NEWPORT. 
20 
mans ; but the firft authentic notice of it occurs in the 
Saxon annals, A.D. 530, when it was befieged and taken 
by Cerdic, the firft king of Wefl'ex, whofe nephew, With- 
gar, is faid to have rebuilt it. After the Conqueft, it was 
much altered and enlarged ; and fome fortifications were 
added by queen Elizabeth. King Charles I. remained a 
prifoner here, before he was condufted to London for 
trial; and is fuppofed to have written his Sufpiria Regalia 
during that period. The greater part of this caftle is now 
in ruins, but the tower-gateway and parts of the keep 
are tolerably perfect. The latter is occafionally occupied 
by the governor of the iiland. The whole fortrefs occu¬ 
pies an eminence; and, when in aperfefl Hate, mull have 
been very ftrong. In the keep is a very deep well, from 
which the garrifon was fupplied with water. The village 
adjoining retains few marks of its former confequence, 
except its church, which was built by William Fitz- 
Ofborne, already mentioned ; and is a fpacious building, 
with a handfome embattled tower at the weft end. Near 
the church ftand the remains of a priory, alfo founded by 
Fitz-Ofborne, and appropriated by him as a cell to the 
Benediftine-abbey at Lyra in Normandy. While the 
caftle of Carifbrooke was inhabited by the lords of the 
ifiand, and the priory retained its eccleliaftical dignity, 
the town of Carifbrooke was in fafil the metropolis of the 
ifland, and Newport no more than a poor fifhing-village. 
But, when the lordlhip of the ifland was fold to the crown, 
the caftle loft its confequence, and drew no refort to it; 
and in the enfuing wars with France, the priory was fe- 
queftered as an alien-priory. The town of Carilbrooke, 
thus deprived of its two principal fupports, fell to decay; 
while Newport rofe by the fuperior advantages of its 
fituation. 
About eight miles eaft from Newport is Brading, a 
fmall market-town of great antiquity, but no trade. The 
road to it affords a delightful view of the eaft part of the 
ifland. The ftreets are very clean, and have lately been 
paved and lighted.—The village of Yaverland, in the 
Eaft Medina, fituated between Sandown-Fort and Bim- 
bridge-Down, is furrounded by the parifli of Brading. 
The following villages are alfo in the vicinity of New¬ 
port ; viz. Godfhill, diftant five miles fouth ; Arreton, 
tour miles fouth-eaft; Gatcombe, three miles fouth-weft ; 
Frefhwater, twelve miles weft ; Cal bourne, five miles w'eft ; 
Shalfleet, feven miles weft ; Brixton, eight miles fouth- 
weft; Wootton, four miles north-eaft; Shorwell, fix 
miles fouth-weft; Shanklin, ten miles fouth-eaft ; Niton, 
fix miles fouth 5 Brooke, nine miles fouth-weft; Chale, 
fix miles fouth ; and Shalcombe, feven miles fouth-weft. 
St. Helen’s is a village about eight miles eaft of New¬ 
port, and gives name to a bay which is of confiderable 
note as a rendezvous for the royal navy ; and in time of 
war is a place of great maritime traffic, the Eaft-India fleet 
generally flopping here for water and provilions. At the 
mouth of the bay is a clutter of rocks called the Mixen. 
The houfes in St. Helen’s are neatly built with ftone, and 
thatched : their number, at the time of the late return to 
parliament, was 100, the inhabitants 550. The ancient 
church was partly taken down about the beginning of the 
laft century, the church-yard having been encroached on 
by the fea ; but the tower was fullered to remain as a mark 
for feamen. The new' church is a fmall edifice, Handing 
in a more elevated fituation to the north-vvefc of the town. 
In this parifh, oppofite St. Helen’s Road, was a priory for 
Cluniac monks, founded about the middle of the twelfth 
century, and made fubordinate to an abbey in Normandy. 
The fite of the ancient building is now occupied by the 
feat of the late fir Nafti Grofe, whofe manfion, denomi¬ 
nated the Priory, commands extenfive views of the Hamp- 
fhire and Sulfex coafts. This edifice, which was much 
enlarged by that learned judge. Hands at the head of a 
fpacious lawn, that declines from the houfe to the brink 
of a high ridge, the fteep bank of which is covered with 
•wood down to the water’s edge. In the fouthern part of 
the wood are the remains of an ancient watch-tower, fup¬ 
pofed to have belonged to the priory. The whole of this 
demefne is formed of a narrow flip of ground, extending 
about a mile along the fhore.—At a fmall diftance north- 
weft from the Priory is Fairy-Hill, the feat of the Rev. 
Henry Oglander. 
For farther particulars of Newport and its environs, 
we refer to Wilkes’s Britifh Directory, vol. iii. Albin’s 
Hift. of the Ifle of Wight; Worfley’s Hift. of the Ifte of 
Wight; and the Beauties of England and Wales. 
NEW'PORT, a borough-village in the parifli of St. 
Stephen, in the north divifion of the hundred of Eaft, in 
the county of Cornwall, is fituated 214 miles diftant from 
London, in the vicinity of Launcefton, to which it ap¬ 
pears as a fuburb, and was anciently under the fame ju- 
rifdidtion ; but, having been granted to the priory of St. 
Stephen’s, it obtained fome dillinft privileges. After the 
diflolution, tlie inhabitants were encouraged to challenge 
the feparate right of returning members to parliament; 
and, the property of the borough being then veiled in the 
crown, the privilege was awarded without much invefti- 
gation. The hiftory of this borough has been partly 
given under the article Launceston, vol. xii. p. 299. 
As to corporation, there is none ; the number of voters 
is nominally 62, but aflually only one, namely, the duke 
of Northumberland. This borough is, in fa ft, a fmall 
part of the town of Launcefton, but not within the limits 
of that corporation, being feparated by a fmall rivulet, 
which may be ftepped over. That it retained the name of 
Dunheved, as well as Launcefton, is plain from the firft 
return of members ; far, anno 6 Edward VI. the fheriff 
of this county lent up members for Dunheved, alias New¬ 
port ; and again in the laft parliament of Philip and 
Mary ; and anno 5 Elizabeth, members were returned 
for Dunheved, as well as for Launcefton; and in one of 
the indentures it is called Villa Dounheved, alias Laun¬ 
cefton, though, in fome of the intermediate ones, it is 
named Newport/icrfn Launcefton, and in others Newport, 
as at this day. The duke of Northumberland is lord of 
the manor, and owner of the greateft part of the borough. 
The remainder of it belongs to Mr. Carpenter, of Tavy 
Houfe. This place, under the names of Newport and 
Launcefton, fends as many members to parliament as the 
city of London. Like Eaft and Weft Looe in this county, 
Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in Dorfetfliire, Aid- 
borough and Borough-bridge in Yorklhire, and Bramber 
and Steyning in Sulfex, they are only different names for 
the lame places ; fplit into two boroughs each, to anfwer 
the purpofes of the times they were created to lerve. The 
vianders are the returning officers ; and thefe are chofen 
by the proprietor of the borough at his court leet. Feb. 
13, 1700, we find in the houfe of commons a petition of 
John Granville, efq. again ft the return of Francis Strat¬ 
ford, efq. in confequence of the arbitrary conduft of the 
vianders, “ who declared, before the eleftion, they would 
■return the faid Francis Stratford if he had but ten votes.” 
The prefent members are, William Northey and Jonathan. 
Raine,efqrs. Oldfield's Representative Uijl. new edit. 6 vols. 
Bvo. 1816. 
NEW'PORT, a fmall market-town in the county of 
Salop, fituated on the borders of the {hire, at the diftance 
of twelve miles from Drayton, and 139 from London. 
The Watling-ftreet, or great Roman road, paffes wifhin 
two miles of this place, which anciently was the property 
of the Audleys, and afterwards of a family of its own 
name, to whom it gave the title of baron. It confifts 
chiefly of one principal ftreet, of confiderable length, and 
a few narrow lanes diverging from it. The church Hands 
in the main ftreet, and is probably "the moll incongruous 
example of ecclefiaftical architefture in the kingdom. 
The body is an ancient ftone itruCture of the fifteenth 
century, and retains enough of interior embellilhmeut to 
evince its former magnificence; while the fide-aifles are of 
modern eredlion, and built with brick, after the model of 
the Greeks. The abbot and convent of St. Peter and S.U 
Paul, at Shrewfbury, were the original patrons of this 
3 church i 
