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- James is the son of Robert and Ellen Newell of Upper Freehold, Monmouth.
. Returned to Monmouth to practice medicine.
1764 - Resided Allentown, Monmouth County.
1772 - Elected Pres. of NJ Medical Society
Surgeon to Second Regiment of Monmouth Co. Militia.
. Elected President of the NJ Medical Society in 1772. During the Revolution was surgeon to the 2nd Regiment of Monmouth Co. Militia.
Ref: NJ Colonial Documents.
On Dr. Newell's return form Edinburgh, he settled in Allentown. His circuit of practice embraced 25 miles over a rough country, which he performed on horseback. No members of this family currently alive/1879.
Ref: History of Medicine in NJ. Published 1879.
He died Feb. 20 of malignant fever one day before his wife, Elizabeth who died Feb. 21, 1791. They were buried on the same day by Rev. John Cosin Ogden.
. 1764 Feb 18 WILL of Mary Newell of Perth Amboy, Middlesc Co., widow, Int. Adm. Doctor James Newell of Upper Freehold, Monmouth (nearest relation). Fellowbondsman Wm. Burnet of Perth Amboy.
1764 Feb 18, Inventory: £25. 1. 16 made by James Brooks & Thos. Skinner, Jr.
. This Lawrence-Newell connection brings to me a bit of unrecorded history of great interest. In the year 1778 Major André came to Allentown bringing with him letters of introduction to Dr. James Newell from Mrs. John Lawrence of Burlington, [Mother-in-law, Martha Tallman Lawrence] & asked Dr. Newell to give medical service to André's brother who was ill. The brothers were hospitably received & cared for at Dr. Newell's house in Allentown, where they stayed for a day & a night; then getting word that the American troops were advancing rapidly in that direction they left very early in the morning in a carriage belonging to an invalid lady, a Mrs. Wykoff* of Philadelphia, which Major André borrowed on account of the extreme illness of his brother (whom Mrs. Newell thought too ill to be moved); this carriage Major André caused to be returned to its owner after he had reached South Amboy in safety. In the hurried departure at an hour before daylight, one of the spoons from Major André's campkit, which had been used as a medicine spoon for the invalid, was left on the mantel-shelf of the room which they occupied in my great-great-grandfather's house; this spoon bearing the Crest of the André family is in my possession.
Note1: Mrs. Wykoff* wrote an account of the attack on Philadelphia.
Ref: Those Paris Years, by Samuel N Watson, 1936.
. 1898 Nov 18 - Allentown's Earlier Newells
Several generations of successful physicians & also good politicians.
Speaking with an Upper Freehold gentleman the other day of the interest attaching to the recent list of former Governor Newell to his old hime, our attention was called to the fact that the governor was to the only Dr. Newell who had at one time or mother lived & practiced medicine in Allantown. A hundred years ago Dr. James Newell resided there & enjoyed a large practice, becoming in his profession.
His wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Elisha Lawrence who lived on the Chestnut Grove farm now owned by Harrison Hendrickson, near Imlaystown & died in 1792. Mr Lawrence's will mentions besides his daughter, Mrs Newell, to who he left considerable property, sons John & Elisha, & dau. Ann & Lucy. He mentions also as sons of Doctor & Mrs Neil, Elisha (to whom he makes a special bequest doubtless for his name), John & Robert. So there must have been Newells in evidence in the earlier as well as the later history of the old town founded by Nathan All, 1706.
The Newells, somehow, seem to have naturally taken to medicine & if not born doctors, they nevertheless, as a rule turned out to be prey good ones, as we are told "there wasn't a failure among them"Besides the John Wm A, shoes standing as a physician & surgeon was among the foremost in the state 40 years ago [c 1858], his brother Wm Dunham who practiced as Imlaystown & another brother Azariah who died recently in New Brunswick, where both accomplished physicians, 3 of a kind in one family. The governor's 2 sons also studied medicine, Adolphus dying before gradation & Wm A, Junior, after giving early promise of a successful career.
The governor himself is said have always regarded his calling as a physician the chicest business of his life, riding day &night when a member of congress & governor of the sate, attending the humble & the lowly as well as the highest in the land. Governors in those days didn't get $10,000 a year for going down to Trenton once or twice a week, as somebody has rather pithily remarked - doubtless having Dr Newell in mind - it required practice to eke out a comfortable living for a growing family on a salary of $1,500 a year. If we are not mistaken the governor's private secretary gets about twice that figure now for work mainly performed by an executive clerk, & which was then satisfactorily performed b Enoch borden, of the State Gazette for $300 per annum.
Ref: Freehold Transcript & the Monmouth Inquirer, Freehold, NJ.
. 1903 Dec 24 -About another Dr Newell, the late Dr Wm A Newell so widely known in our state recall another eminent physician & surgeon Newell once resided in our town over a century ago, in the old dwelling that stood on the property now occupied by the Baptist church & parsonage*. His wife was a dau. of Elisha Lawrence, who resided on what is now the Hendrickson farm near Imlayston. Dr James Newell received his medical education in Edinburg, Scotland. Dr Newell's son-in-law, Robert Montgomery who lived on the Eglinton estate near here, suffered conferrable loss on the passing of canton's army. An inventory was made by him of property destroyed & carried off, amounted to sever hundred pound. The front of the dwelling still bears the mark of a cannon ball which was fired from a British gun while the arm was encamped near there the night before the battle of Monmouth.
Ref: Allentown Messenger, NJ.
. The Presbyterian Church at Allentown stands on ground once owned by William Lawrence, For the sum of 5 shillings he conveyed to Robt Imlay & Tobias Polehmus, on 1744 Dec 15, 1 acres of land for the use of the Presbyterian congregation, On this the first edifice was erected in 1756.
Ref: Allentown Messenger, NJ, 1904 Jul 21.
For further research:
. WILL of John F Grandin, son of Philip Grandin, of Hunterdon Co. studied medicine with Dr. James Newell, of Allentown, whose daughter he married. She was a grand-daughter of Elisha Lawrence. Dr. Grandin was a surgeon of the navy during the Revolutionary War. He settled in Hampden, Hunterdon Co. where he had a very extensive practice. Died July 21 1811.
. NJ Index of WILL: James Newell, 6831-34M, B 34, Page 346, Granted 1793. - - - [1, 2]
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1724 - 1791 (67 years)