A Descendant of Thomas Newport

Presumably the descent is from Thomas to Jesse to David to Jesse W. and then to this David.

From the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, PA by Ellwood Roberts, Vol. 1

Following the bio is a newspaper article about his family

DAVID NEWPORT, for many years a minister in the Society of Friends, is the son of Jesse W, and Elizabeth (Ellison) Newport. He was born December 18, 1822, in the city of Philadelphia. He is a retired farmer, living at Willow Grove, in Abington Township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania.

David Newport is a descendant of Thomas Newport, who settled in New Jersey about 1698, coming from London, England. The manner of his becoming a Friend is something remarkable. The people of his neighborhood were in the habit of meeting at his house for social worship, and as he had an excellent voice he occasionally sang for them. On one occasion, instead of singing, he felt it his duty to speak to them, and thus he became their minister. Becoming acquainted with Friends and their principles, and finding them similar to their own, he and his people connected themselves with the Society. Thomas Newport married Elizabeth Lockwood, and became the father of two children--Jesse and Mary. The family removed and lived near Duck Creek, Delaware, Mary going to Philadelphia, where she conducted a profitable business, and left to Philadelphia Meeting the fund now in its possession. Jesse was the father of ten children--Thomas, Aaron, David, Jesse, Benjamin, Richard, Elizabeth, Lydia, Mary and Sarah. In 1786 Jesse removed to Oxford township, and thus they became members of Abington Monthly Meeting. In 1794 Jesse, with seven of his children, removed to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where the seven children were said to have become the parents of seventy children, an average of ten each, all of whom lived to manhood and womanhood. The Newports were noted for conscientiousness and fidelity to known duty. Jesse, son of Thomas, during the Revolutionary War, purchased nothing but iron and salt aside from the productions of the farm, he being opposed to war, and unwilling to pay taxes for the support of the army, just as some of his descendants a century later were unwilling to buy any of the products of slave labor and thus lend support to an unjust system.

In reference to his ancestors David Newport says, in his "Eudemon," page 512: "It is said to be difficult to name the eight different great-grandparents of an individual. The following are mine: Jesse Newport and Mary Long; Thomas Wood and Sarah Yerkes; John Barker and Elizabeth Rodman; John Ellison (3rd) and Elizabeth Doughty. The great-grandparents of my wife, Susan S. Newport were: William Satterthwaite and Pleasant Mead; William Claypoole and Elizabeth Hall; Samuel Griscom and Rebecca James; Giles Knight and Elizabeth James.

"Jesse Newport was the son of Thomas Newport, of London, the immigrant. Thomas Wood, who was a soldier under Washington, was a grandson of Thomas Wood. He died in 1795, in his ninety-fourth year. He was a minister of Abington Meeting for forty-five years. He married Martha Lloyd, 10th-mo. 24, 1713. Elizabeth Rodman was the fifth in descent from John Rodman, the immigrant. Her father, Thomas, married Elizabeth Pearson, who as is supposed was son of the Thomas Pearson who came over in the "Welcome," with William Penn. John Ellison married Hannah Boyd, a granddaughter of Griffith ap Griffith, who was the lineal descendant of Lledwellyn ap Griffith, who was the last Prince of Wales, so the family record says. The Satterthwaites, my wife's family, have a record from Clement Satterthwaite, the father of William, who married Agnes Brathwaite. They were the parents of William, who settled in Bucks county. He was born in 1709. His son William married May, the granddaughter of Giles Knight, who came over in the ship "Welcome" with William Penn. William Claypoole was the grandson of the immigrant, James Claypoole, the friend of William Penn, William Claypoole's son John married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Griscom. She was the distinguished Betsy Ross, who died in 1836, in her eighty-fifth year. My wife remembers her well. James Claypoole's brother John married Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell. Among my ancestors who have been largely members of the Society of Friends since George Fox's time, several of them were called to the ministry of the word, among the most notable of whom was John Rodman (2nd) of New York, of whom mention is made in the discipline of New York Yearly Meeting, on page 4. The records of the Society of Friends at Flushing, Long Island, contain the following note of his death:

"John Rodman, an eminent doctor, did abundance of good in that practice, and was also a worthy minister of the gospel in this town about forty years, a man beloved by all sorts of people, lived to a good old age, about seventy-eight years, died the 10th of 7th month, 1731. His wife Mary survived him and died in 1748, aged eighty-five years." The account adds: 'They had twelve children.' "

David Newport's mother Elizabeth was a greatly favored minister in the Society of Friends for forty-three years, passing away from this state in her seventy-sixth year. His brother Ellison, and his sister, Martha Travilla, were both acknowledged ministers amongst Friends.

David Newport was not seventeen years old when he went to the country to learn the practical duties of a farmer. He attended a Friend's school in Philadelphia, and later was sent to the Friends' school at Alexandria, Virginia. Early in life he became deeply interested in moral questions and in politics, especially in the slavery question, then assuming great prominence owing to the attitude of southern slaveholders in forcing it upon the country. Being born a Friend he inherited hatred of oppression in every form, and was an enthusiastic advocate of freedom. He was one of seven voters of Moreland township who in 1848 cast their ballots for Martin VanBuren, the Free-Soil nominee for president. He acquired also a literary taste, and contributed articles to the Norristown papers, the "Herald," "Free Press" and "Republican." After the war began and the new system of internal revenue was framed by Congress, President Lincoln appointed him collector for the congressional district composed of the counties of Montgomery and Lehigh, with his office in the court house at Norristown. He chose Samuel Homer and Howard M. Jenkins as his deputies, and during the four years he held the position, from 1862 to 1866, about two and a half millions of dollars passed through his hands in the shape of direct tax. He fulfilled all his duties with fidelity and strict integrity, attending carefully to business, and rendering a complete account of the transactions which was never questioned by the authorities at Washington.

David Newport has also achieved considerable fame as an author. He published a volume of poems, and a volume entitled "Indices, Historical and Rational." Within a few years he has published another volume, "Eudemon, Spiritual and Rational: the Apology of a Preacher for Preaching." His book of poems is called "The Pleasures of Home." The volume contains a poem which attracted wide attention at the time it was published, during the great national crisis of 1864, ... (Lincoln and Liberty)

DAVID AND SUSAN NEWPORT celebrate their fifty-fifth wedding anniversary

The following is from the Jenkintown? World? Chronicle? of the 12th last, and will be of interest to those of our readers acquainted with the Newport and Satterthwaite families.

Not withstanding the storm of the 8th past, David and Susan Satterthwaite Newport and children, of Germantown, called on ....... folks on the anniversary of their .......(unintelligible)........... wedding fifty-five years ago, and notwithstanding the absence, because of the weather, of the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren, they had a jolly good time together in the old home at Willow Grove.

David related some of the details of the life, which he considers unique in the fact that he, when a child, with his grandfather, father and mother, as early as 1825, crossed the mountains on the then great National road between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on the occasion of a visit to his father's uncles and aunts residing in Ohio. This early trip he considers worthy of remark, together with the fact that he listened to the debates in the old Senate chamber as early as 1837, between such men as Henry Clay, James Buchanan and J.C. Calhoun. Mr. Newport then being a student at Benjamin Hallowell's "Brimstone Castle," as the boys called it. Professor Hallowell was largely an instructor in "coaching" young men for West Point. Robert E. Lee being a student of his. Augustus Washington, the proprietor of Mt. Vernon, was the desk-mate of David for six months of their student life, and of many other students who were prominent generals in the late Civil War. David's friend, Washington, was said to have been the first man killed in that unfortunate contest.

David Newport lately retired from the presidency of the Newport Fertilizing Co., which now has four plants--at Riverside Del, Willow Grove, Pa, Crabe Island, N.J., and at Dymer's Creek, Va. It has lately been reorganized and expanded by this addition of the Joseph Wharton fisheries.

The ancestors of the Newport and Satterthwaite families were amongst the earliest and most noted settlers of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as denoted in the Newport, Claypool and Rodman genealogies. James Claypool was the close friend of William Penn, and the direct ancestor of John Claypool, who was the husband of "Betsey Ross," who was the daughter of Andrew Griscom, and who, with his friend, Giles Knight, came over the sea with Penn in the ship Welcome. And herein it is also claimed that the "Pearson" spoken of in Clarkson, page 239, was the grandfather who was the grandfather of Elizabeth Pearson, who married Thomas Rodman, of Burlington, N.J. If this be established, then it follows that the lines of the two families came together some 100 years ago, which is quite a usual occurrence in Quaker families.

The Satterthwaite family have for some 200 years kept the chain of cousinship right with their kin on the other side. John Bright was a second cousin of Abel Satterthwaite, Mrs. Newport's father. She must remember, too, her grandmother, "Betsey Ross," with distinctness. Her mother often spoke of General Washington, whose pew at Christ Church, was close to her grandmother Claypool's, which church Mrs. Newport's mother attended when a girl with her grandmother Claypool. When the general and this wife came to church they came in a carriage drawn by four white horses, whose hoofs were always blacked. The flag making incident is not a tradition, but a fact. "Betsey Ross" made the first American flag, under inst..(ructions from?).. General Washington ..........(cut off)....(a tra?)..dition in the family that Washington had trouble in having his shirt ruffled(?) enough to suit him, and that "Betsey Ross" did them for him. There are several grandchildren now living who often heard their grandmother speak of the flag incident as a familiar and well-known fact.

David Newport is the author of three books, published by J.B. Lippincourt and Co., viz: "The Pleasures of Home”, "Eudemon, Historical and Rational," and "Indices, Spiritual and Experimental." ((((date of article = March 19, 1902(?) ))))

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