Jonathan Newey (c1637-1716) was curate of Kinver (1665-1716).[1]

Life

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Jonathan Newey was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, matriculating 25 July 1655 and awarded his BA on 12 February 1659.[2] He was married to Mary.[3] Their elder son, John Newey (4 December 1664 – 13 September 1735), became Dean of Chichester Cathedral. While at Kinver, their children were Elizabeth (bap. 1666, d. 1675), Deanes (bap. 1669, d. 1671), Anne (bap. 1672), Sarah (bap. 1674), Katherine (bap. 1676), Frances (bap. 1678, d. 5 September 1728) was married (20 June 1699) to Edward Waddington, Bishop of Chichester.,[4] Samuel (bap. 1681).

Career

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Newey was ordained on 17 September 1661 by Thomas Sydserf, Bishop of Galloway. He was licensed as a preacher in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield (10 December 1663) and appointed to the curacy of Kinver on 4 August 1665 on the nomination of twenty parishioners led by William Talbot and after the ejection of Richard Morton.[5] Newey was instituted (26 June 1704) as non-resident Rector of Doverdale (Diocese of Worcester) at the invitation of William Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester and former Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.[6]

Newey’s theological position is not clear. His appointment to Kinver came with the restoration of the monarchy and the ejection of puritan ministers from Church of England parishes. He must have taken the oath of allegiance to William III rather than joining the nonjuror faction. Newey’s theological views seems to have been sympathetic to the puritan faction. When Revd Joseph Eccleshall moved to Kinver, having been forced by the Oxford Act to leave his parish of Sedgeley, Eccleshall preached to his followers in private then accompanied them to Kinver church “to hear Mr Jonathan Newey,’ a worthy man’”.[7]

In 1677, Newey was one of several ministers involved in the case of John Duncalf. Duncalf was, by his own admission, a petty criminal who stole bibles, amongst other things. On one occasion, denying a theft of a bible, he cursed himself wishing that his hands would fall off before he died if he had stolen the bible. Soon afterwards, his hands and feet began to rot and fall off and he subsequently died. This was attributed to divine judgement although modern medicine might diagnose dry gangrene. During Duncalf’s last illness, he was visited by several ministers, including Jonathan Newey who contributed to a book about this case.[8] The popularity of the book is witnessed by the numerous editions produced from 1678 to 1750.

Jonathan Newey provided in his will for the founding of a charity school and for the poor of Kinver. In 1717, Mary Newey provided an income for the charity as directed in his will. Although cottages in Whittington were acquired by the trustees, there is no evidence that the school was ever established. The cottages seem to have been used as poorhouses by the nineteenth century (and perhaps as early as 1758).[9] Jonathan and Mary Newey presented a large silver chalice to Kinver church engraved with "J.N.M.".[10]

References

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  1. ^ "Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835". Retrieved 30 November 2018.
  2. ^ Foster, Joseph (1891). Alumni Oxoniensis: the members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714 : their parentage, birthplace, and year of birth, with a record of their degrees. Being the matriculation register of the University alphabetically arranged, revised and annotated; vol 3: early series. London: Parker. p. 1061.
  3. ^ Greenslade, M.W. (1984). The Victoria history of the county of Stafford. Vol. 20. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 159.
  4. ^ Chamberlain, J.S. (2008). "Waddington, Edward". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  5. ^ Greenslade, M.W. (1984). The Victoria history of the county of Stafford. Vol. 20. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 153.
  6. ^ Robertson, David, ed. (1903). The diary of Francis Evans, secretary to Bishop Lloyd, 1699-170. Oxford: For Worcestershire Historical Society by Parker. p. 102. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  7. ^ Calamy, Edmund (1802). The nonconformist's memorial: being an account of the lives, sufferings, and printed works, of the two thousand ministers ejected from the Church of England, chiefly by the Act of uniformity, Aug. 24, 1666 / Originally written by Edmund Calamy. Abridged, corrected, and methodized, with many additional anecdotes and several new lives by Samuel Palmer. London: Printed by J. Cundee for Button and son, and T. Hurst. pp. 240-241. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  8. ^ Illingworth, James (1750). A genuine account of the man, Whose Hands and Legs rotted off, In the Parish of King's-Swinford in Staffordshire; Where he died, June 21, 1677 / Carefully collected by Ja. Illingworth, B. D. To which is added, (occasion'd by this remarkable Instance of Divine Vengeance) A Discourse concerning God's Judgments; preach'd (in Substance) at Old Swinford in Worcestershire, a neighbouring Parish to King's-Swinford. By Simon Ford, D. D. And Rector of the said Parish. To the Whole is prefix'd, The Rev. Mr. William Whiston's remarkable Mention of this extraordinary Affair; with his Reasons for the Republication thereof, taken from his Memoirs. London: reprinted, from the first edition in 1678; and sold by R. Griffiths, in St. Paul's Church-Yard; Mr Eddowes, bookseller in Salop; Mr. Parsons, bookseller in Newcastle, Staffordshire. pp. 18–21. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  9. ^ Greenslade, M.W. (1984). The Victoria history of the county of Stafford. Vol. 20. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 160.
  10. ^ Simms, Rupert (1894). Bibliotheca staffordiensis : or, A bibliographical account of books and other printed matter relating to-- printed or published in-- or written by a native, resident, or person deriving a title from-- any portion of the county of Stafford: giving a full collation and biographical notices of authors and printers / Together with as full a list as possible of prints, engravings, etchings, &c., of any part thereof; and portraits of persons so connected. Lichfield: Printed for the compiler by A.C. Lomax. p. 327. Retrieved 1 December 2018.