Family and Education

b. c.1699, 2nd s. of Nathaniel Newnham of Streatham, Surr. by Honoria, da. and coh. of Thomas Kett of St. Mary Axe, London merchant; bro. of Thomas Newnham. m. Sarah Adams, 5s. 1da.

Offices Held

Director, E.I. Co. 1738-40, 1743-6, 1748-51, 1753-d.; South Sea Co. 1761.

Biography

A merchant of ‘great authority in the court of directors of the India Company’, Newnham, after purchasing Newtimber in Sussex in 1741, was brought into Parliament by Newcastle as a Dissenter, whose return might help to secure the nonconformist vote at Lewes. In Parliament he acted as a dependant of Newcastle’s, but made ‘no progress’ with the Duke, as ‘his modesty ... made him afraid of being troublesome in too frequent waiting on him’. In 1754 Newcastle turned him out to make way for Pitt at Aldborough, observing, when Newnham’s brother-in-law, Sir Dudley Ryder, interceded for him, that he was ‘of no consequence in himself’, Eventually he was brought in by the Government free of charge for Bramber, ‘within seven miles of his house’, which did not please him, as proximity to one’s constituents was well-known to lead to endless trouble and expense.1

He died 17 Sept. 1778.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. Dudley Ryder Diary, 1, 9 Nov. 1753, 23 Mar. 1754, Harrowby mss.