Family and Education

b. 1563, 4th but 2nd surv. s. of (Sir) Richard Newport^† of High Ercall by Margaret, da. and h. of Sir Thomas Bromley^†. educ.Shrewsbury 1574, I. Temple 1581 called. unm.

Offices Held

Member, council in the marches of Wales 1601.

Biography

On his tomb at Wroxeter, Newport describes himself as the second son of Sir Richard, but on his parents’ monument in the same church two other sons are shown, both bearing the crescent on their shield of arms; one of these must have died an infant, and the other predeceased his father, leaving Andrew as the second surviving son. He was thus the younger brother of the ‘worthy and valiant’ Francis Newport who was sheriff of Shropshire in 1586, and whose influence probably secured his brother’s return to Parliament two years later. His sister Magdalene married Richard Herbert of Lysmawr and became the mother of Lord Herbert of Chirbury and the poet, George Herbert. Another sister married Thomas Lawley of Wenlock. Little is known of Newport’s career. He composed his own epitaph when ‘nearly at the hour of death’ in 1611, stating that he

lived and died in the faith of Jesus Christ [a] true professor of the doctrine according to the best reformed churches in the time wherein he lived, ever hating and detesting the imposture and abominations of the Church of Rome as now it standeth.

Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxix), 372-4; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), i. 18-20; (ser. 4), xi. 155; xii. 195-6; Arch. Camb. (1915), p. 122; Early Chrons. Shrewsbury ed. Leighton, 108.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.J.C.

Notes