004 and 2005. They are now on CD and DVD. With the passage of time, the original photographs have deteriorated and the binding of the book has given way. It seemed prudent to copy these images. Therefore, using a digital camera and image enhancement, the images were re-photographed, manipulated and then printed onto Reflex 100gsm Presentation Paper using a Canon S520 inkjet printer. No doubt the quality of these copies will deteriorate, but hopefully the digital images will still be available from CD or DVD disks.
Look at other parts of the story by following the links to the Index page.
