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.

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.