John NEWTON, York Factory, Manitoba 1748 - 1750

[J.J.]

Actually HBC archives would have accounts on him, perhaps...but to find out more about wife & children...you might have some luck with the Rupertsland files  http://uwwebpro.uwinnipeg.ca/academic/ic/rupert/index.html
contact email is at bottom of page... Not sure if anyone does searches. J.J.

[NJ25]

JJ, many thanks for the link to the Rupert's Land site. I (like quite a few of John Newton's descendants) live in England so unless I find a few spare hundred quid under the sofa and fly out there I'll have to drop them an email 

[J.J.]

haha,    our dilemma in reverse...well ask if they have anything and can they make you copies... if they do have but don't lookup for you... I'll pop by and have a boo. later in the season as I am busy right now..I don't do HBC look ups for others as it is a lot of work to go through it alll....but they do have people who will do lookups for payment.

[cdn47]

Have you been able to obtain the information you were seeking about John Newton?  If not, please post as I may have some additional resource material for you. 

[NJ25]

Hi cdn47,

I contacted the Manitoba archives concerning Captain John Newton and they sent me photocopies of the governor's journal of Fort York, kept by Newton, until his death in 1750. This has helped to flesh out the man a little. But I am still interested in any further information concerning him or his children? I've mapped out his children by his second wife Thomasina (nee Cox) as being:

Name                 Birth      Place
William         1736         Aveley, Essex
Henry         1740         St Katherine-by-the-Tower, London
Thomas         1741         Aveley, Essex
James         1743         St Mary, Rotherhithe
Thomasina      1746         Aveley, Essex

I am particularly interested if any further details about the offspring are known. Many thanks.

[J.J.]

Other posting, on England board, in which the children/2nd marriage were found for NJ25 http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=574700.0
I see that you found Henry,  christened 1740 a year later than James 1739 also St Katharine's by the Tower, unless there was a later birth with same name which did happen often...

[cdn47]

It looks as though you may already have your answers but I'll add the materials I've found in case there's something of value for you...

James Settee (born c.1811) claimed that his grandmother was John Newton's daughter. I believe this daughter was born at York Factory and was of mixed blood - likely born in the late 1740s before Newton drowned.

Have you seen Newton's biography? There is no mention of a third wife or additional children born at York. http://www.biographi.ca/EN/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=1557

I could find no record of any family arriving with Newton and it highly unlikely a daughter would have remained there after his death.

There is another resource that provides biographies of HBC employees - there is none for John Newton and I believe that may be because he only worked for the company at York Factory for a very short few years and perhaps because there was scant information available, which supports the belief that he did not bring family with him to Canada.
http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/

James Settee also claimed a grandfather named Smith - this was Francis Smith and his biography actually includes mention of Smith's wife Kitty being "the first white woman to winter in Hudson Bay in the 18th century". This was during the same period that John Newton was at York Factory and indicates how unlikely it would have been for family to accompany him from England.
http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=1658

If you haven't already discovered this, here is a link to John Newton's son John's biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.                                http://www.bernardoconnor.org.uk/Everton/John%20Newton.htm

Hope this has been of some use to you!

[J.J.]

Not saying this is fact, or an exact scenario...but not unusual for many fur trade employees to have a "country wife"....meaning married to an aboriginal woman in the "ways of the country"....One could leave one's spouse at any time. Single and unmarried men enjoyed this loose relationship with aboriginal women, and many left for their homeland when service was over, or abandoned the relationship, including children, when it was no longer beneficial to them.
Because there are no actual documents, this is often hard to prove, especially because "aboriginals" were involved...who seldom were recognized in any form of documentation, anyway, in that era nor within the following century.

Image of James Settee here: http://www.redriverancestry.ca/SETTEE-JAMES-1809.php
 

[cdn47]

I agree, JJ - that is exactly my reasoning for Newton's daughter to remain there, rather than returning to England after her father's death.

I've come across a bit more information...

Once Blind: The Life of John Newton - There is mention here of Captain John Newton going to York Factory for three years while his wife and three children remain in England.  Page 140 at http://books.google.ca/books?id=rqgg9hG9JooC&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=John+Newton+%2B%22Fort+York%22&source=bl&ots=LlgJIhp8px&sig=dD-_LOjkYcwW9_TLevDVHngUIgY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dWiaUe-6NKScjALhgIGoCQ&ved=0CF8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Thomasina&f=false –

There's another mention of Captain Newton's second family years later - no preview for this entry but it does say that Harry was in Boston in the Royal Navy, Thomasina was happily married on Page 193.

A bit more info available at http://www.westminster.coresense.com/pdf_files/newton_disgrace2amazing.pdf

I did a search for Thomasina to locate the following...

John Newton’s father was away at sea when his wife died. He did not return from his Mediterranean travels until early in 1733. When he came home to discover that he was a widower, Captain Newton spent little time in mourning. He remarried quickly, taking as his second wife the daughter of “a substantial grazier” from Aveley in Essex. Her name was Thomasina, and her background was a relatively wealthy one, for in those days the difference between a farmer and a grazier was at least five hundred acres. Thomasina, who was of Italian descent, bore two sons and a daughter to Captain Newton. The arrival of these children resulted in John’s being sidelined into the predictable but unhappy position of a stepson who is excluded from the inner circle of the new family

Thomasina Newton (d. 1776)
Thomasina, an Italian, was Newton’s stepmother. It is thought the family lived at Moor Hall Farm on the property of Lord Dacre’s Belhus estate in Aveley. Her children by Captain John Newton were William, Henry, and Thomasina. According to Newton she lived “without the least thought of religion, never going so much as to a place of worship, except for the birth of a child.” (Cecil, p. 316)

Simon Scatliff (b. 1668)
Simon, a mathematical instrument maker of Paul’s Wharf London, was Newton’s grandfather. He had four children—John, Simon, Samuel, and Newton’s mother Elizabeth. In the marriage register Elizabeth’s maiden name was written as Seatliffe.

The Scatliff family came from a long line of mathematical and scientific instrument makers. For their genealogy see www.scatliff.net.

Good Luck!!