THERE were three John Newmans. They were Grand-
father John, whom we will call John I; his son, John II;
and his grandson, who is known to us all as John Henry
Newman. John I came from Cambridgeshire; from a place
called Swaffham Bulbeck. He was a very poorman. ¹ When
--to go still further back--his grandfather William had died,
in 1742, he had left little to his heirs: a house, a common and
eleven acres of land. He left to John I's father: "All these
my three acres of arable land holden by Copy of Court Roll
of the Manor of Brughall to him and to his heirs for ever."
He left to his other four children the sum, each, of half-a-
crown. He left a token also to John I, his little grandson:
"All that Bed whereon I lye, with the Beadstead, Curtins,
and appurtenances belonging to the same, to him and his
heirs for ever."

Did this big tester-bed come swaying on a wagon from
Cambridgeshire into Holborn? For it is in Holborn that we
next come on John I, in 1763. He had been left orphaned
of his father when in his teens, ² and as he was one of six
children, and as three acres of arable land are poor suste-
nance for a widow with six children, it was natural that he
should be sent off to London to seek his fortune. When we
come upon him in 1763 ³ he is twenty-nine. We find him in
Holborn, behind the counter of a little shop in Leadenhall
Street, selling groceries. He describes himself as a coffee-
man. ⁴ He is married. His wife, Elizabeth Good--who will

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