WILLIAM WALLACE NEWTON6 (John5, Obediah4, Thomas3, John2, Richard1), son of John and Sarah (Wallace) Newton of Worcester, Mass., was born there October 11, 1768, according to the town record; 1769, private record, He died April 28, 1814, "at Preston, N. Y.," is one statement; another is that "he died somewhere in Pennsylvania, on his way home after going down river with a raft of lumber. He was buried where he died; but there is a stone in the North Afton Cemetery, N. Y., telling when."
Too little is positively certain about William W. Newton, his itinerary and his life. His posterity know nothing of him prior to his coming to New York State, except that "he came from the east" and settled in Bainbridge, Chenango County, N. Y., where he was a farmer. They have an idea that the oldest of his twelve children was born somewhere in Connecticut, and the others before he came to New York.
He married, about 1790, Lydia Wells, of whose birth and marriage as little is known by her descendants, although she was living in 1852. She was born in 1774, and was thie mother of his twelve children. After his death she married (2), "we think in Preston, N. Y." (Chenango County), a Mr. Stafford, who probably died there. He died and she went to live with her son. Thomas Newton, in Bainbridge, N. Y., where she spent the remainder of her life.
The First United States Census, 1790, shows a William Newton and wife heads of a family at Sutton, Mass., -- no other members in it -- who might have been this man. There was no other of the name who so nearly conforms with his then conditions -- i. e. a very young couple, just married. A record of his children has been preserved in the family. It gives me pleasure to place it here.
