Thornbury Park.
South Gloucestershire.
Photograph - c.1911.
The genealogy of the Newmans of Thornbury Park are presented in `Burke`s Commoners`.
At the bottom of page 113 is a brief summary of the estate, as follows:
"Situated between the borough town of Thornbury and the River Severn, purchased by Richard
Newham, esq, on 17th May 1679. The first account of this estate is the sale by Henry Lord Stafford, in the year 1555.
"However, Thornbury Park does not appear to be mentioned in Richard`s will which is dated 1681, so Burke`s information may not be
correct.
Anyway the estate was handed down to Richard`s granson Sir Samwell Newman who died without issue, and thence to his spinster sister Frances who died in 1775.
Frances`s will appears to have left the estate to "Sir William Jones and Francis Filmer their Executors Administrators and Assigns for the Term
of four hundred years".
Notwithstanding, the estate seems to have remained in the family, being taken over by the sons of France`s (and Sir Samwell`s) aunt Anne who had married
Ashburnham Toll of Greywell, Somerset. Her sons, Edmund and Ashburnham, changed their name to Newman on the death of Frances in 1775.
According to Burke`s Commoners (page 113) the estate was inherited by Henry Wenman Newman on the death of his father in September 1829.
In his "Family History of Ashburnham Cecil Newman and His Many Descendents", Geoffrey Newman notes that "on the death of Henry
(Wenman Newman), Thornbury Park was jointly held by his two oldest sons, Henry and George. Why the property was sold by them in the 1930`s is not known.
Probably lack of money during the Depression. The family was dropped from Burke`s register in 1937."
Acknowledgement to: Christopher John Edwin Newman.
Highlighted Names and to read more about the "Newman`s" visit the Web-Site www.newman-family-tree.net