Michael Newbold

  Notes and Events:

• of: Handsworth-Woodhouse, Yorkshire, England. Handsworth and Woodhouse are seperate townships about one mile apart, north and south. It is assumed the repetitive reference by seperate sources ,utilizing both names, implies that there was an obvious family community and church between the two townships.

The Newbold family's English roots, and that of the Newbold spouses, hail from an area four to five miles southeast of Sheffield in Yorkshire. The boundary deviding counties Yorkshire and Derbyshire meanders through the area, with some villages being in Yorkshire and other villages, some just a few hundred yards away, being in Derbyshire. The two county names are often used interchangeably along the boundary. View the location of all the townships on the area map which is linked from the home page.

• Note: from "History of Bucks County" page 110, 1678. "...Michael Newbold, of Sheffield Park, Yorkshire, England, who in 1678 purchased one eighth of three nintieth parts of the province of West Jersey, and settled in Springfield township, Burlington county where he died in 1693, leaving a large number of children and grandchildren, some of whomwere still in England..."

[Some of the original land barons purchased lands sight unseen while still in England and traveled to America later to stake their claims]

• Note: from "Genealogies of Pennsylvania Families II" page 520, 1680. immigrated from Sheffield Park, Yorkshire, England to Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey in 1680

• Note: from "Early Philadelpia Families" page 207:, 1681. "...Michael Newbold, who in 1681 had come from Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, and had bought a large tract of land in Burlington County, West Jersey. He was the ancestor of the Newbold family of Philadelphia."

• Historical Note. Michael Newbold and his issue were, quite literally, in the middle of the founding of a great nation in history. In 1678 Michael Newbold of England, purchased one eighth of three ninetieth parts of the province of West Jersey. He traveled across the great ocean to claim and settle his purchase.

Both secular and religious motives are evident in the founding of Pennsylvania. Proprietor William Penn was a "landed gentleman" having inherited estates in England and Ireland from his father, Admiral Sir William Penn. Like others of his class, he was caught in an inflationary squeeze. Income from his tenants was fixed by custom, while the cost of living was rising. Penn (and others) saw expansion of their land holdings as a solution to this problem. Nevertheless, Penn was more than a real estate promoter; he was a visionary who dreamed of a colony where people could live together harmoniously. This seemed to him impossible in the Europe of the 1600s with its frequent wars and almost constant religious discrimination and at times intense persecution.

Essential to Penn was freedom of worship. He had become a member of the Religious Society of the Friends of God, commonly called Quakers. They did not attend services in their parish churches. In private homes and plain meeting houses they worshiped in silence unless a Friend were inspired by the Holy Spirit to speak. They permitted women to address their meetings. They refused to swear oaths and were pacifists. As a result, the English magistrates physically abused, fined, and imprisoned them. Penn himself was confined in the Tower of London at times.

Consequently, on June 24, 1680, Penn asked King Charles II (1660-1685) for a charter for land in America. The only available tract in eastern North America lay west of New Jersey, north of Maryland, and south of New York, an area that England had conquered from the Dutch in 1664 and which the King had given to his brother James, the Duke of York. After appropriate discussions the King granted Penn's request on March 4, 1681.

Subsequently, the lands heretofore known as part of the west Jersey province were divided along the Delaware River with the lands west of the river becoming Penn's province.

Across the river to the east, the court in Burlington was established in the Province of West Jersey in 1681; the boundary between Burlington and Gloucester counties was first set up in 1692. This boundary lay due east across the river from the north edge of Philadelphia City.

Bucks county (on the west side of the river) was one of the three original counties created by William Penn in November 1682. Bucks is named for Buckinghamshire in England, where the Penn's had lived for generations. Doylestown replaced Newtown as the county seat in 1812 and was incorporated as a borough on April 16, 1838. It was named for William Doyle, an innkeeper. The county was re-formed by the union of the first and second Tenths of West Jersey on 17 May 1694. Portions of the original Burlington County became Hunterdon (1714) and Mercer (1838) counties. Most original settlers were Quakers, and William Penn’s estate was at Pennsbury Manor. Michael Newbold had lands established in Bucks county and was one of it's original founders, though he established his families homestead across the river in the Springfield township.

Bordering to the south of Bucks county, Philadelphia was also one of the three original counties created by William Penn in November 1682. Its name to him signified “brotherly love,” although the original Philadelphia in Asia Minor was actually “the city of Philadelphus.” Philadelphia was laid out in 1682 as the county seat and the capital of the Province; it was chartered as a city on October 25, 1701, and rechartered on March 11, 1789. On February 2, 1854, all municipalities within the county were consolidated with the city. It is in this city that Thomas Howard and his wife, Grace, settled in the early 1700's and became progenitors to a line of descendants which would, in future generations, conjoin with the Newbold's and create a lineage rich in history.

The third of the three original counties formed by William Penn in November 1682 was Chester. It did not become an inland county until 1789 when the eastern portion was established as Delaware county. Its name derives from Cheshire (i.e., Chester-shire), England, from which many of its early settlers came.

• Will, 19 Nov 1692.

Michael married Ann Topping. (Ann Topping was born in 1637 ¹¹⁶ and died after 1693 ¹¹⁶.)