| Description | Letters to members of his family, namely to his father, 1818; to his brother, Robert, 1832; to his daughter, 1832. The letters are all written from Derby and they combine every day family life and personal and family business news with commentaries on national events as well as local social and political issues of the day. They also include references to his work as treasurer of the Derbyshire branch of the Church Missionary Society.
In his lengthy letter to his father, dated 11 June 1818, he writes of family and domestic news, particularly the difficulties caused by the unusually hot dry weather. He goes on to comment on the MPs returned for the local boroughs in the recent elections . He tells his father that he will be amused to know that he has been appointed joint Secretary of the National School, overcoming the objections of other members of the committee to some of his views. He has also risked their displeasure in taking an active part in the proceedings of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) as Treasurer of the newly formed Derby branch. He describes the meeting he attended the day before which was addressed by Samuel Bickersteth, Secretary of the CMS and how impressed he was with the progress of the Society's work in Africa despite general hostility to missionary proceedings. He describes a meeting of the Bible Society where the Bishop of Gloucester, who championed the missionary cause in the face of much criticism, 'was greeted with a thunder of applause which quite electrified the whole meeting...'
In his letter to his brother Robert, dated 16 April 1832, at Queen Square, Bath,he reports problems with a tenant, who had been threatened with removal from his tenancy unless he stopped drinking and ill treating his wife and children. He has heard from Sarah [his sister] who was intending to visit Wiltshire and Hampshire if all remained quiet after the second reading of the Reform Bill which had provoked riots locally. William mentions a painting belonging to Robert, by Reinagle, which he has borrowed in Robert's absence, as he wanted to study it whilst painting a view of Ennerdale himself. He has borrowed some brushes and paints from Mr Chinn, a young artist who was painting three of William's children, and is devoting all his time to this project.
His letter to his eldest daughter, Henrietta, dated 24 April 1832, at 7 Chester Terrace, Regents Park [London] is written from the bank, the family business in Derby and is mainly concerned with family news but he also comments on the cholera epidemic in Paris which is by no means confined to the lower classes. He comments that popular belief accounts for the difference in the spread of the disease between England and France by the difference in diet but he believes it is the 'fearful infidelity and practical atheism of the French' which has contributed to their suffering. He ends with a comment on her younger brother, William, who is progressing with his study of Euclid which he begins to like. His father hopes that this study will fix his attention which is 'always more intent on fishing than mental improvement'. |
| Administrative History | William Leaper Newton (d 1851) was a member of a prominent and wealthy banking family in Derby, Crompton, Newton & Co. He was also an important figure in local politics, serving as a local magistrate and as mayor. The family lived at the Leylands, a neo-classical mansion, then just outside Derby. |