Newns Ancestry in Shropshire & Wiltshire
The Newns family were, for several generations, shoemakers in Crudgington Green, a hamlet in the parish of High Ercall in Shropshire. Other ancestors from this area were mostly farm workers. Val's great grandfather, William Newns became a Methodist minister and travelled far and wide living in ministries all over the country. He married Louisa Duck, daughter of a policeman whose family were bakers from Wiltshire. Val's grandfather, Henry Newns, was consequently born in Cornwall, but spent most of his adult life in Manchester and Liverpool.
Families known to be part of Val's Newns ancestry include: Newns, Gregory, Worley, Speed and Fortune from Shropshire; and Duck, Adams, Manners and Gosling from Wiltshire. The Manners line is descended from Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, who in turn was descended from King Edward III and the Plantagenet kings of England.