Notes on Newton Don. By G. B. Balfour. 809 



He married (Ist) Lucretia, daughter of George Montgomerie 

 of Garboldisham Hall, Norfolk. (2nd) Grace,^" daughter of 

 John Stein, M.P. for Bletchingley, by whom he had issue 



(i.) William Henry. 



(ii.) Alexina Harriet, married, 1844, Sir Frederick Acclom 

 Milbank (created a bart. 1882) of Thorp Perrow, Yorkshire, 

 and has issue. 



Sir Alexander died in 1826. His widow survived him, 

 and married (2adly) Sir James Maxwell Wallace, Knt., of 

 Anderley Hall, near Northallerton. 



Sir William Henry Bon, 7th Bart., was born 4th May 

 1825. Almost immediately after his father's death, in 1826, 

 there was a sale of furniture and effects at Newton Don ; 

 and during his minority different portions of the estate were 

 sold, till, on his attaining his majority in 1846, it was 

 reduced from an estate of 3330 acres to its present extent 

 of 1225 acres. 



Sir William was educated at Eton,*^^ and was present at 

 the Eglinton Tournament, on 28th to 30th August 1839, when 

 fourteen years old, as page to Lady Montgomerie. He was 

 gazetted to the 5th Dragoon Guards as cornet, 3rd January 

 1842, and was extra a.d.o. to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 

 in 1844. Promoted lieutenant in 1845, and left the service 

 in the same year, deeply in debt. 



In 1847 the remainder of the estate of Newton Don was 

 sold to Charles Balfour, brother of James Maitland Balfour 

 of Whittinghame, but Sir William was still unable to 

 clear off his liabilities. He then turned his experience as 

 an amateur actor to account, and took to the stage as a 

 profession. He acted first in the north of England and 

 afterwards in America, where he appeared for the first time 

 as John Duck, in "the Jacobite." at the Broadway Theatre, 

 New York, on 27th October 1850. He remained in America 

 for five years, and on his return to England found that, after 

 all his affairs had been wound up, he was even yet still in 

 debt ; he therefore continued acting in Edinburgh, Glasgow, 

 the Provinces, and in 1 857 at the Hay market Theatre in London. 



^^ She is mentioned iu Sir Walter Scott's Letters, Vol. n., p. 348» 

 189-i edition. 



*^ Diet. Nat. Biography. 



