The distribution of the surname Newbon has never been extensive. London and Northamptonshire have undoubtedly been very important centres of the surname during the past 400 years, but Newbon families have appeared in some other areas also. Most often this has been when one isolated family has moved to a particular town or region. Members of the family can then be found there for a generation or two, but just occasionally the surname has taken root more deeply.

Staffordshire
The most obvious evidence of the name outside London and Northamptonshire is in Staffordshire, in particular the area around Stoke-on-Trent. I am  very grateful to a number of family history contacts who have supplied me with information about the Newbons of Stoke. I have as yet only undertaken a small amount of research into this branch of the family, but as I do find out more I shall add it to the website, although it will remain the case that various individuals have much more information than I do.

For many years I was intrigued by the presence of a Newbon family in Staffordshire but could find no connection with the Newbons of Northamptonshire or London. I have now been informed that two members of the family moved from King’s Cliffe to Longton, Staffordshire, probably in the 1790s. They were two brothers Walter Newbon (1773-1839) and James Newbon (1779-1847), sons of Thomas Newbon, who was the elder brother of Walter Newbon, the founder of the London branch of the Newbon family. The family quickly became established in Staffordshire and remains strong there today.

The distance from King’s Cliffe to Longton is just under 90 miles, just slightly shorter than the journey that Walter Newbon made from King’s Cliffe to London. One early Newbon connection to Staffordshire can in fact be made. Elizabeth Newbon, daughter of Richard Newbon of Westminster (who was almost certainly baptised in King’s Cliffe in 1673) married the Rev. Samuel Willott in 1751. In 1763 Samuel became the vicar of Caverswall, the very next village to Longton, where the Newbons settled some 30 years later. Although this was after Samuel’s death, his daughter Elizabeth Willott maintained her links with the area, in particular Dilhorne, another neighbouring parish, until her death in 1834. While there would have been obvious attractions to the area around Stoke-on-Trent in the early years of the Industrial Revolution, it is certainly possible that the family’s links with this particular area helped Walter and James Newbon to decide exactly where to settle.