Newton Family History
Most of this information is taken from The Way of the Leaf, by Ted R. Newton. I was privileged to talk to him, buy his book and correspond with him about the Newton family before his death. Of course, this is only a glimpse of his detailed research.
It is believed that most of the Newtons from England, Scotland, and Ireland were and are decendants from deNeutone families of Normandy, France. After the Normandy invasion of Great Britain, French surnames of deNeutone, deNeweton, deNeuton and Neuton were found over England through the 14th century. Our Newton ancestors crossed the English Channel in the battle at Hastings with William the Conqueror. The famous Hundred Rolls of 1273 list the first recorded Newtons from France. Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379 show the names Willelmus deNeuton and Johannes deNeuton.
The first public recorded use of Newton as the family surname was Sir Richard Newton, who was the Chief Justice of England during the reign of Henry the Sixth (1422-1471).
Our attention will focus on Alan deNeuton's decendants who remained in Lincolnshire and Lancashire. Simon Newton, our ancestor was from Lancashire, but was found living in Westby, the Parish of Bassingthorpe, in 1524 with 22 other inhabitants of this village. He was born about 1470 and is believed to be closely related to David Newton, vicar of the Parish Church of St. Peter in Oundle, Northamptonshire, in 1481[this link has several pictures]. This church, built in the year 1159, is still in regular use today in Oundle.
It is believed that our Newton family continued to live in or near Oundle until after 1709. Three brothers ventured to Scotland, and stayed for a while in East Lothion, where already a group of Newtons was living. It is believed that the three brothers Robert, John and Benjamin, left there and boarded a ship at Greenock, after living several years in Scotland, and headed for the American Colonies, maybe stopping first in northern Ireland. Benjamin Newton married Margaret McCurdy in Scotland in 1715.
These three Newton brothers may have landed at New Castle, Delaware, about 75 miles east of York, Pennsylvania. This port was settled before 1650, even before Pennsylvania was formed. No record has yet been found of their arrival, possibly they were part of the ship's crew, and slipped ashore unnoticed.
Benjamin, the youngest of the three brothers, is believed to be the father of Ebenezer Newton, our ancestor. Ebenezer Newton is the first recorded Newton of our lineage found in the Colonies of North America. His name is on a deed dated March 14, 1754 for 100 acres in Hellam Township, situated on both sides of the Conawage Branch that runs into the Susquehanna River. The 1790 census finds Ebenezer Newton in Morgan, North Carolina. William Newton, probably the third child of Ebenezer and Elizabeth Buchanan Newton, married his cousin, Margaret Buchanan, who was, in fact, the Aunt of President James Buchanan, who served as the nation’s 15th president from 1857 to 1861.
York was the first permanent settlement in Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna. It is located 90 miles west of Philadelphia and 28 miles southeast of Harrisburg. Ted Newton, author of The Way of the Leaf believed that Ebenezer Newton was one of the surveyors that laid out the settlement. The first settlers were Germans from the Rhenish Palatinate. [This is also where our Cline ancestors were from.]
It is believed that Ebenezer Newton was in North Carolina again by 1776, and as a patriot, supplied the militia of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia with provisions on several occasions. Three of his sons served in the Army of the American Revolutionary War.
As Ted Newton said, "It is sad that we don't know more about Ebenezer and Elizabeth Newton, the trunk of our genealogical Newton tree in America. We try to see them as a colonial family raising grain, flax, tobacco, and other crops on their land in old Mecklenburg County, North Carolina in 1768." Some of the Newton families as did some of the Cline families moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. William Newton took his bride back to his father's 125 acre farm near the Catawba River . My sister and I went to the Catawba Cline Reunion in 2010, how interesting it would be to know exactly how close we were to where they lived.
Ebenezer Buchanan Newton, the eldest child of William and Margaret Buchanan Newton married Eleanor Rutherford in Lincoln County, North Carolina on March 23, 1803. This Ebenezer was like his father, William and his grandfather, he liked to deal in land negotiations, both buying and selling, and grants.
The fifth child of Ebenezer B. and Eleanor Rutherford Newton was Solomon Newton, born in Rutherford County, North Carolina in 1811. Solomon married Kizziah Farley in 1830 and their second child was Narcissa Newton born about 1833 in Macon County, North Carolina. Narcissa married George W. Cline on 4 Feb 1852 in Haywood County, North Carolina.
Narcissa and George W. Cline are found in North Carolina until the 1880 census that finds them in Bartow County, Georgia. Their son Robert marries Ida Daniel on 24 Jul 1889 in Bosque County, Texas, leaving us to conclude that their journey to Texas was between 1880 and 1889.