Alexander Newman & Hannah Halbert

Alexander Newman & Hannah Halbert

Written by Julie, latest revision 15 Jun 2022

Alexander Newman probably married Hannah Halbert in Essex County, Virginia about 1756. Hannah was named as Hannah Newman in her father William Halbert’s 1760 will, and Alexander Newman was a witness to it. Muscoe Newman’s tombstone said he was born in 1757. If he was the oldest, and his parents married the year before, then they were married in 1756. If we estimate Hannah was age 21 at the time of her marriage, then she would have been born about 1735. According to the Newman Bible record, Alexander would have been age 22 in 1756. This is three years younger than we usually see the average man marrying.

Alexander’s brothers, James and William, probably moved to Orange County, Virginia, about the same time John Baylor purchased the famous racehorse Fearnaught in 1764. They were overseers for John Baylor’s Greenwood stud farm in Orange County, Virginia. Alexander’s youngest brother, George Newman, also worked for the Baylors. I assume that Alexander moved to Orange about the same time as his brothers, in the mid- to late-1760’s. Hannah Halbert’s brother, William, was a dragoon in Lee’s partisan group along with Alexander Newman’s brothers, William and George Newman.

Alexander Newman bought land in Culpeper, 7 September 1777: Deed book H, pg 516. According to land records, all four brothers lived close to the boundaries between Orange and Culpeper, (in the area that later became Madison County).

I have not yet seen the sale of this land or a will or chancery case for Alexander Newman’s estate, which divided this land.
I have not yet found a military record for Alexander during the Revolutionary War. I assume that Alexander and his brother James Newman helped watch over their brother William’s family and land, as well as George’s land while they were serving their enlistments in the Patriot Army.

There were a number of Alexander Newman’s. They are often confused because the records are spotty and there no ages listed. I spent a lot of time studying the various Alexander Newmans, and sorting which piece of information went with each Alexander. Each Alexander will have a page on this website with their sources. I previously determined that Muscoe Newman and Alexander Newman were the sons of Alexander Newman and Hannah Halbert. I determined this by process of elimination of all the other Newman families in Essex, Richmond, Orange, Culpeper and Madison, tax records, land records, and because the timing and location fits.

I found this chancery court document that lists nine children for Hannah Halbert, with the married name of Newman. Alexander, the son of Alexander and Hannah had died 10 months prior to this court case in Kentucky. Word of Alexander Jr’s death had probably not reached the courts.