Ann Newbon, née Dixon (1743-1829)

Born:	1743 (Redbourn, Hertfordshire)	Died:	1829 (Blackfriars)
Father:	John Dixon (1715?-91)	Mother:	Ann Dixon, formerly Newbon (1707-66?)
Spouses:	1. William Newbon (1737-1773); 2. Walter Newbon (1750-98)
Children:	Ann Newbon (1775-46), Susannah Newbon (1777-1864), James Newbon (1778-1830), Walter Newbon (1780-?), Sarah Newbon (1781-1840), Charles Newbon (1784-1859), Benjamin Newbon (1787-1847)

One of the key players in the Newbons’ story was Mrs Ann Newbon. Although she was born Ann Dixon she had the closest of links with the Newbon family throughout her life, for her mother had been born Ann Newbon and she herself married into the Newbon family twice. Through her vast number of her descendants, as well as the fact that she died a wealthy woman at the ripe old age of 86, she became the matriarch of the London branch of the Newbon family.

The life of Mrs Ann Newbon
Born in Redbourn in 1743, Ann Dixon thereafter disappears from the records until her first marriage in 1772. With reference to her younger years, it is interesting to note that:

§	Ann did not marry until 1772 when she was 29. It is also interesting that it may well have been the case that her mother Ann Newbon was over 30 when she married. Did Ann Newbon, like her daughter Ann Dixon, in fact marry twice, with her second husband being younger than herself?

§	Ann Dixon’s first husband was 35 when they married. Since the Blackfriars marriage register tells us that William Newbon was a bachelor.one wonders why was he not found a wife before this!

§	Ann’s first husband, William Newbon, was her first cousin. Was the marriage arranged? Perhaps the two families had despaired of William and Ann finding suitable spouses themselves!

§	Ann did not bear any children to her first husband, but she bore 7 children to her second.

At the time of her first marriage Ann Dixon was listed as ‘of the parish of St Martin in the Fields’ whereas her father was still presumably living in Redbourn. It is not known when she came to London and why she settled in this part of the city. Perhaps her family felt it was in her best interests to remove her from Redbourn?

It seems unlikely that the baseborn child born to an Ann Dixon in Redbourn in 1764 was the daughter of John Dixon’s daughter Ann, since it appears that mother and child were buried on the same day in March 1765, although this is itself worthy of note. Why should mother and child die together 7 months after the child’s birth? If the register is in some way misleading or inaccurate, it is certainly not impossible that the slightly unusual circumstances of Ann’s first marriage came about as a result of an illegitimate child earlier in her life.

Mrs Ann Newbon’s later years
After becoming the wife of Walter Newbon in 1775, Ann again disappears from the records for some time in her own right apart from at the baptisms of her children. Later on in her widowhood (from 1798), however, her life can be traced in some detail. Notable are the following facts:

§	Ann elected to carry on her husband’s business of a baker after his death as she was authorised to do by his will. At that time his business as a baker (taking into account ‘stock in trade, book debts and the implements of trade’) was valued at two hundred and ninety three pounds and one shilling.

Ann carried on her Walter’s business at St Andrew’s Hill until August 4th 1800 (i.e. for just over 18 months), at which point she sold the whole concern to her nephew, and Walter’s former apprentice, James Dixon. Presumably at this point she moved out of the family home and business premises to live at Water Lane / Street, where she can be found in later records.

In the early years of the 19th century Mrs Ann Newbon was busily involved in the Chancery case Edge v Newbon, which dealt with the probate of Walter Newbon’s will. Although the case continued into the 1830s and 1840s, the last surviving document from Ann Newbon’s life dates from 1809, when she would have been 66.

Nothing is known of Mrs Ann Newbon during the last 20 years of her life time until she came to write her will in 1826.

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