The Newcombe Family of Geashill

This post concerns the family of Mary Anne Newcombe, daughter of Benjamin Newcombe and of his first wife, Martha/Marthe Beauchamp.  Mary Anne Newcombe was the third wife of our immediate maternal ancestor, the Portarlington schoolmaster Thomas Willis.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/01/children-of-thomas-willis-schoolmaster.html

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/10/family-of-thomas-willis-of.html


The Newcombe family originated in the Geashill area of King's County/Offaly close to Portarlington. The baronies of Geashill and Upper Philipstown are 3.5 miles northwest of Portarlington, and includes the parish of Killeigh.  The chief residences there (in 1847 ) were Cloneygowan, Woodfield, Bloomville, Aghanvilla, Retreat and Finter.   Cloneygowan, Bloomville and Aghanvilla were associated with the Newcombe family; Portarlington with the Willis/Laval famillies;  Killeigh with the Tarleton family.

The first of this Newcombe family to settle in the Irish midlands was John Newcombe who received land at Cloneygowan, Portarlington, in 1693; his wife was Catherine - a daughter, Catherine Newcombe (1693 - 1763), is believed to have married William Henry Odlum of Cloneygowan, naming a son Newcombe Odlum in 1745, thus beginning a tradition of Newcombe/Odlum marriages in the area.


The son of John and Catherine Newcombe was Mary Anne Newcombe's grandfather, William Newcombe (Senior) who had been born in Ballychristal near Aughnavilla. He died in Nov. 1763, and had married another member of the Odlum family, Elizabeth Odlum.  William Newcomb the elder of Ballychristal, King's County, made his will on 3rd September 1762.  He named his sons as James, Arthur, John and William,  and his wife as Elizabeth.  Son Benjamin Newcombe was also mentioned, as was Benjamin's wife, Mary Beauchant.  Sons-in-law were Henry Odlum and Edward Geoghegan.

1) Arthur Newcombe was born to William Newcombe and Elizabeth Odlum about 1730. He married Mary Duplex on 16th January 1758 in St. Peter's, Dublin.   Mary Duplex was the daughter of George Dupleacks and Alicia French; she had been born in September 1734 and died in 1789.

Arthur Newcombe and Mary Duplex had the following children:

a) William Newcombe was born to Arthur Newcombe and Mary Duplex   in 1759. A builder, he married Marianne Atkinson, daughter of Thomas Atkinson and Letitia Knox. He died in May 1835 in Cloneygowan, Tullamore.  His wife Marianne died in 1843 in Clonegowan House, Portarlington.   They had Letitia Abigail Newcombe in about 1780 ; George Newcombe was born in 1800 and married Isabella Susanna Carey on 28 Feb 1818 in St. Peter and Kevin, Dublin; Thomas Newcombe; Rebecca Newcombe, born about 1790 - she married Samuel Ridgeway on 15th April 1820 in St. Peter and Kevin and died in 1861;  Marianne Newcombe;  Richard Newcombe was born about 1765 in Ballychristal and died in 1818 in Portarlington - his wife may have been Marianne Disney, daughter of W. Disney of Offaly.  A possible son of this Richard was the Richard Newcombe of Ballychristal who married Mary Anne North On 28th May  1831 - the Tithe Applotments of the 1830s note Richard Newcombe at Ballycristal, Geashill. The only son of Richard Newcombe of Ballycristal, Geashill, was the engineer William James Newcombe, who married in Bray, Co. Wicklow, on 21st October 1868, Mary Evelina North, the daughter of Thomas North Esq.  They had a son, Thomas William Newcombe, at 54 Blessington Street, Dublin,  on 16th January 1870.    Another son was James Haddington Newcombe, born at 54 Blessington Street, on 28th April 1871.
George Newcombe, a son of William Newcombe and Marianne Atkinson, was born in 1800, and married Isabella Susanna Carey on 28 Feb 1818 in St. Peter and Kevin, Dublin. He died in 1897 in Clonegowan, Tullamore.  Their children were William John Newcombe who married Elizabeth Maria Newcombe on 11 Apr 1856 and who died in 1860 of typhoid;  Susannah Newcombe was born about 1826 and married Henry Clarke on 17 Jul 1856 in St. Peter and Kevin's, Dublin -she died in 1873;  George Newcombe was born in 1828. He died on 02 Jul 1855 in Cloneygowan and this may have been the doctor, George Newcombe, mentioned as resident in Portarlington in the 1840s;  Marianna Elizabeth Newcombe was born in 1822 in Peters Place Dublin and died after 1911; Elizabeth Letitia Angeline Newcombe was born on 5th Mar 1827 in Cloneygowan House and died in 1853 in Cincinnati, Ohio, having married Thomas Shaw Odlum in Ireland. 

b) George Newcombe, the son of Arthur Newcombe and Mary Duplex,was born 10 May 1762 in Killucan, Westmeath.   

c) Arthur Newcombe was born in 1764 to Arthur Newcombe and Mary Duplex . He received a game license for Heathstown, Westmeath in 1809; his wife was possibly Anne Kelly. They married in 1804.  The Protestant Kelly family featured heavily in deeds relating to the Willis/Laval families of Portarlington - they lived in both Portarlington and Dublin.

d) Mary Newcombe was born to Arthur Newcombe and Mary Duplex in 1771. She married James Atkinson on 01 Feb 1790 in St. Peter's, Dublin. 

2)  Margaret Newcombe was born born to William Newcombe and Elizabeth Odlum  about 1730.  She married the Portarlington merchant Edward Geoghegan and had:   Margaret Geoghegan in 1754;  William Newcombe Geoghegan - A  broker, he was declared bankrupt in Chester in 1793, but reappeared back in business in Liverpool the following year - a freeman of Portarlington, he was admitted onto the corporation of the town on 26th June 1820;  Elizabeth Geoghegan;   Mary Geoghegan was born in 1753.      A possible brother of the merchant Edward Geoghegan was Gerald Geoghegan of Dublin.  Edward Geoghegan was mentioned time and again in deeds involving the Laval and Willis families of Portarlington.

Edward Geoghegan's brother was John Geoghegan of Portarlington who made a will on 2nd June 1787.  John named his brother as Edward and his sons as John and Gerald.  A nephew was William Newcombe Geoghegan, while nieces were Elizabeth Day, Margaret Chinnery and Margaret Atkinson.

3) John Newcombe was born born to William Newcombe and Elizabeth Odlum on 28 Jun 1736. He married Mary Odlum in 1765.   A merchant of Dublin, he made his will on 13th June 1772 - in this he named his wife, not as Mary Odlum, but as Mary Law.  His only son was William Newcombe, and his daughters were Mary, Elizabeth and Frances.  His brothers were Rev. Arthur Newcombe, Benjamin Newcombe and William Newcombe.   His brother-in-law was the Dublin merchant Edward Geoghegan.

4) William Newcombe born to William Newcombe and Elizabeth Odlum.

5)  Mary Anne Newcombe's father, Benjamin Newcombe, was born to William Newcombe and Elizabeth Odlum.  He died before 1798.   He bore the middle name 'Hall', and several deeds mention members of the Hall family.  He married twice, first to Marie Beauchamp, and then to Francoise d'Ully de Laval, the daughter of David de Laval of Picardie and Portarlington.

Deed 513-334303-47, dated 14th March 1790, between Richard Clarke of Portarlington and Thomas Willis, whereby Richard Clarke was passing on a house to Thomas Willis for the lives of Mrs. Louise Hall, otherwise Beauchamp, who was the wife of Major Hall,  Mary Anne Newcombe who was the  wife of the Portarlington schoolmaster Thomas Willis, and Miss Harriot Newcombe, the daughter of Benjamin Newcombe.    The witnesses were Gerald Geoghegan of Dublin, Edward Geoghegan and Richard Clarke of Portarlington.

Deed 265-288-175141, dated 29th March 1769, between Henrietta de Laval of Portarlington and William Burrell, also of Portarlington, was signed in front of Edward Geoghegan, merchant of Portarlington, and Theophilus Beauchant, son of Samuel Beauchant.

A Deed of 1798 includes Benjamin Newcombe, deceased, Benjamin's daughter Hariot Newcombe, his daughter Mary Anne Willis, married to Thomas Willis, Richard Clark, Ed Geoghegan, Gerald Geoghegan, Mary Geoghegan, Major Hall and wife Louise Hall, née Beauchant/Beauchamp.

Rev. Benjamin Newcombe married, firstly Marie Beauchant, (probably the daughter of Samuel and Marianne Beauchamp, who had been born in Portarlington on 11th April 1743). Given that two of Benjamin Newcombe's daughters - Mary Anne and Deborah Charlotte - were supposedly step-sisters, then the eldest child, Mary Anne Newcombe, was possibly the daughter of Benjamin Newcombe and Marie Beauchant. 
Samuel Beauchant of Portarlington made a will on 12th July 1766 - he named his eldest daughter as Mary, the wife of Benjamin Newcombe of Dublin.  Other daughters were Mary Anne, Elizabeth, Susan, Louisa and Martha, while sons were Samuel, Theophilus and James Beauchant or Beauchamp.  A Louise Beauchamp married William Hall in St. Catherine's, Dublin, on 13th June 1774.

Benjamin married, secondly, Marie's friend Francoise d'Ully de Laval (1740 - 11th July 1780), the granddaughter of the Vicomte David d'Ully de Laval of Portarlington and Goudelencour, Picardie.

The children of Benjamin Hall Newcombe were:

a) Mary Anne Newcombe (born circa 1763, died 20th June 1804) who married the schoolmaster Thomas Willis (1748 - March 18th 1825) of Portarlington as his third wife on 14th 1795.  She was perhaps the daughter of the first wife Marie Beauchant. 

b)  Deborah Charlotte Newcombe  (born 1778; died  24th September 1857) who married in 1808 Thomas Gilbert Willis  (May 21st 1785; he died January 11th 1837), the son of the schoolmaster Thomas Willis of Portarlington.   Deborah Charlotte Newcombe was supposedly the half-sister of her older sibling Mary Anne Newcombe.

c)  Henrietta Newcombe was born in 1777.

d) Hariot Newcombe.

Other Newcombes of Geashill:
William Newcombe, who died prior to 1805, of Ballycristal, was married to Elizabeth Newcombe - his son and heir was James Newcombe of Ballymoney, King's County.  (Yet another Odlum/Newcombe alliance -  Elizabeth Odlum was born about 1760 and married a James Newcombe on 25th November 1757  in Abbeyleix, Queen's County.)
In 1811, a William and Arthur Newcombe were noted at Bloomfield House, Geashill. The schoolmasters of Abbeyleix School in 1827 were William Newcombe and Daniel Newcombe.

Newcombe/Ridgeway:
William Newcombe, along with an indecipherable member of the neighbouring Odlum (Rookcrew?) family, witnessed the King's County wedding, on 15th April 1820, of Rebecca Newcombe, the daughter of William Newcombe and Marianne Atkinson, of St. Peters, Dublin, to Samuel Ridgeway of Kilmurry, King's County.  Samuel Ridgeway was the son of John Ridgeway and Mary Odlum who had married on 2nd Feb 1768 in Geashill.

Samuel Ridgeway and Rebecca Newcombe had  Thomas Newcombe Ridgeway was born in 1821 in Clonegowan House who married Elizabeth Mary Ridgeway on 30 Nov 1848 in Ballycommon, Kings County and who died in 1878;   Marianne Ridgeway, born on 06 Jul 1823, died in 1906; William John Ridgeway, born about 1829, died in Apr 1846.

Another member of this family was Samuel Ridgeway's nephew,  Rev. John Henry Ridgeway, son of John Ridgeway and Charlotte Clarke of Ballydermott House, King's County. Rev. John Henry Ridgeway's son would later be knighted as Sir William Ridgeway, the Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge.  This Professor William Ridgeway would later prove the will of Rev. John Dickson Eccles Newcombe in 1907, who was the grandson of William Newcombe, merchant of Athy and Dublin.

Thomas Newcombe Ridgeway, son of Samuel Ridgeway and Rebecca Newcombe, died at Aghanvilla, Geashill, King's County, on 3rd March 1879; his widow was Elizabeth Mary Ridgeway.  His daughter was Rebecca Jane Ridgeway who married the chemist, William Porter, in Dublin in 1893.


Rev. Arthur Newcombe and Catherine Wingfield:
Note:  although Arthur Newcombe was also of the Geashill Newcombes, it's unclear to me which William Newcombe was his father.  His father, William, was married to Elizabeth Bradell of Carlow.

12th July 1833:  Rev. Arthur Newcombe (born circa 1787) of Abbeyleix, Queen's County, the son of William Newcombe (son of Arthur) and Elizabeth Bradell, married Catherine Wingfield (Powerscourt);  witnesses were  William Newcombe and William Odlum.  Their daughter, Isabella, born 1836, marriaed General John Christopher Guise on 18th September 1861 in Abbeyleix, Queen's County.    A son, William Wingfield Newcombe, was born 13th June 1834 at Abbeyleix, and was baptised in St Peter's, Dublin.  He died in Co. Carlow on 27th April 1857, a bachelor, with probate to his sister, Isabella Newcombe of Glenbawn, Queen's County, his only next-of-kin.

Rev. Arthur's sister was Joyce Newcombe, born about 1788, who married Peter Vickers in 1805.

Rev. Arthur Newcombe's brother was William Newcombe who married Elizabeth Letitia Sarah Eccles, the daughter of Daniel Eccles and Anne Dickson, on 23rd October 1813. She was the sister of John Dickson Eccles of Fintona, Co. Tyrone.  She died at Rockfort on 27th October 1833.  Given his later use of the name 'Bradell', this was most likely the William Newcombe who follows, who had business dealings in both Dublin and Athy, Co. Kildare.

The children of William Newcombe and Elizabeth Letitia Sarah Eccles were  William John Newcombe, who was born in Leitrim in 1814, and who married Mary Belinda Dickson on 1st Jun 1848 in St. Peter's, Dublin. He died in Woodville, Leitrim ;  Daniel Eccles Newcombe was born to William and Elizabeth Letitia in 1818 in Dublin. He died in 1853;  Benjamin Arthur Bradell Newcombe was born to William and Letitia in 1825 in Dublin - he married Elizabeth Maria Frances Wilhelmina Eccles in 1852 and died in 1864.   Another daughter of William and Letitia was Elizabeth Maria Newcombe who married William John Newcombe on 11 Apr 1856 in Booterstown, Dublin and who died in 1896.

On 28th October 1852, Rev. Benjamin Arthur Braddle Newcombe, the son of William Newcombe, merchant of Barrowford, Co. Kildare, married Elizabeth Maria Frances Wilhelmina, the daughter of John Dickson Eccles of Fintona, Co. Tyrone.  They were therefore cousins. She would die on 27th September 1883.  Her brother was named as Robert D. Eccles.   Rev. Arthur Braddle Newcombe died in Tyrone on 4th June 1864.

Slaters Directory of 1846 notes Daniel Eccles Newcombe, barrister, and also William Newcombe, wine and tea merchant of W. Newcombe & Son,  and also William Newcombe Junior, all at 104 Baggot Street, Dublin.    A second address for the above merchant was Barrowford, Athy, Co. Kildare.

The younger William Newcombe of 104 Baggot Street married, on  1st June 1848, Mary Belinda Dickson, the daughter of the Baggot St. barrister, John Dickson.   William Newcombe, son of the late William Newcombe of Dublin, died at Bray, Co. Wicklow, on 26th October 1854....on 12th May 1854, the elder William Newcombe of Barrowford, Athy, Co. Kildare, had died at 5 Harcourt Terrace, Dublin.

A son of Rev. Benjamin Arthur Newcombe was Rev. George Newcombe who married Alice Ruckley, the daughter of Joseph Ruckley, on 27th January 1847;  Rev. George Newcombe lived at 22 Lower Rutland Street, Dublin. This might be a typo - the correct address may have been 22 Upper Rutland Street because he was noted at this address in 1847.
...a Letitia Newcombe died aged 50 on 15 June 1872 at Upper Rutland Street;   a Frederick Newcombe died at 33 Upper Rutland Street on 15 September 1877, aged 5; a Frances Newcombe died at 32 Upper Rutland Street, aged 50, on  28 May 1879.
....at 22 Upper Rutland Street lived the wine merchant Thomas Arthur Newcombe and his wife, Dorinda Maria, who, on  25th August 1860, had a daughter Anne Letitia Newcombe. On 12th August 1862 a second daughter was born - Frances Catherine Mary Newcombe.  This family moved north to Clontarf, Co. Dublin, where daughter Elizabeth Dorinda Newcombe was born on 21st November 1864.

The son of Rev. Benjamin Arthur Newcombe of Donaghmore, Tyrone, was Arthur Braddle Newcombe, who died at Valetta Lodge, Kingstown, Co. Dublin, on  15th August 1864, with probate of his will to his brother,  Rev. John Dickson Eccles Newcombe of Navan, Co. Meath.  Another brother was Charles Thomas Newcombe who died on 1st December 1891 at Peafield Terrace, Blackrock, Co. Dublin - his brother Rev. John Dickson Eccles Newcombe administered the will;  in 1891 he was living in Edenderry, Queen's County.

Possible daughters of Charles Thomas Newcombe, who died at Peafield Terrace, Blackrock,  were Hessie Catherine Newcombe of 12 Peafield Terrace, Blackrock, who died in China, on 1st August 1895,  Jemima Newcombe, who administered her will, and Ethel Lucy Newcombe who also died at Peafield Terrace on 11th April 1897 and whose will was granted to Rev. John Dickson Eccles Newcombe.   Jemima Newcombe was also mentioned in the will of the unmarried Anna Maude Frances Newcombe, late of China, who died at the Vicarage, Edenderry, on 12th December 1910.   Jemima, along with Janie Newcombe, also proved the will of Benjamina Eliza Newcombe of Leeson Park who died 22nd July 1915 in China.
Hessie Newcombe was an Anglican missionary in China, along with four of her sisters, and was murdered there on 1st August 1895 during the Kucheng Massacre, a precursor to the Boxer Rebellion.  She had been in charge of the Kucheng Girls' Boarding School;  her sister founded the 'Hessie Newcombe Memorial School for Girls' in her memory in Shanyang in 1895.

Jemima also proved the will of Hester Frances Dickson of Hollybrook, Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh, who died there on 19th January 1918.

Rev. John Dickson Eccles Newcombe died on 1st May 1907 in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow;   his will was granted to Rev. Robert L.D. Eccles and Professor William Ridgeway.   This was Sir William Ridgeway who had been born to Rev. John Henry Ridgeway and to Marianne Ridgeway in Ballydermot, King's County in 1858 and taught Greek in Queen's College, Cork, before taking up the post of Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge - he was granted the will of Marianne Ridgeway who died at 32 Corrig Avenue, Kingstown on 14th January 1906.
Elizabeth Frances Newcombe, widow of Rev. Benjamin Arthur Braddell Newcombe, also died at Valetta Lodge, Kingstown, on 2nd February 1865, the executrix of her will being a second widow, Elizabeth Newcombe.