Blue mantle. Long wig.
BORN 1619, DIED 1708.
By Dahl.
HE was the eldest son of Sir Richard Newport, Kt. of High Ercall, who was knighted by King James the First, at Theobalds, and, in 1642, in consequence of his unswerving loyalty to King Charles the First, created Baron Newport. Sir Richard married Rachel, daughter of Sir John Leveson, Kt. of Haling, or Halington, County Kent, and sister to Sir Richard Leveson of Trentham, County Stafford, Knight of the Bath. Francis was the first born of a large family, and began public life at an early age, being chosen to represent the borough of Shrewsbury in Parliament, a few days after he had attained his majority. He was one of the few members (fifty-six in number) who had the courage to vote for the acquittal of Lord Strafford, a proceeding which brought down on the heads of the so-called ‘Straffordians’ both insult and obloquy. He followed in the footsteps of his father, declared for the Royal cause in the unhappy differences between Charles and his Parliament, and was soon expelled the House of Commons as a ‘malignant.’ He took arms in the Royal army, and did gallant service in the field, till he was made prisoner at Oswestry, when that town was taken by the Earl of Denbigh and Colonel Mytton. At the time of the insurrection in North Wales, Francis Newport proved himself a zealous friend to Charles the Second, and as powerful as he was zealous. He was also engaged in the unsuccessful siege of Shrewsbury, which town, in the beginning of the ensuing year, was once more in the hands of the Royalists. On this occasion, as we have mentioned elsewhere, Sir Edward Hyde (Lord Clarendon) was sorely puzzled as to the respective claims to the Governorship of Shrewsbury, between Sir Thomas Myddleton, and his friend, Francis Newport. Two months after the restoration of the King (May 29, 1660), Lord Newport was appointed Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Shropshire, and later on, by Charles the Second, Comptroller and Treasurer of the Household, and a Privy Councillor. In 1674 he was advanced to the title of Viscount Newport of Bradford, County Salop, and, on the accession of James the Second, his lordship was continued in all his former offices for a time, but he was a true patriot, and the arbitrary and unconstitutional measures of the new King called forth in him a vigorous opposition. So open was he in the expression of his political opinions that he was not only superseded in all his offices at Court, but was also removed from the Lord-Lieutenancy of Shropshire, which was given up to the unworthy hands of the Lord Chancellor Jefferies. He upheld the cause of religion at the trial of the seven Bishops, and, being a firm Protestant, he voted for the succession of the Prince and Princess of Orange. On the day that William and Mary were proclaimed, Lord Newport was reinstated in his posts in the Royal Household and his Lord-Lieutenancy of Shropshire, in all of which offices he continued until he attained the age of eighty-four, when they devolved on his son. In 1694 he was created Earl of Bradford, and on the accession of Queen Anne again sworn of the Privy Council. Lord Newport was an object of special dislike to James the Second, as we find from one of the ex-King’s declarations (respecting a projected descent upon England), that this nobleman would certainly be debarred from all hope of pardon. Lord Bradford died at Twickenham in his eighty-ninth year, and was buried at Wroxeter, near his country house of Eyton, in Shropshire, where a marble monument on the south wall of the chancel bears a long inscription to his memory. It was written of him that ‘at the time of his death, he was the most venerable character of any nobleman in England, on account of his virtues, and the unblemished honour with which he had filled every station of life. Equally a friend to the clergy and to the poor, having enlarged the endowments of several poor vicarages, and erected a charitable foundation at Ercall for the support of the needy.’ King William had so great a regard for the Earl of Bradford, that he paid him a visit, and honoured him with his presence at dinner on his eightieth birthday. He married Lady Diana Russell, daughter of the fourth Earl of Bedford, by whom he had a large family, five dying in their infancy; and
Richard, second Earl of Bradford;
Francis, who died unmarried;
Thomas, a Commissioner of the Customs in the reigns of William and Mary, and Queen Anne, who, in the first year of George the First was made a Lord of the Treasury and raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Torrington of Torrington, County Devon, and sworn of the Privy Council. He was also at the time of his death a Teller of the Exchequer. He had three wives: first, Lucy, daughter of Sir Edward Atkyns, Lord Chief Justice of the Exchequer in the time of James the Second; second, Penelope, daughter of Sir Orlando Bridgeman of Ridley, County Chester, Bart., who died in 1705; third, Anne, daughter of Robert Pierrepoint of Nottingham, Esq., son of Francis Pierrepoint, and grandson of Robert, Earl of Kingston. He died the 27th of May 1719, in the sixty-fifth year of his age (when his title became extinct), and lies buried at Wroxeter with Anne, his third wife, who survived him many years, and died on the 7th February 1734.