NEWMAN, William (bef.1517-c.89), of Poole, Dorset.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
1571

Family and Education

b. bef. 1517, 1st s. of John Newman of Salisbury, Wilts. by his w. Dorothy. m. Alice, da. of Richard Haviland of Poole. suc. fa 1519.

Offices Held

Bailiff, Poole 1548, mayor 1554-5, 1568-9, 1575-6; commr. piracy 1583.

Biography

Newman was one of the three leading merchants of Poole who, in 1568, gave Lord Mountjoy a bond of £50 that the town’s new charter would not infringe his local rights. He was empowered to spend up to £500 on this new charter, the total cost of which, in the event, amounted to rather more than £370. He seems to have been generous to the borough both with his money and his time: he and the mayor received £12 5s.6d. expenses for going to London in 1561. Poole owed him £80 in 1569, and he spent another £42 5s.6d. when in London on the town’s business in 1571. He also visited Southampton, and with other leading citizens in 1574 went to see the 1st Viscount Bindon for advice about a piracy commission.

Newman made his will 25 June 1583, by which time any children he may have had were dead. He asked to be buried either at Poole or at Salisbury. After charitable bequests to hospitals at Salisbury, and to the poor of Poole, he left the bulk of his fortune, including property at Corfe Castle and Poole, and the lease of Poole parsonage, to the four daughters of John and Ursula Newman. Administration was granted to the overseers Apr. 1589.

PCC 10 Stokton, 21 Ayloffe, 38 Leicester; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 8, 20, 21, 22, 34; H. P. Smith, Hist. Poole, ii. 16, 93, 98; C219/23, m 51; Poole recs., ‘Greate Boke’, ff. 7, 33; J. Sydenham, Hist. Poole, 167.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes