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 Post subject: Any Newhall ancestors? (Newall) by a" Newfie"
 Post Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 1:08 pm 
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Name is Alice Dumenil and I am from Burlington, Iowa USA.

For the past twenty years, I have been working on a book about an ancestor, William Gray Newhall. I spent seven years in Norris Point, NF while doing some of this research. William Gray lived in Lynn,Massachusetts from 1793-1831. The War of 1812 took place during this time. The following is information that I found when researching a famous battle between the HMS
Shannon and the US Chesepeake. Are there Newels in this area now? What of the history of Little Bay? What of Newman & Company in Little Bay? What about the White or Naval Ensign flying over their establishment awarded to them by the British government?
Is Little Bay still an active town?


Captain Broke, of the Shannon, under orders to intercept all craft coming out of Boston and other New England ports did indeed sail up and down round Boston harbor flying the British ensign. He was taunting the Americans into ill-conceived action. Broke longed to further his career by engaging and defeating the Chesapeake but he had a serious problem which kept him from proceeding immediately. He was short a full crew. Aide came to him from an unexpected source when a British privateer, under the command of Sir John Sherbrooke brought him twenty-two Newfoundlanders that he had rescued from a U.S. Navy frigate under the command of Captain Plumer.

The twenty-two Newfoundlanders had sailed from Little Bay, which is located in Notre Dame Bay on the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland, on the brig Duck, owned by Newman and Company on December 5, 1812. They had a cargo of fish which they planned to exchange for a cargo of wine in Portugal. On their seventeenth day at sea and on their return trip the Duck met and was captured by the French. The French dumped their cargo of wine and then allowed them to sail back to Portugal. Before the Duck could reach Portugal, however, it was captured again by a U.S. Navy frigate under the command of Captain Plumer. He took the Duck in tow and made her crew prisoners. Shortly that Sir John Sherbrooke, the commander of a British privateer, confronted the Americans in battle and rescued the Newfoundlanders. The Duck, badly damaged from both battles, was towed to England. But, the Newfoundlanders remained aboard the British privateer. Sherbrooke brought them to the Shannon where they became the solution to Brokes worries about a short-handed crew.

The owners of Newman and Company were decedent’s of the Newhall’s. Sometime during the mid-seventeen-hundreds a male member of the family changed his surname to Newman in an attempt to distinguish his branch of the family from the multitude of Newhalls who peopled Lynn and surrounding cities. During the revolutionary war some members of this branch of the family remained loyal to the crown. As a result, they were ousted from the commonwealth and made to leave without their assets. They first relocated in Halifax but later moved on to Newfoundland where they were able to recoup their fortunes.

(This additional information was never mentioned in Lynn. The twenty-two Newfoundlanders, who fought as part of the crew on the Shannon, {the employees of ancestors of Thomas Newhall} were officially commended for their "manful" participation in this celebrated battle. These Newfoundlanders secured honor and recognition for the country their fathers had remained loyal to during the American Revolution. Their employers, Newman and Company, were awarded with the right to have the White or Naval Ensign flying over their establishment.)

P.S. I loved and still love Newfoundland.


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