Sir John Newport

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Newport, Sir John, Bart., a politician, the son of a Waterford banker, was born there 24th October 1756. He was created a baronet in 1789. In 1802 he entered Parliament as member for his native city, and acting in concert with the Whigs, continued to represent it, with short intermissions, until 1832. After the passage of the Reform Bill he was appointed Comptroller of the Exchequer; from which office he retired in 1839 with a pension of £1,000. He died at Newpark, near Waterford, 9th February 1843, aged 87. He was thus spoken of in 1830: "There never was an Irish question during the last twenty-eight years on which the member for Waterford did not distinguish himself by a fearless and uncompromising devotion to his country's welfare."

Sources

7. Annual Register. London, 1756-1877.

244. Moore, Thomas, Memoir, Journal and Correspondence: Lord John Russell. 8 vols. London, 1850-'6.

Featured Books

An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

See more of our books »

The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

Show fewer titles