Newton of Bridestowe and Croadhole

John Gubbins Newton held 3,196 acres in Bridestowe, Okehampton and Sourton, much of the north-west moor edge. The books seen so far say little about him.

In 1840 the tithe lists them as John Gubbins Newton. 3,196 acres on the Dartmoor-parish tithe maps: Bridestowe 2,183, Okehampton 682, Sourton 332.

See their land on the map →

Family tree

Click a name to see everything the sources say about that person, with the exact words quoted, below the chart. Yellow marks the 1840 tithe owner.

John Newton of Bridestowe

John Newton of Bridestowe, who had bought the reversion of the Pickwell estate in Georgeham, North Devon, by 1822, and about 1806 bought the manor of Kigbear in Okehampton from Partridge. S1, S2

Children shown: John Gubbins Newton

Where this comes from

S1 Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. 6, Devonshire (1822), Georgeham

The reversion of Pickwell had been sold to Mr. John Newton of Bridestowe, who is the present proprietor.

S2 Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. 6, Devonshire (1822), Okehampton

The manor of Kigbear is the property of John Newton, Esq., who purchased it, about the year 1806, of Partridge.

John Gubbins Newton

John Gubbins Newton, Esq., the 1840 tithe owner in Bridestowe, Okehampton and Sourton. Parentage not yet found in a source; likely the son or grandson of the John Newton above, which is not confirmed. S1

Child of John Newton of Bridestowe

Where this comes from

S1 Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. 6, Devonshire (1822), Georgeham

The reversion of Pickwell had been sold to Mr. John Newton of Bridestowe, who is the present proprietor.

Stories from the record

Each story is backed by at least two independent sources, at least one of them a printed or official record. The sources are listed under it.

John Gubbins Newton's debts, 1879

A notice dated 22 October 1879 and published in the London Gazette of 24 October named John Gubbins Newton, of Millaton House, Bridestowe, gentleman, as the debtor in proceedings for liquidation by arrangement or composition with creditors under the Bankruptcy Act 1869, in the County Court of Devonshire at East Stonehouse. The first meeting of creditors was fixed for 6 November 1879 at a solicitor's office in Tavistock. A Broadwoodwidger local-history page says he got into financial difficulty after the failure of the West of England Bank and was made bankrupt in 1880, citing the Exeter Flying Post of 12 November 1879, and lists him as owner of Broadwood Town farm in the 1879 directory. White's Directory of 1878 shows him at Millaton as owner of the manors of Cobham-Wick and Blatchford. The Gazette notice proves the liquidation proceedings; the bank link and the 1880 bankruptcy rest on the local-history page alone.

Sources: London Gazette, 24 Oct 1879, issue 24774, p. 6101; Broadwood Widger local history, Principal landowners and estates of the past; White's Devonshire Directory 1878, Bridestowe (Devon Heritage transcription)

Oil portrait of a boy in a red coat on a pony, with his sister in a blue dress and a spotted dog — John Gubbins Newton and his sister Mary Newton, by Robert Burnard, about 1833. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

The boy owner: John Gubbins Newton painted at about seven

An oil portrait of about 1833, now at the Yale Center for British Art, shows John Gubbins Newton on a horse beside his elder sister Mary. Yale's catalogue records them as the only son and daughter of John Newton and Charity Gubbins, of Millaton House, Bridestowe, gives John's birth as 1826 and his age in the picture as about seven. Lysons in 1822 had already named John Newton, Esq., as owner of Milliton in Bridestowe. The picture was attributed for years to Agasse and then to J. Z. Bell, until a signature found when it was cleaned in 2001 identified the Cornish painter Robert Burnard.

Sources: Yale Center for British Art, John Gubbins Newton and His Sister, Mary Newton, B2001.2.66; Lysons, Magna Britannia vol. 6 (1822), Bridestowe (British History Online); Wikipedia, John Gubbins Newton and His Sister, Mary Newton

Places on this family's land

Places on this site that stand on, or beside, the fields this family held in 1840.

On their 1840 fields (3)

Where the sources differ

John Gubbins Newton's debts, 1879. The Gazette records liquidation by arrangement or composition; a local-history page says he was bankrupt in 1880. A blog gives a death at Millaton in 1847, which the 1879 Gazette notice contradicts.

The boy owner: John Gubbins Newton painted at about seven. Yale's gallery label gives the children's ages as seven and eleven; Wikipedia gives six and ten. Yale's published entry gives birth years 1826 for John and 1823 for Mary; a local-history page gives about 1827 for John.

Sources

S1 Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. 6, Devonshire (1822), Georgeham

The reversion of Pickwell had been sold to Mr. John Newton of Bridestowe, who is the present proprietor.

S2 Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. 6, Devonshire (1822), Okehampton

The manor of Kigbear is the property of John Newton, Esq., who purchased it, about the year 1806, of Partridge.

Tithe polygons: Devon Tithe Mapping Polygonisation Project (Adnams 2023), © Devon County Council and Devon Heritage Centre, CC BY 4.0. Transcriptions: Devon County Council.