Newtown, Isle of Wight, in 1843

Newtown, a municipal borough, and formerly also a parliamentary borough which returned two members to the House of Commons, is now a very small place ; it is a chapelry in Calbourne parish, which contained, in 1842, 23 houses and 95 inhabitants. It is situated on the north-west side of the island, at the top of the estuary of the Newtown river, between Yarmouth and Cowes. At high water vessels of 500 tons can come up this estuary, in the creeks of which are several salterns, now little used. The place was once called Francheville, and was a place of some extent and importance. It was burnt by the French in the reign of Richard II, but the great cause of its decline was the growing importance of Newport. The municipal body consists of a mayor and an indefinite number of chief Burgesses, who are self-elected, and of whom the number in 1837 was 23. The governing charter is one granted in the reign of Elizabeth. As a parliamentary borough, Newtown was disfranchised by the Reform Act.