Edward and Marina Newbegin of Sunderland

EDWARD JOSEPH NEWBEGIN, son of James Newbegin (1791 ? 1854) and Susannah Davison (1794 ? 1855), was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England on 19 December 1829 (St Mary Baptist). He followed his father into the tobacco manufacturing business. In 1863 he moved north to Sunderland, County Durham and took over the Eagle Works Tobacco, Cigarette and Snuff Manufacturer and Tavern at 201 High St. (Est. 1807).

In 1865 he married MARINA WARNE (1831 ? 1916) in Norwich, Norfolk. Marina was born in Norwich, the daughter of Reuben Warne and Marina Swann.

In 1865 Edward?s address is given as Low Quay. At the 1871 census they are living at 20 John St, Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland. At the 1881 and the 1891 census they are living at 1 Claremont Terrace, Gunton where he died on 28 January 1892 at the age of 62.

Edward Joseph Newbegin and Marina Warne had five sons, Dennes, Lewis, Earnest, Percy and Donald:

EDWARD DENNES (known as Dennes) (1867 ? 1937). He followed his father and his grandfather into the tobacco manufacturing business. He married ADA MABEL GUNNING (1870 ? 1939). Ada's mother, Lucy Gunning (nee Warne) was a first cousin of Marina Newbegin (Dennes's mother) so Dennes and Ada were second cousins. They had four children: Marie Gwladys Ada Newbegin (1893 ? 1973), Keith Dennes Newbegin (1901 ? 1982), Lucie Marina Kate Newbegin (1905 ? 1985) and Theodore Edward Gunning Newbegin born in 1914. Keith and Theodore migrated to Australia. Their mother Ada joined her sons in Australia.

LEWIS SWANN NEWBEGIN (1868 ? 1929) migrated to Chicago, USA in about 1890. He died in New Orleans, USA in 1929.

EARNEST WARNE NEWBEGIN (1870 ? 1947). A lawyer.

WHEATON PERCY NEWBEGIN (known as Percy) (born 1875). He was an organ maker and did not marry.

DONALD TRACY NEWBEGIN (born 1872) He had a laundry business, 'The Middlesex and Surrey Laundry'. Donald married twice. He first married MARY WADHAM (known as ?May?) (1877 ? 1908) in 1898. May was the daughter of Arthur Wadham and Sarah Marina Swann. May was Donald?s second cousin: her grandfather, William Swann was the brother of Donald?s grandmother Marina Warne (nee Swann). May's cousin, Ethel Crosland said of Donald and May, "it was a great love match". They were very musical. She used to play the piano while he accompanied her on the violin.

Donald and May had two sons and a daughter: Donald Swann Newbegin born in 1900; Mary Marina Newbegin (known as ?Biddy?) born on 5 November 1903; Philip Wadham Newbegin born in 1907.

May died from infection following the birth of their son Philip in 1907 and Donald was devastated. Ethel Crosland told how Donald had ordered straw to be strewn on the street outside their house to deaden the noise of the horses' hooves so that it was quieter for his ailing wife. She was buried on 24 June 1908 at Friends? Burial Ground in Winchmore Hill, North London.

Donald wouldn't allow anyone to touch May?s clothes after she died and he used to bury his face in them in his grief. After her death he didn't touch the violin again. Their daughter Mary (?Biddy?) told how her father tried to forget his grief by working long hours and hardly ever being at home. She doesn't remember seeing her father much during this time.

In 1911 Donald married FLORENCE SLATER (1871 ? 1966). She was a manageress in his laundry business. Biddy said she thought he just wanted someone to look after his children and run his home efficiently, as she had done at his laundry business. Elizabeth Crosland recounted later, "According to other relatives he was really in love with Nancy Slater, Florence's younger sister, but because of a pact (fairly common in those days, I believe) made between the 3 sisters, Florence, Nancy and Bertha, the eldest sister had to get married first, then the second, then the third, so Florence became my grandfather's wife. However I was told he used to take Nancy every summer for a sailing holiday on the Norfolk Broads. Nancy died of alcoholism about the time I was born in 1932?.

Donald and Florence had a son, Arthur Newbegin, born about 1914. Biddy told how Florence had a difficult labour and broke her false teeth clenching them in order not to cry out in pain. She was a very tough, stoic lady. Donald's first three children, Donald (jnr), Biddy and Philip often suffered because of the favoritism shown by their stepmother towards their half brother Arthur.

Elizabeth Yates (nee Crosland) remembers Donald (jnr), "Uncle Donald, I don't think ever got over losing his mother at such a young age. I don't think he ever got on with his stepmother Florence. He missed his own mother whom he used to call ?Little Mother? terribly. It affected him for the rest of his life.? He tried a venture growing a tobacco plantation in Africa but it did not succeed. He married Margaret Wells in 1942 but they did not have any children. He committed suicide in 1982.

Biddy Newbegin married Alan Crosland in 1931. They were second cousins and they had three children, Elizabeth Mary, Sarah Marina, and Alan Richards.

Philip Wadham Newbegin was a very good pianist engaged to a famous concert pianist Rachel Lev. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force during the second world war and was lost over the North Atlantic in December 1942 while patrolling for German U boats.

Elizabeth remembered the war years, ?We were bombed out of our house in Clacton-on-Sea in May 1940, and my brother, Richard and I went to stay with Grandpa and Grandma [Donald and Florence] for a few months while our parents were finding somewhere else to live. They lived at Laleham-on-Thames near Staines. The house was called 'The Barn' (made from beams from an old barn) and was right beside the River Thames.
While we were living there we often had to come down in the middle of the night to sit under the stairs, and later in a dug-out bomb-shelter at the bottom of the garden, during air raids by the German bombers.
I remember saying "good-bye" to Grandpa after breakfast when he went off to work at the laundry in Staines - the 'Middlesex and Surrey Laundry'. We were usually in bed by the time he came home.
I do remember sitting on his knee on two or three occasions while he brought out his gold fob watch for me to look at. He would open up the lid and make it chime for me. He was always dressed in a business suit and tie. I suppose he wore more casual clothes when he went sailing or fishing. Sometimes I went into his bedroom and watched him shaving. He used a cut-throat razor which he sharpened on a leather strap first.
Donald kept a punt at the landing stage outside the house on the other side of the tow path. He loved fishing and would spend much of his spare time at it. In fact he died in a small boat on the Thames, just opposite the house, from a heart attack in 1946.?

Donald Newbegin and Florence Slater had one child:
ARTHUR NEWBEGIN born 1915. During the Second World War he was a navigator in the Royal Air Force Bomber Command flying Lancaster bombers. He married twice. He married PHYLLIS OTTOWAY and they had three children: Jean, Louise and Philip.
Arthur?s second marriage was to SHEILA VIOLET. They had one child, John Newbegin in 1949.