Richard Newman

Richard Newman Harding Newman (1756 or 1757 – 1808), born Richard Newman Harding, was an English landowner and cricketer who was the absentee landlord of a Jamaican slave plantation. He was considered a renowned huntsman and was the subject of a portrait by George Romney. Life and family Harding Newman was born in 1756 or 1757, the oldest son of Benjamin Harding and his wife Sarah (née Newman). The family lived at Hacton House close to Hornchurch in Essex, but he was baptised at Croydon in Surrey in May 1757. Benjamin Harding owned of land in Hanover Parish on Jamaica, made up of two plantations at Blue Hole and Newman Hall which produced sugar, rum and molasses. Harding Newman inherited a third-share in the estates alongside his brothers John and Benjamin, following their father's death in 1766. The estates were valued at over £12,000, with more than £10,000 of that value the 198 enslaved people owned by the plantations. He retained ownership of the Blue Hole estate with John until his death. One of Harding Newman's sisters, Sarah Harding, married Robert Charles Dallas, a Jamaican-born poet and writer. Their son was the writer and clergyman Alexander Dallas. In 1766, Harding Newman's maternal grandfather Richard Newman died, leaving property in Essex, including land at West Ham Abbey, to him. As a condition of the will he added the surname Newman to his name in 1783, although it appears that in later life he reverted to Harding as his primary surname. He owned other property in the county, including at Romford, and in 1781 purchased the manor of Nelmes near to Hornchurch. Harding Newman married twice. He married his first wife Harriet Schütz at Westminster in 1776 aged 17. Harriet was the daughter of Francis Schütz of Gillingham Hall in Norfolk, the third-cousin of Frederick, Prince of Wales. The marriage produced two surviving sons, Thomas Harding Newman and Benjamin Newman Harding. Following Harriet's death Harding Newman married his second wife, Rosamond Bradish, in 1806; the marriage produce a further two children before his death two years later.