There were twenty four in the village with the name Newell, as reckoned by the 1851 Census. Many were direct descendants of Francis and Mary Newell.
Francis Newell and Mary Beagly married at St Andrew’s Church on Christmas Day in 1793. They were both from Farnham but had settled in Aldershot, likely Francis then working as a labourer on the Manor Farm estate. Together, they had raised at least eight children; Mary was aged 40 when the youngest was born.
Francis lived until the age of 80, his funeral held at St. Michael’s Church in October 1849. His wife Mary died before him, aged 64 in 1834, and by 1841 Francis was living with his eldest daughter and son-in-law James Fludder on what was known as Arnsted Lane, just north of Boxalls’ Lane.
It is unclear what became of the eldest son, also called Francis, nor of the sons called Henry and William.
Francis’ second son James was baptised at the parish church in February 1797, He married Jane ‘Lloyde’, the daughter of the farmer Robert Lloyd, in the same church in 1819.
Francis was listed as a labourer for the baptism in Aldershot of their first child in 1820, and again in 1822 and 1825.
In 1827, following the (private) baptism of Jane, who sadly died soon afterwards, and in 1828 for that of Francis, he was listed in the parish register as a sawyer. This changed occupation occurred again for the baptisms at the Church of St Peter & Paul in Godalming of Robert in 1830 and of the twins Ellen and Emma in 1834, the latter noting Francis as a sawyer from Farncomb.
In 1851 the family were living by the Manor House with two teenage children, both noted as having born in Godalming. The family is recorded living in Godalming by the 1841 Census with three elder sons, one listed as a sawyer and named James like his father.
By 1851, James’ son James was also in Aldershot as a sawyer. The Census recorded his household in North Lane as having five children, all born in Aldershot, the oldest now aged 9. His wife Eliza had been born in Egham.
Francis’ son John had become a shoemaker. His household in Badshot Lea in 1851 included six children, all but the youngest born in Aldershot. The eldest was then aged 14 and also listed as a shoemaker. The youngest was newborn, listed as born in Farnham, as was John’s wife Louisa.
Charles, another of Francis’ sons, had been living in Badshot Lea since at least 1841. His wife Susan (nee Underwood) died the previous year leaving him a widower with three small children, the youngest of whom was with him in 1851 together with Charles’ brother George. Both were listed as agricultural labourers.
Thomas Newell, Francis’s fifth son, had married Jane Attfield at the parish church in 1826. Both had to make their mark in the register.
Thomas would seem to have remained on the Manor Farm estate in a tied cottage. By 1841 he and Jane were parents to eight children, from new-born to Francis, their eldest, aged 15. Three more children were evident in the return of the 1851 Census. That listed Thomas as a farm labourer living close by Woodbine Cottage. Three of his sons, aged from 11 to 20 were also listed as farm labourers, three of his youngest four children recorded as ‘scholars’.
Francis, an agricultural labourer, was lodging at the Red Lion Inn at the time of the 1851 Census. By 1852 he had left for London where he and Jane Stonard, of Dog Kennel, had married in Shoreditch; he became a leather cutter in London where he and Jane raised a family.
His daughter Ann had entered domestic service, as was usual for the eldest daughter in a large family of agricultural workers. She had secured a position in Shalford, Surrey, with the banker, Samuel Haydon, who was Mayor of Guildford in 1851.
Jane had also entered domestic service and in 1851 was in the household of the younger John Eggar of the family of Bentley was now a bailiff in Alton.
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- John Eggar had once been in charge of Manor Farm where his daughter Emily born, baptised in 18xx at St Michael’s Church, Aldershot. Henry’s sister Jane was married in July 1852 to George Harris, a farm labourer for Moses Mather, the bailiff of East Wyke Farm, Worplesdon.
Mary was another who became a domestic servant: in 1851 she was aged 18 and a kitchen maid at Braboeuf Manor House, Saint Nicholas, Guildford in the large household of Reverend Henry Shrubb, recorded as “not having the cure of souls”. Two years earlier, he had married the wealthy widow of Major Arthur Wight, late of the East India Company.
The son Henry had only recently left home to marry Jane Barrett in November 1853.