Newton Family papers
Collection
0288-MDHC
Members of the Newton Family were landowners in Anne Arundel, Dorchester, and Howard Counties, and Baltimore City, Maryland. The Newton Family Papers date from 1772 to 1885 with the bulk of the material from 1784 to 1865. The collection consists largely of legal documents. Additionally there is material relating to business transactions, correspondence, and a Sons of Temperance handbook. The primary subject of the collection is land transaction. Other subjects include eighteenth century advertising, the departure of a pastor from his parish, and the activities of the Sons of Temperance in the early nineteenth century.
This collection is open for research.
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1.00 Linear Feet
The Newton Family papers date from 1772 to 1885 with the bulk of the material from 1784 to 1865. The collection consists largely of legal documents; additionally there is material relating to business transactions, correspondence, and a Sons of Temperance handbook. The primary subject of the collection is land transaction. Other subjects include eighteenth century advertising, the departure of a pastor from his parish, and the activities of the Sons of Temperance in the early nineteenth century.
Members of the Newton family were eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landowners in Anne Arundel County, Dorchester County, Howard County, and Baltimore City, Maryland.
The earliest traceable member of the Newton family was Nimrod Newton (d. circa 1792) of Dorchester County, Maryland. He and his wife Margaret had three children: sons Nathan Newton and William Newton (d. 1871), and daughter Mahala Newton. William Newton had three sons: Nimrod Newton (b. circa 1800), Thomas Newton (b. 1800), and William M. Newton (b. 1826). When their father William died in 1871, Nimrod and William M. Newton sold their inherited land to their brother Thomas and another relative, Howar Newton.
William M. Newton was a painter. He married Lucy Rebecca Newton (b. 1830), originally from Virginia, and they lived in Baltimore City. In 1880 they had four children: three daughters, Mary (b. 1863), Lucy (b. 1868), and Ridis (b. 1871), and one son, Eugene (b. 1875). Later, according to census records, Eugene, Mary and Ridis are shown still living together in Baltimore, with Mary and Ridis working as teachers.
Nimrod Newton (according to census information, circa 1800) was a wheelwright in 1860. Like his grandfather and namesake, he married a woman named Margaret. They had two sons, Wilbur and Lessie.
Nimrod and William's brother Thomas Newton (b. 1800-d. October 25, 1883) was a farmer. He and his wife Ruth (b. 1804) had three children, possibly four: Thomas S. Newton (b. 1828), Margaret Ann Newton (b.1832), and Julia Ann Newton (b. 1836, married Edward Earp) and Olivia Newton (b. 1844). Olivia is difficult to trace and it is possible she died in 1870 or 1871, or was a more distant relation to Thomas and Ruth Newton. She appears in the 1870 census with the family but is not mentioned in the 1871 deed dividing Thomas Newton's land between his children. The eldest of the children, Thomas S. Newton, was a blacksmith. Julia Ann and Edward Earp, and possibly any other members of the Newton family, are buried in the cemetery attached to Melville Chapel in Elkridge, Maryland (Howard County) as there are records in the collection of purchase of plots within this cemetery by Edward Earp and Thomas Newton.
Other Newton family members mentioned in the collection are: Willis and Milcah Newton (husband and wife, mentioned in 1784), William Newton (mentioned in 1786 and 1800), Richard Newton (mentioned in 1800), and Howar Newton (mentioned in 1871). The relationship between these members of the Newton family and the previously mentioned members is uncertain.
The Newton Family papers have been arranged into one series:
The Newton Family papers were accessioned by the University of Maryland in February 1990.
The Newton Family Papers were processed in February 2011 by Allison C. Heinbaugh. A detailed inventory was made of the collection. The papers were arranged into a single series ordered chronologically with any undated material placed at the end of the series. The materials were each placed in individually labeled acid-free folders to aid location within the collection. A finding aid was then created for the materials.
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