Newman Virginia Roots

Thomas Newman & Bridget Willson

Family

Thomas Newman married Bridget Willson, probably in Old Rappahannock County, Virginia.

Thomas Newman’s parents:

Bridget Willson’s parents: Elias Willson & Susannah

Children of Thomas Newman & Bridget Willson

1. Thomas Newman
2. Alexander Newman
3. Elias Newman

We believe Thomas and Bridget died very young because several of Bridget’s siblings financially cared for her children and mentioned them in deeds and wills. The records of the Willson family helped us link together and document three children for Thomas and Bridget.

My calculations for Thomas Newman and Bridget Willson’s children come from several items. I began with the birth date given for Alexander Newman the Ensign, 11 October 1740.** If you accept that this Alexander was born in 1740, then his parents, Thomas Newman and Elizabeth Morton, would have probably married about a year before that, in 1739. If we estimate the groom was 25 and the bride 21, then Thomas Newman the father, would have been born about 1714.

The Thomas born about 1714 and his brother James are the only children I can document as children of Alexander, from a lease. This Newman family’s naming pattern typically names the oldest son Thomas. If we estimate Thomas was the oldest, his father Alexander would have probably married a year or so before in 1715. If we estimate that this Alexander, son of Thomas Newman and Bridget Willson, was married at age 25 in the year 1713, he would have been born about 1688.

Another son of Thomas and Bridget was Elias Newman, whose first child according to a transcribed Bible record was born in the year 1721. If we estimate that Elias Newman and his first wife were married in 1720, about a year before their first child was born, and that Elias was age 25 at the time of his marriage, he would have been born about 1695. I estimate Thomas was the oldest child of Thomas and Bridget, as seemed the family tradition to name their oldest son Thomas. This Thomas would have been born about 1686. That would have made him about age 21 when he was willed two years of schooling by his uncle John Willson.

*Dates are estimated based on if males married at age 25 and females age 21.

The DAR Library in Washington D.C. has a transcript of a Bible record which comes from the family of Elias. It provides birth, marriage and death dates running for a couple of generations, but mainly birth dates of Elias’ children. The death of Elias Newman is stated as 10 Mar 1750.

Elias Newman’s Children:

1. Martha b. 15 Mar 1721 d. 28 Oct 1733
2. Thomas b. 6 Sep 1725 d 20 Jan 1777
3. Elias b. 30 Aug 1727 (d. 1759, will on file)
4. Reuben b. 10 Dec 1729
5. James b. 17 Apr 1732
6. Alexandria b. 18 Jun 1734 (We believe this is a misprint for Alexander)
7. John b. 20 Dec 1736 d.26 Sep 1741
8. Mary Ann b. 8 Aug 1742
9. William b. 18 Oct 1744 d. 4 Feb 1843
10. George b. 17 Nov 1746  d. 21 Feb 1837

None of the website’s researchers have seen this Bible.  We only have this transcription, which we soon hope to view and verify.

We are unsure who the parents of the Thomas married to Bridget Wilson are. We are not confident that he is the son of Thomas who died in 1700 in Richmond County. Some other men named in Old Rappahannock County who could possibly be his father are William Newman, Francis Newman, Samuel Newman and Edward Newman.

Estate

Enslaved Individuals

Land

** This link is to a copyrighted image in Ancestry.com. You need to be logged into Ancestry.com to see this image.