Richard Newman ( - 1695), of Fifehead Magdalen, Dorset, was an important member of the Newman family of Wessex, a barrister, High Steward of Westminster, Lord of Fifehead-Magdalen and Evercreech. He was also a colonel in the Royalist forces during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

Background

Richard Newman was born at Fifehead Magdalen, Dorset, the son of Richard Newman and Elizabeth née Perry. He was educated at

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish include ...

, to which he later donated "two gloabes",

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

and

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

English Civil War

Newman was appointed High Steward of Westminster and joined the Royalist forces during the

with the rank of Colonel. He lent money in support of Charles I, and in 1651 assisted the young King Charles II escape after the

Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1642 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell def ...

, where Charles's largely Scottish army was defeated at the hands of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...

. According to contemporary sources, the king escaped through the gate of the city of Worcester solely through the heroic efforts of Colonel Newman. At the Restoration in 1660, Charles II rewarded Newman with an augmentation to his coat of arms, in the form of an escutcheon gules (red shield) and a crowned portcullis or (gold coloured portcullis surmounted by a crown), and a large sum of money, which is likely to have been a reimbursement of funds loaned to Charles I.John Burke and Bernard Burke, ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies'', 1841

Family life

He inherited the Fifehead-Magdalen manor from his father The Baron of Castle Cary, Richard Newman, although being the youngest of two brothers. He married Anne, the daughter of Sir Charles Harbord, Surveyor General to

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

, and Maria née van Aelst, and had four sons, the eldest of whom, Richard Newman, who succeeded him at Fifehead Magdalen, and three daughters including Elizabeth who married Sir William Honeywood. He retained the family's home in Fifehead, where in 1693 he was responsible for building the Newman chapel on the north side of the church to cover the vault containing the graves of his ancestors, where he was buried on 16 October 1695.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Richard 1620s births 1695 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford People educated at Sherborne School Military personnel from Dorset English barristers