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John James Newport (The Years 1889-1889)

I’d, often, wondered how my grandfather came to take up a position in a school as far away as "New College", Margate, with him living in Hampstead, but, then, in early 2010, I came across the answer; completely by accident.

In his very old "Newspaper Cuttings" scrapbook, in which he had pasted all manner of memorabilia, all dated around 1890, were several pages cut out, each leaving behind a strip of paper, about 1/2 inch wide, projecting out from the binding. Who did this, why, and what was on the original pages, if anything at all, I have no way of telling – but, as I turned over the pages to read each letter, once more, I noticed something glued to the page I was looking at. Glued on one of these "stubs" and, almost, hidden by the preceding ones I noticed a very small newspaper cutting, about half-an-inch wide and one and a half inches long. I bent back the preceding "stub" back and found a cutting taken from the classified ads section of some, to me, unknown newspaper.

I was surprised, and pleased, to discover that it was an advertisement for the vacancy at "New College", Margate – something I never thought I’d find! I had had the book for some time, and seen it on many occasions, but this was the first time I’d noticed that advertisement.

Because of where it was in the book, I was unable to take a photocopy, without causing damage, and, probably, still not manage to get a reasonable copy, so I decided not to try but, later, I did manage to take a digital photo, of the advert, again not a brilliant one but, at least, good enough to see and read and this LINK will take you to that picture - below, however, I give a transcription, as follows: -.

"WANTED - 11th September, in a Boarding School, Male, ex-PT; Address, stating age, experience, qualifications, and salary required (both with and without board and residence) Rev,. Hugh Jones, New College, Cliftonville ,Margate."

[Note – the "PT" doesn’t mean "Physical Training" or any such thing like that, but refers to "Pupil Teacher", a usual way, up until 1906, of training teachers. Basically, a selected pupil, could, at the age of thirteen, be allowed to stay on at school, as a probationer, and would assist in the teaching of the younger pupils. After two years, the probationer would, then, be required to spend another three years learning the job of a teacher and, at the end of that time, would have to take an examination. After passing the examination, the pupil-teacher, would be paid to go to a training college to become a qualified teacher.]

So, now I knew how he had found the position at "New College" but there's no indication as to why he chose this particular one.

In 1872, "Dalby Square", in Cliftonville, was built and one of the new buildings, in that square, number 16, became an all-boys school, named "Palmer House". The schoolmaster and proprietor, Philip Stewart, was living there with his family.

In 1886, a Reverend George Hugh Jones, took over "Palmer House School" and renamed it, "New College" – like "Palmer House", again it was an all-boys school.

By the time my grandfather joined the staff, as assitant teacher, in late 1888/early 1889 the school had only been running for, roughly, two years.


On March 27th, 1889, he was, obviously in Margate, because of the following letter in his scrapbook.

"43, Trinity Square, Margate.

Will Mr. Newport kindly send to Mr. Warden the collection taken at Northdown on the 17th. & oblige as we are leaving the room and wish to settle up.

With very best wishes most sincerely given,

J. Warden"

Underneath Grandfather has written:-

"From the first Colporteur of the Christian Colportage Association"

After a search, I found that a "Colporteur" is, and was, a peddler, especially of religious tracts.


1889, April - While at Margate, my grandfather received a CARD telling him of the death of his father-in-law, James Natt, who died, aged 74 years, on April 10th, 1889 and that the burial would be at Kensal Green Cemetery, in a private grave.

Like many Victorians, at that time, the James Natt had purcahsed a cemetery plot for memebrs of his family and this was the "private grave" that was referred to and this LINK will take you to a photograph of the headstone.


Saturday, August 24th, 1889 - At some time, my grandfather joined "The Anti-Sunday Travelling Union" (Member No. 8460), and agreed "with the help of God, to abstain from travelling on Sunday, except under most urgent necessity, and to discourage all such travelling".

He believed, very strongly, that any form of work should not be done on the "Lord's Day" and while we, today, may not consider travelling to be work in itself, none-the-less, this Union did and, doubly so, in the case of the railways and other forms of public transport because it required other people to work in order to facilitate that travelling.

While it's not known when he first joined the Union, there is, in his scrapbook, a 'Membership Card', dated 24th August 1889.


1889, November 17th Margate - On one page in my grandfather's scrapbook, there is a blue envelope, faded now, glued face down, in the centre of the page bearing two postmarks, each having the date, as above, and the word "Margate", which indicates, to me, that, at this time, he was at "New College". The link above will take you to a scanned image of the page.

Around the envelope are, what appear to be many signatures, but there's no clue as to whose they are or were.

Confusingly, at the top of the page is a small sketch, done by my grandfather, and identified as "View on Hampstead Heath 1889". What's that there for?

At the bottom, undated, is a small sketch of what looks like army tents so, it appears to have been some sort of camping event - but what and who was there? The "Boy Scouts" would not come into existence, for another seventeen years, until 1907.

This LINK will take you to a description of the page and the envelope, and a transcribed list of the signatures


1889, December

In my grandfather's scrapbook is a single sheet of paper, originally blue but now faded. It measures about 27 cm (10 5/8") wide, by 21 cm (8 1/4") long and is roughly the same size as a modern A4 sheet but laid on its side.

Across the top of the page are, in hand-written characters, the words "New College, Margate" with, just underneath, the words "Till He Come".

The page is, then, split into two columns, with, at the top of the left-hand column, again hand-written, a copy of the lyrics of a hymn, composed by John Denham Smith, a well-known writer of hymn lyrics and religious books at the time.

Below the hymn, in the left-hand column, and all down the page in the right hand column, are signatures.

These include those of the headmaster, G. Hugh Jones and his wife, Annie. I believe that the rest are, probably, some, if not all, of the pupils at the school, especially those taught by my grandfather.

At the bottom right, is written the words, - "John James Newport Dec 1889"

I believe this to be a memento of my grandfather's time at the school that was given to him shortly before he left to take up a new post at the "National School", in Newport, on the Isle-of-Wight. Though there's, actually, nothing to say that this is, indeed, a "leaving" memento, the words of the hymn, and the signatures, strongly suggest this to me. An image of the original document can be seen if you follow this LINK and a transcription of the hymn and the signatures HERE

The Years 1890-1920


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