I am descended from Samuel Newport who immigrated to NZ on the Sir Charles Forbes in 1842. The ship's register shows a total of 19 passengers travelling under the name of Newport; including Samuel's family (9), Joseph's family (5) and Stephen's family (5). The ages for Samuel & Ann's family as recorded in the register are inaccurate, because Samuel (the eldest brother) was a little over the age limit for immigration and the whole family's ages were shuffled down to conceal this.
Samuel (born 1797) was the eldest child in the family and the third Samuel Newport in a row. His siblings were, in order: Ann (b.1799), James (b.1802), Joseph (b.1804), Grace (b.1806), Jane (b.1807), Job (b.1809), Stephen (b.1810) and Tryphena (b.1812). Thus far all the research was compiled by my father, who died recently, so I have been trying to extend things further.
The great grandfather of Samuel, Joseph & Stephen was the illegitimate son of Sir Henry Newport (Lord Newport), the Earl of Bradford, Viscount Newport & Baron Newport. I have just discovered that Sir Henry fell out with his family and left all his estates to his illegitimate son, John (born John Harrison). The will was contested but eventually took effect as intended. I have read a comment that there was some "act" (presumably of paliament) to allow John to change his name to Newport and our family oral history has it that he was the last Baron Newport and that each Samuel could have picked up this title but did not, so that it became extinct after Samuel (III).
I have started the attempt to obtain further information or sources to evidence each link. In particular, I would like to obtain the birth record for Samuel (I). The earliest document I have is (a photocopy of) the birth entry for Samuel (III) in the parish records of Great Missendon from 1797. I have also been compiling a family tree and have the Newport line back to 1401.
I also came across one researcher's effort, based mainly on LDS records, which traces a single line back from the spouse of one of the earliest Newports back to the Kings of Powys (Wales) and thence to Magnus Maximus, Constantine the Great and Claudius II (Caesar) who died in AD 270. I have yet to find the time to corroborate all this - I thought I'd start with John Harrison/Newport because it seemed there would be an interesting family story behind it.
If you would be happy to provide me with whatever details you have of Stephen/Joseph & their families I would love to include this in the tree. In return, I will forward you the 'Newport database' once I have finished compiling the first draft.
Kind regards
