Henry Newbon

James and Jane Newbon’s third son, Henry, travelled further than his brothers and sisters – he died in 1862 in Sydney, Australia, aged 49. The index to his will, proved at London, refers to him as ‘formerly of the City of London, afterwards of Gravesend, Kent, but late of New South Wales, Attorney-at-law’. Unlike his brother James Shelton Newbon’s family, 3 of Henry’s children went on to have children of their own and he thus still has descendants alive today. The only known living descendants of James and Jane Newbon are descended from their son Henry Newbon, although it is likely that descendants of their daughter Sarah Jane Crickmer (through her granddaughter Lilian Newbon Crickmer) are still alive. Henry and Elizabeth’s daughter Louisa certainly still has living descendants today, and the children of her sister Elizabeth Maria may have had children of their own. Henry and Elizabeth’s son Thomas now has no living descendants and it can, therefore, be concluded that none of James’s descendants now bears the surname Newbon.

Professional life and civic duties
Like his elder brother James Shelton Newbon, Henry Newbon was a very successful lawyer. His entry in the legal section of the 1851 London trade directory refers to him as: ‘solicitor and vestry clerk for St Mary, Staining and solicitor for the parish of St Olave, Silver Street; 1 Oat Lane, Wood Street, Cheapside. Residence – Gravesend’. He was also appointed one of the Masters Extraordinary of the Court of Chancery, which required him to swear an oath of faith and allegiance to Queen Victoria.

Family life and the move to Australia
Henry married Elizabeth Shepard at Islington in 1838. It is highly likely that Elizabeth was a great-aunt of E.H.Shepard, the illustrator of the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ books of A.A.Milne. Henry and Elizabeth’s four eldest children were born at Gravesend, while their youngest child Minna Louisa Newbon was born 18 months after the family’s arrival in Australia. Henry and Elizabeth sailed to Australia with their family in 1853 on board the 840-ton barque ‘Gypsy Queen’, which left London on May 28th and arrived at Port Jackson, Sydney on September 23rd.

After Henry Newbon’s death in 1862, his widow Elizabeth returned to England, presumably with her children Henry Richard, Minna Louisa and Elizabeth Maria, and Elizabeth Maria’s family. Her eldest daughter Louisa and her eldest son Thomas Peter had both married by this time and decided to stay in Australia.

The lives of Henry’s children

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Louisa Newbon, Henry and Elizabeth’s eldest daughter, married Charles Bennett in 1861 and settled in Australia. She died in 1870, aged only 32, by which time she and Charles had a son, Charles Henry Bennett. His 5 children took the surname Newbon-Bennett. It seems that only their second son, Geoffrey Newbon-Bennett went on to have children of his own. For more information about Geoffrey Newbon-Bennett see the section on Charles Evans Newbon.

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Elizabeth Maria Newbon, their second daughter, married Henry Randle Jackson in about 1858 but the marriage has so far not been traced. We know from the 1871 census that Elizabeth Maria’s daughter Ellen was born in Calcutta c.1859 and her son William Harry in Sydney c.1861, but whether the Jackson family returned to England for a period in the late 1850s or spent time in India is not known. The 1871 census shows Elizabeth Maria Jackson living at The Grove House back in Gravesend, Kent, with her mother Mrs Elizabeth Newbon,and her two children Ellen and William. Elizabeth Maria’s husband Henry Jackson is not mentioned in this census and 10 years later Elizabeth can be found living alone in lodgings in Westminster. She is still listed as married at this date, but it seems likely that the coupled separated. Elizabeth died at Camberwell in 1889. William Harry Jackson died (most likely unmarried) in Hong Kong on October 1st 1900.

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Thomas Peter Newbon, Henry and Elizabeth’s eldest son, settled in Australia and became a sugar-grower. He died at Richmond River, New South Wales in 1873 at the age of only 30, leaving a widow Jane Dorothy (formerly Tompson) and 2 daughters. Thomas Peter and Jane Dorothy Newbon no longer have any living descendants: their last surviving grandchild was Charles William Newbon Tindell (the son of their younger daughter Mabel, the wife of William Tindell), who died in Australia in 1976; Thomas and Jane had no great-grandchildren.

	Henry Richard Newbon died of epilepsy at Gravesend at the age of only 28 in 1873, a month after the death of his elder brother Thomas in Australia; Henry was unmarried.

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When Mrs Elizabeth Newbon died at Gravesend in 1893 at the age of 75, the only one of her 5 children still alive was her youngest daughter Minna Louisa Newbon. Minna died unmarried, also at Gravesend, in 1941, at the age of 85. Her will contains legacies to her nephews and nieces in Australia and England, proving that the Newbon family kept up their links across the world.

Henry Newbon (1813-1862)

Born:	1813 (Blackfriars)	Died:	March 21st 1862 (Sydney, NSW, Australia)
Father:	James Newbon (1778-1830)	Mother:	Jane Newbon, formerly Cobbett (1777-1861)
Spouse:	Elizabeth Shepard (1816-93)	Occupation:	Attorney
Children:	Louisa Newbon (1838-70), Elizabeth Maria Newbon (1840-89), Thomas Peter Newbon (1843-73), Henry Richard Newbon (1845-73), Minna Louisa Newbon (1855-1941)