NEWTON, William (?1783-1862), of Elvedon Hall, Suff.

Newton’s family were connected with the West Indies and had plantations in Santa Cruz. He settled in Suffolk in 1813 after purchasing Elvedon Hall from the 4th Earl of Albemarle. In 1818 he was chosen as his colleague in the contest for Ipswich by Ralph Alexander Crickitt, whose wife’s family were also Santa Cruz proprietors. Newton informed the electors that ‘there were principles abroad of a nature so dangerous as to require the firmest and most determined resistance’. After his return he gave a general support to government. He was a defaulter on 1 Apr. 1819 and took a week’s leave on 23 Apr., but voted with them against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May 1819, and probably, disguised as ‘W. Newman’, for the foreign enlistment bill on 10 June: but, like Crickitt, he opposed the malt duty on 9 June and likewise opposed the excise duties on 25 June. No speech is known. He did not seek re-election in 1820. Newton died 4 Nov. 1862.1PCC 87 Harris; W. A. Copinger, Suff. Manors, iv. 150; The Late Elections (1818), 149.