Newborn children, irrespective of their received names, were betimes adoringly called "Baby" or "Sonny", petnames which, with time, were increasingly inappropriate, but nevertheless remained with them until the end of their days.
So it was that many a newly erected castle or town was called "New castle" and "New town", names which exist to the present day, hundreds of years later, and in the case of the castle, even when it no longer exists.
Often the existing castle or town came to be known as Oldcastle and Oldtown.
The word "town" derives from the Old English tun, a garden, fence, hedge, and is related to Old Irish dun, meaning "an enclosed place or piece of ground, an enclosure; a field, garden, yard, court."
Newtown (new place/homestead/farm/village) is probably the commonest place-name in England and in Wales. In Ireland there are 166 townlands sonamed. Of these, 17 are in Co Tipperary, 15 each in Co Kildare and Co Wexford, 13 each in Co Waterford and Co Carlow, 11 in Co Meath and 10 each in counties Kilkenny and Limerick.
This is Baile Nua in Irish, which was anglicised Ballynoe and Ballynew, naming a total of 36 townlands, 12 of which are in Co Cork.
The surname Newton named persons who lived in a place named Newtown, and current telephone directories south of the Border contain 25 entries of this surname, fairly evenly distributed. There are 39 of the name in the Phone Book of Northern Ireland.
This latter also lists two Newtowns. Sean de Bhulbh's Sloin nte na hEireann/Irish Surnames follows Woulfe's Sloinnte Gae dheal is Gall in making O Nut ain the Irish of this name.
On February 2nd, 1294, according to the Calendar of the Gormans town Register, "Richard son of William son of Mariot de Newtoun, and Cezilia, his wife, have released to Henry, son of Robert the tailor, of Preston, his heirs or assigns, all their right and claim in a yearly rent of three half pence of silver, they were wont to receive from the house formerly belonging to Richard de Crofft, in the town of Prestoun (in Lancashire)".
The Calendar of the Justiciary Rolls of Ireland (1308-1314) lists Robert Neweton among the jurors at the Pleas of the Crown and delivery of Gaol of Cork in August 1313, when Nevok Osh ynny was charged with stealing a cow worth 6s. from Alicia Dol lyng at Tylaghrath (Co Cork). Found guilty, the sentence was proclaimed: "Therefore let him be hanged."
Presumably it was the same Robert Nywetoun who was a juror at the same location that same year when William McAl ryth was charged that he by night burglariously entered the house of John McGillekeleghan, hibernicus, of Eneas Wogan, and robbed him of a pan and other booty to the value of a mark.
Robert was again a juror - same place and date - when a group of persons were charged with receiving the late Nevok Oshynny.
In 1355, John and Robert de Neweton served in the company of Thomas de Rockeby, justiciar of Ireland (Irish Exchequer Payments 1270-1446), and mentioned in an article entitled Arrest of Sir Christopher Preston in 1418 (Analecta Hibernica No. 29), is `un Laurence Neweton le sergeant le roy'.
The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-1603) records that Capt John Newton, among the pardoned of Cos Roscommon and Galway in 1584, was, 10 years later, leased the lands of Killahenie, Ballenenry, Char owyerhagh, Glan, and Kilure can, and the lands of Thos. M'Rich. m'Riccard Coursey of Ballencluher, all in Co Kerry.
In 1597, he was leased land in Cos Waterford, Kilkenny, Galway and Tipperary. In the latter he got the tithes of Skadeston, land in Ballinrae, in Fethard, and in Rathcowthe.
This was somewhere to the south of the 666 Irish acres which Richard Newton, adventurer, received in the Cromwellian plantation.
A Census of Ireland 1659 shows Henry and James New tone as titualdoes in Inishowen, Co Donegal; William Newton among the gentlemen and their wives in the City of Drogheda, and Christopher Newton among the tituladoes in the Co Roscommon barony of Athlone. Mr Newton was a commissioner of the 1660 Poll-Money Ordinance for the Co Longford borough of St Johnstown (Ballinalee).
After the 10,486 Co Donegal acres of Courtney Newton, Killymeal House, Co Down, the largest Newton holdings were the 5,037 acres at Dunleckney, and the 4,294 acres at Mount Leinster, two of the five Newton holdings in Co Carlow (Owners of Land of One Acre and Up- wards 1876). There were also holdings in Cos Dublin, Louth, Wicklow, Derry, Tyrone, Leitrim and Roscommon.
The 1,126 Co Leitrim acres belonged to Andrew Newton, Dungannon, and the 334 Co Roscommon acres was the property of Philip Newton of Dublin.