Robert NEWSTEAD (1789-1865)

A full history of Robert Newstead in PDF format can be found here. (3MB file). This study entitled 'A Portrait of Robert Newstead' was written by Jane Swan and was a prizewinner in a competition run by The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies in 2007. The document was hosted on their website www.ihgs.ac.uk for almost ten years.

Name:	Robert NEWSTEAD
Sex:	Male
Father:	Francis NEWSTEAD (1761-1844)
Mother:	Frances KING (1761-1847)

Individual Events and Attributes

Birth	1789	Hoveton St Peter,Norfolk1
Baptism	29 Mar 1789 (age 0)	Hoveton St Peter,Norfolk2
Religion	1807 (age 18)	Wesleyan Methodist; Thetford, Norfolk3
	Robert first features in the List of the Names of the Members of Society in this Circuit (Thetford) on 1 July 1812. His is one of the first 17 names; others include James Fison of the notable fertiliser firm, John King (maybe a relative of Robert's mother? and William Oldman, a local preacher and member of the prominent local business family. Robert's name is included again the following year, again in the first section, but not thereafter, and his parents are absent throughout. However, his sister Sarah is included in 1819, and in 1824 Ann Bisbrowne's name is included. In 1808, the year after Robert's conversion, Thetford Wesleyans numbered 65 in total.
Census	1841 (age 51-52)	Hackney
	The Grove Robert and Susan headed up a household comprising their daughters, Frances, Elizabeth, Harriet and Anne (sic), plus Susan's sister Anne Richards and Frances Bisbrowne, Robert's niece who had been born in Paris. Emily was at school at a Wesleyan Methodist establishment on Brixton Hill.
Occupation		Wesleyan Methodist Missionary, Ceylon; Ceylon
Census	1851 (age 61-62)	Liverpool
	26 Hope Street This time all five sisters were living with their parents, with a live-in servant.
Census	1861 (age 71-72)	Glasgow
	48 Whitevale Street A depleted household - a recently widowed Robert with two of his daughters, Fanny and Harriet. Elizabeth was working as a governess in the family of William Jessop, a Wesleyan minister in Tadcaster, and Mary was staying with her married sister Emily in Salford.
Education		Thetford Grammar School (assumption); St. Mary's Thetford Norfolk
	White's Directory of 1845 states: "Since 1825 (i.e. after Robert's time) the school has been open to 30 free scholars, who are taught reading, writing and arithmetic; and 8 of them may also be instructed in the classics. They are selected by the Corporation from the sons of freemen or settled pensioners of Thetford, and may remain until 14 years of age, paying only for pens, ink, paper and firing."
Will
	Reply from HMCS on 21 Apr 2006 to the effect that a search had been made of Robert Newstead's estate from 1856 to 1873 but no record was found.
Death	28 Jul 1865 (age 75-76)	Boston Spa Yorkshire Aged 764
Burial	1865	Boston Spa Wesleyan Chapel Graveyard5

Marriage

Spouse	Susannah Mitchell RICHARDS (1800?-1861)
Children	Emily Anne Richards NEWSTEAD (1830-1907)
	Frances Susan Richards NEWSTEAD (1831-1919)
	Elizabeth Townend Richards NEWSTEAD (1832-1895)
	Harriet Marris NEWSTEAD (1834-1907)
	Mary Watkins NEWSTEAD (1836-1861)
Marriage	23 Jul 1828 (age 38-39)	St Gluvias,Penryn,Cornwall6
	"The Revd Robert Newstead Bachelor of the Parish of Cheltenham in the County of Gloucester and Susan Mitchell Richards Spinster of this Parish in Borough of Penryn were married in this Church by Licence with Consent of .... this twenty third Day of July in the Year One thousand eight hundred and twenty eight By me John Sheepshanks Vicar. This Marriage was solemnized between us Robert Newstead (and) Susan Michell Richards In the Presence of William Richards (and) Grace Richards." (Marriages St Gluvias - Penryn FP 72/1/9) "On the 23rd inst. at Penryn, in the Church of St. Gluvias, by the Venerable Archdeacon Sheepshanks, the Rev. Robert Newstead, of Cheltenham, to Susan Mitchell, fourth daughter of the late William Richards, of Penryn, Esq." (Exeter Flying Post, Wed. July 30, 1828)

Individual Note

Robert, the eldest son of Francis Newstead and Frances King, who had married in 1787 at Thetford, Norfolk, was baptised on 29 March 1789 at the little thatched church of Hoveton St Peter. It is possible that Francis came from the Hoveton area, as several of his sisters married local farm workers at St Peter's in the period around 1790. His Newstead family may have originated from Worstead, once the hub of the wool industry but hit hard by the new woollen mills of Yorkshire. It was a time when many men left the land to gravitate towards the towns, and Francis was no exception, finding new employment in Thetford, where he met and married Frances King.

 

A year later Robert's younger brother Francis was born there in 1790, and it is likely that the boys attended the grammar school with its long tradition of free education for the sons of Thetford. Robert also attended the Wesleyan Methodist meetings in the town, and was converted at the age of 18. He then spent several years as a local lay preacher on the Wesleyan circuits up until 1815 when he entered the ministry at Ely. Fired with missionary zeal by some of the early Wesleyans such as Thomas Coke the Reverend Robert Newstead set sail in 1816 for the Indian sub-continent, where he served for seven years in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, planting schools and translating the Bible into Indo-Portuguese, one of the languages spoken on the island. He also compiled a Portuguese hymn book. Years later he recounted his experiences of running a mission school near Colombo in his "Missionary Stories for Children and Young Persons", published in 1845. Robert's name lives on to this day in Sri Lanka in the form of the Newstead Girls School in Negombo. In 1824 Robert returned to England for reasons of ill health, and it was while he was back in London as Missionary Secretary in 1826 that he had his portrait painted by William Poole and engraved by William Thomas Fry. A copy, entitled Rev'd R. Newstead, was presented by his brother Francis Newstead to his second son in 1827 on young William's being bound tailor's apprentice at Dursley in Gloucestershire.

 

By then Robert was living nearby at 8 St George's Square Cheltenham, and it was during his three years there as Wesleyan minister that he married Susan Mitchell Richards, the Cornish-born daughter of a Falmouth attorney; the couple's eldest daughter Emily was born in Cheltenham in 1830. The family then moved to Manchester, where Frances and Elizabeth were born in 1831 and 1832. The following year the Newsteads were sent to Paris, where Robert launched the English Mission and continued to write his theological booklets. After four years in France, during which time two more daughters, Harriet and Mary, were born, Robert and Susan returned to circuit work in London. By the 1851 census they were living at 26 Hope Street Liverpool. During his three years in that city, Robert befriended and assisted the runaway black slave James Watkins who had escaped from the USA and sought his freedom in England.

 

In 1854, while Robert was a minister in Bath, his eldest daughter Emily married the widower Edward William Jones; the couple went on to have a son Percy and a daughter Emily in Salford. After two years service in Glasgow, where his wife Susan died aged 60, Robert retired in 1861 to live at Riversdale House in Boston Spa near Tadcaster, where his daughters Harriet, Frances, Elizabeth and Mary joined him. In the July of that year the York Herald ran a series of publicity notices to the effect that "The Misses Newstead (Daughters of the Rev. Robert Newstead) will be prepared, after the Midsummer vacation, to receive a limited number of Young Ladies to Board and Educate. The Religious Training of the Pupils will be especially regarded, and great attention paid to their health and comfort. The School Duties will commence on Tuesday July 30th. Terms on application. Address Riversdale House, Boston Spa, near Tadcaster." A month later the youngest daughter Mary died and was buried in the Methodist chapel graveyard.

 

In January 1865 Frances Newstead married Thomas Dickin, a Wesleyan minister, and on 28 July of that year Robert died aged 76, in the 50th year of his ministry. His body was interred in Mary's grave. Six years later, the 1871 census finds Elizabeth and Harriet Newstead running a girls boarding school at Riversdale House. In 1881 Harriet had over 25 pupils, one of whom was an 11 year old Emily Seymour Jones from Manchester, the daughter of Emily (Newstead) and Edward Jones. The latter had by this time died, leaving the widowed Emily running a young ladies' boarding house at 56 Grafton Street, Manchester. Her son Percy aged 19 was apprenticed to the cotton spinning trade. On 23 December 1895 Elizabeth Newstead died in Boston Spa and in 1901 Harriet was in sole charge of the school, with her widowed sister Frances Dickin lodging with her. In 1907 Harriet died aged 72, and in the same year her elder sister Emily Jones died at the age of 77 in Manchester. Frances Dickin lived on until 22 October 1919, and was buried in Boston Spa graveyard close to the tomb of her sisters Elizabeth and Harriet. As a mark of respect to the two schoolmistress sisters, a lamppost was installed in October 1907 on the lawn in front of the chapel, bearing the inscription: "This lamp has been erected by the pupils of Elizabeth Townend and Harriet Marris Newstead of Riversdale, Boston Spa, in token of the affection and esteem which they bore to their beloved principals".

 

Robert Newstead's only descendant, his great-granddaughter Enid Newstead Goad (her mother was Emily Seymour Jones) died in 1999.⁷

Sources

1	"Biographical Index of Methodist Ministers, from Rylands Library website".

2	"Robert Newstead baptism 1789 Hoveton St Peter". Parish Register. Text From Source: NEWSTEAD, Robert; Parents Francis and Frances Newstead. From Norfolk Transcription Archive website

3	"Records of Thetford Methodist circuit" (IGI).

4	"Minutes of Conference 1864-66 Vol XVI p 230-2, Methodist Archives at John Rylands Library".

5	"Boston Spa Wesleyan Methodist chapel graveyard".

6	"Cornwall Marriage Index (Joan)".

7	"York Herald" (Lancashire Libraries Online).