DATES

EVENTS

1805

June 27

Francis William Newman is born, third son of John Newman (1767–1824) and Jemima Fourdrinier, at 17 Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, London.

1812-

1821

Attends the Preparatory School of Rev. George Nicholas at Great Ealing, where the senior classical master, Rev. Walter Mayers, and the writings of Presbyterian author Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), his "spiritual father," exerted the most important influences in his conversion in 1819. Another important source of religious influence is the Calvinist author Thomas Scott of Aston Sandford (1747-1821).

1816

The private bank of Ramsbottom, Newman, and Ramsbottom fails. John Newman, on the verge of bankruptcy, applies himself unsuccessfully to the brewery trade.

1821

Newman is confirmed in the Church of England by William Howley, Bishop of London.

In the autumn, prior to matriculation, he moves in with his brother John at Seale’s Coffee House, Oxford.

1822

November 29

Newman matriculates at Worcester College, Oxford.

1823-

1826

During vacations, he assists Walter Mayers, now curate of Over Worton, near Deddington, with his pupils. Here, in 1825, he meets Maria Rosina Giberne.

1826

June

Newman graduates B.A. with a double-first in classics and mathematics.

July-August

Working on a Life of the apostle Paul, Newman takes advantage of Rev. Mayers’s library and studies William Paley’s Horæ Paulinæ (1790).

November 29

He is elected to a fellowship at Balliol College.

1827

He teaches in Thomas Byrth’s Sunday School in the parish of St. Clement’s.

September

Newman accepts a position as private tutor to the sons of Edward Pennefather (later chief justice of queen’s bench), in Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland. It is in this context that he becomes acquainted with and influenced by John Nelson Darby, Pennefather’s brother-in-law.

1828

January 5

Mary, his youngest sister, dies.

1829

On returning to Oxford, Newman associates with like-minded evangelicals, including B. W. Newton, who would play a part in the development of the early Plymouth Brethren movement.

He assists his brother John as a visitor at Littlemore.

1830

Newman writes The Theorems of Taylor and Maclaurin in a Finite Form, published at Oxford as a pamphlet. This is the first of numerous articles by Newman on the higher mathematics, a subject of interest to him throughout his life.

May-June

J. N. Darby arrives at Oxford. Newman’s proposal of marriage to Maria Giberne is rejected. He resigns his fellowship at Balliol and makes full repayment to John of a generous loan for educational expenses. Before leaving Oxford, he meets with Edward B. Pusey, Professor of Hebrew, from whom he receives advice on missionary work and Herbin’s Grammar of modern Arabic.

September 18

As one of a party of seven, Newman departs from Dublin on a missionary trip to Persia. In his company are the leader and financier of the journey, John Vesey Parnell (afterwards Lord Congleton), Edward Cronin, Cronin’s infant daughter, mother, and sister Nancy (shortly afterwards Mrs. Parnell), and Mr. Hamilton.

November 4-28

Rough sea voyage from Marseilles to Larnica, Cyprus.

December 29

Arrives in Ladakîa, from which they travel overland to Aleppo.

1831

January 10

They arrive at Aleppo.

July

Newman survives his first attack of fever.

October

He nearly dies during a second attack of fever.

November

He tries, without success, to convert a Muslim carpenter.

December

Mr. Hamilton, who has quit the mission, is accompanied to the port of Ladakîa by John and Nancy Parnell. There, Mrs. Parnell dies of fever.

1832

April 19

Newman, with the four remaining members of his missionary party, departs Aleppo, traveling toward Baghdad.

April 23

After selling four New Testaments, the party are driven from Aintab by a furious mob. Newman is beaten, and Mr. Cronin is stoned and knocked unconscious.

June 10

The missionary party arrives at Mosul, at the ruins of ancient Nineveh, and after a week in a Chaldean convent, take rafts down the Euphrates to Baghdad.

June 27

They join Anthony Norris Groves, his two sons, and John Kitto at Baghdad, where, during the past year, the population has been depleted from 80,000 to 10,000 by plague, fever, flooding, and civil war.

July 1

Mrs. Cronin dies of exhaustion and fever.

July-August

Newman develops a mutually beneficial friendship with Colonel Robert Taylor, the British political resident at Baghdad who, in 1830, had discovered Sennacherib’s Prism in the ruins of Nineveh. Newman helps Taylor with his Greek; Taylor assists Newman in Arabic.

September 18-November

In the company of Kitto, Newman departs Baghdad, seeks medical attention for fever at Teheran, and spends the winter at Tabreez.

1833

February-April 9

After the snow melts, Newman and Kitto depart from Tabreez, travel by horseback through Anatolia to Scutari, and reach Constantinople.

April 14

They embark at Constantinople.

June

Newman arrives in England and, in vain, renews his proposal of marriage to Maria Giberne. (She later converts to Roman Catholicism and becomes Sister Maria Pia.)

June 27

On this, his birthday, Newman meets Maria Kennaway of Escott, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, a friend of A. N. Groves and a steadfast Plymouth Sister.

July 9

Newman’s brother John arrives in England, returning from Italy.

August

He announces his engagement to Maria Kennaway.

1834

Newman is appointed classical tutor at Bristol College. Among his students is the son of Dr. Lant Carpenter; this leads to Newman’s first meeting with a Unitarian.

1835

Newman reads Moses Stuart’s Letters on the Divinity of Christ (1819).

November

Newman has become a "Socinian," according to correspondence from his brother John.

December 22

Newman is married to Maria Kennaway.

1836

He delivers his Lectures on Logic at Bristol College (published in 1838).

Newman publishes his groundbreaking "Essay towards a Grammar of the Berber Languages," noting the Semitic roots of this group of North African languages.

May 17

His mother dies, but due to the illness of his wife (among other reasons), he does not attend her funeral.

July 7

He is immersed as a Baptist in Broadmead Chapel, Bristol.

1837

He begins writing reviews, mainly on subjects of classical history and philosophy, for the Eclectic Review, under the new editorship of Thomas Price.

1838-

1842

During these years, Newman meets twice with Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby.

1839

He begins his friendship with poet and essayist John Sterling.

1840

Newman is appointed Professor of Classics at Manchester New College, where his friendships with colleagues James Martineau and John James Taylor develop.

1841

He has The Difficulties of Elementary Geometry published and writes a theodicy, "Thoughts on the Existence of Evil" (published by Thomas Scott in 1872).

1843

Newman edits, abridges, and revises an English translation of Victor A. Huber’s The English Universities (1839).

September-October

Exhausted, Newman and his wife spend three quiet weeks with his sister Harriet in Derby.

1844

October

Upon the death of John Sterling, the Newmans adopt his eldest son, Edward Sterling.

1845

Twenty articles by Newman, most of which are on subjects of the Old Testament, are published in A Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, edited by John Kitto. These articles largely anticipate the views he will soon make public in his History of the Hebrew Monarchy.

He begins writing reviews for The Prospective Review, under the new collaborative editorship of James Martineau, J. J. Taylor, and Charles Wicksteed.

He becomes a member of the British Anti-State Church Association and begins writing tracts on behalf of their cause.

October 9

Newman’s brother John is admitted into the Roman Catholic Church.

1846

July

Newman is appointed Professor of Latin at University College, London. Among his first students is Walter Bagehot, the later editor, with James Martineau, of the National Review.

July

He visits his brother John at Maryvale, near Birmingham.

September-October

He delivers Four Lectures on the Contrasts of Ancient and Modern History at the Manchester Athenæum.

1847

After having his History of the Hebrew Monarchy printed at his own expense (and anonymously, to protect the feelings of his wife), Newman finds a willing publisher in John Chapman of London, beginning a business and social relationship that would endure fifteen turbulent years and be finally, in 1868, terminated by Newman, upon his learning of Chapman’s extra-marital relations.

Newman corresponds with Arthur Hugh Clough, who is planning on taking a position at University College.

October 13

He presents his lecture The Relations of Free Knowledge to Moral Sentiment at University College, London.

1848

February-November

Newman is Principal of University Hall, University College.

He collaborates with William Empson, editor of the Edinburgh Review, on "Academical Test Articles."

Newman writes An Appeal to the Middle Classes on the Urgent Necessity of Numerous Radical Reforms, Financial and Organic, published in pamphlet form. It receives a hostile reception from an anonymous critic (Henry Rogers) in the Edinburgh Review.

1849

Through Chapman, Newman publishes The Soul: Her Sorrows and Her Aspirations, which quickly goes through two printings and establishes his reputation as an original religious thinker.

April

He writes a sympathetic review of James Anthony Froude’s "Philosophical Novels."

He is involved in the founding of Bedford College for women, where he teaches mathematics, political economy, Roman history, and poetry, and begins his friendship with Anna Swanwick.

1850

March

Through Chapman, Newman publishes Phases of Faith; or, Passages from the History of My Creed.

He writes a series of articles on social and economic subjects for The Leader, under the editorship of Thornton Hunt.

Spring

Newman begins his friendship with Thomas Scott of Ramsgate, who hosts Sunday-evening lectures in London for free-speaking on religious subjects. Through his attendance at these lectures and occasional brief appearances at the soirées of Chapman, Newman is meeting many of the most significant contemporary heterodox and radical thinkers in England and abroad.

1851

Newman’s Lectures on Political Economy is published.

Newman resigns from Bedford College as a protest for the dismissal of Thomas Wilson, Professor of English, Geography, and Astronomy, on account of his religious views.

Summer

Newman’s Swiss tour.

September

He visits Froude at his vacation retreat at Pas Gwynant, in Wales.

1852

Newman’s Regal Rome: An Introduction to Roman History is published.

Newman’s career as an outspoken critic of all forms of political oppression essentially begins during this year, which opens with the publication of his "The Latest Continental Theory of Legislation" in the Westminster Review, a journal recently acquired by John Chapman. Newman’s contributions to the WR continue until 1863, with the exception of his participation in a forum on Land Nationalization in 1890.

April 28

He delivers a lecture, "The Place and Duty of England in Europe," at the third meeting of The Friends of Italy, a republican society established in London by political refugee Giuseppe Mazzini.

Newman’s religious views—primarily, those expressed in The Soul—are unfairly caricatured and pilloried by the anonymous author (Henry Rogers) of The Eclipse of Faith; or, A Visit to a Religious Sceptic. This book is heralded by the Evangelical and conservative Christian reviews as a devastating and unanswerable exposé of Newman’s and Theodore Parker’s fallacies. The book passes through six editions in two years and does significant damage to Newman’s reputation as a religious thinker.

1853

Newman’s The Crimes of the House of Hapsburg against Its Own Liege Subjects, Select Speeches of Kossuth, and Odes of Horace are published.

Pushed by his critics (and friends), Newman, in a second edition of Phases of Faith, includes a response to The Eclipse of Faith and gives more specific details to support his criticism of the doctrine of moral perfection in Jesus of Nazareth. His revision raises an outcry. Henry Rogers responds with A Defense of the Eclipse of Faith (1854), and among Evangelicals Newman’s name becomes virtually synonymous with that of anti-Christ.

1854

At Chapman’s urging, Newman writes Catholic Union for Chapman’s “Catholic Series.” It presents a blueprint on how to bring about union for philanthropic purposes, without reference to religious creeds. This book, though not without value, neither pleased its author nor its critics.

In London public hall meetings, Newman speaks out on the duty of England to defend Turkey from Russian aggression.

1856

Newman’s Iliad of Homer Faithfully Translated into Unrhymed English Metre, a translation in ballad form, specifically intended to appeal to the working class, is published.

Taking advantage of the Turkomania raised by the Crimean War, Newman edits and releases his missionary letters, published under the title A Personal Narrative, in Letters: Principally from Turkey, in the Years 1830-3.

September

He vacations with the family of Lajus Kossuth and other Hungarian refugees at Ventnor; from the beach they enjoy the bath-houses.

1857

He becomes active in the United Kingdom Alliance, formed in Manchester by Sir Wilfred Lawson, and delivers a public lecture, Considerations for the Educated concerning the Drink Traffic.

1858

Through Chapman, Newman publishes Theism, Doctrinal and Practical; or Didactic Religious Utterances and, in the Westminster Review, "The Religious Weakness of Protestantism."

April

With "Our Relation to the Princes of India," published in the Westminster Review, Newman begins a series of articles critical of British policy and affairs in India.

1859

April

He moves from 7 Park Village East to 10 Circus Road, St. John’s Wood, N.W. London.

July

He publishes a largely sympathetic review of Benjamin Jowett’s Epistles of St. Paul, in which he discusses the peculiar intellectual and moral difficulties of the Anglican clergy.

August

He spends a delightful vacation in Aberystwyth, Wales, with James Martineau and William Henry Channing.

October 12

Newman delivers his lecture The Relations of Professional to Liberal Knowledge at University College, London University.

1860

Newman, in preparing a new (sixth) edition of Phases of Faith for publication, replaces his Reply to The Eclipse of Faith with an enlarged Reply to A Defense of the Eclipse of Faith.

May 20

From the pulpit of South-Place Chapel, Finsbury, Newman delivers his lecture The Action and Reaction between Churches and the Civil Government.

1861

He begins writing for Fraser’s Magazine, under the new editorship of J. A. Froude, and continues to contribute until 1879.

His reply to the criticism of Matthew Arnold, Homeric Translation in Theory and Practice, is published.

April

With “The American Quarrel,” published in Fraser’s, Newman begins a series of articles in favor of emancipation and critical of the southern states.

1862

He resigns from the Chair of Latin at London University.

October

His article “Essays and Reviews: Dr. Lushington’s Judgment” is published.

1863

February 23

Newman delivers a speech on America and its conflict at St. James’s Hall, London.

He speaks on “The Good Cause of President Lincoln” at a meeting of the Emancipation Society in London, and writes The Character of the Southern States of America: A Letter to a Friend Who Had Joined the Southern Association, published as a pamphlet.

April-May

Newman writes on the agitation in the Church of England provoked by the publication of Bishop Colenso’s Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined (1862): “The Reformation Arrested” and “The Future of the National Church.”

1864

April 24

At the invitation of Moncure Daniel Conway, Newman delivers at South-Place Chapel A Discourse against Hero-Making in Religion, in response to Frances Power Cobbe’s effort, in Broken Lights, to raise Jesus to heroic status as a historical and religious figure.

Newman’s Text of the Iguvine Inscriptions, with Interlinear Latin Translation and Notes is published.

1865

February 17

At a meeting in the home of Thomas Scott, at Ramsgate, Newman delivers his speech The Permissive Bill More Urgent than any Extension of the Franchise, urging that Lawson’s proposal (that a two-thirds’ vote in any county should be sufficient to suppress the opening of local drink-shops) would achieve more on behalf of temperance than an extension of the national right to vote. At this meeting, either Scott invited Newman to begin writing for his series “in behalf of the cause of free inquiry and free expression”—tracts that Scott was just beginning to publish and circulate at his own expense—or Newman submitted his first essay for Scott’s consideration.

The Bigot and the Sceptic: What Is Their Euthanasia? makes its appearance, the first of twenty-one tracts by Newman that Thomas Scott was to publish between 1865 and 1878.

Newman resigns from London University.

1866

Newman’s Handbook of Modern Arabic; consisting of a Practical Grammar, with Numerous Examples, Dialogues, and Newspaper Extracts; in a European Type is published.

Autumn

Newman submits an article, “Emancipation in the West Indies,” to the American Unitarian periodical The Radical: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Religion (1865-1872).

1867

Newman is elected to the Executive Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, renamed the following year to the Bristol and West of England Society for Women's Suffrage.

March 4

He delivers his speech On the Philosophical Classification of National Institutions at the Bristol Institution for the Advancement of Science, Literature and the Arts.

April 1

He gives an address in Bristol, Why the People Ought To Have a Veto on the Sale of Drink?

April

He writes a letter to the editor of The Radical, published as “Why Do I Not Call Myself a Christian?”

Newman’s Orthoëpy; or, A Simple Mode of Accenting English, for the Advantage of Foreigners and All Learners, Intended to Aid Popular Instruction is published. He later attempts to apply its principles in several of his works, but for the most part, he is hindered by resistance from publishers.

1868

March 20

Newman begins a lengthy correspondence with Robert Braithwaite, then a Roman Catholic. Out of this correspondence, which will continue through the remainder of Newman’s life, will develop a friendship.

July-August

Newman moves to 1 Dover Place, Clifton, Bristol.

In response to James Martineau’s advocacy of “Free Christian” Churches—a Unitarian effort to embrace in fellowship all Theists—Newman writes Thoughts on a Free and Comprehensive Christianity, published by Thomas Scott.

1869

February 24

Newman delivers his Lecture on Women’s Suffrage at the Bristol Athenæum, at the invitation of the London Society for Women’s Suffrage.

With The Cure of the Great Social Evil, with Special Reference to Recent Laws Delusively Called Contagious Diseases’ Acts, Newman begins his campaign against the CDA.

The first of five volumes of Newman’s Miscellanies is published. These volumes are thematically arranged collections from his published and unpublished writings. Most of the contents of this and subsequent volumes are revised.

1870

January 28

At the Guildhall, in Bath, Newman delivers a second Lecture on Women’s Suffrage.

He publishes two tracts in support of extending the franchise, Intellectual and Moral Tendencies of Female Suffrage, and Women’s Wrongs.

May 16

Newman delivers the leading speech in a meeting at Clifton against the CDA.

1871

Newman’s two-volume Dictionary of Modern Arabic and his Europe of the Near Future; with Three Letters on the Franco-German War are published.

February 7

Newman delivers a lecture at Bristol, On the Causes of Atheism.

March 14

He delivers a speech at Leicester, On the Drink Traffic.

November

Newman submits “The True Temptation of Jesus,” the first of twenty articles within a four-year period, to The Index, a recently established weekly paper dedicated to the advancement of free religion and secularism, edited by Francis Ellingwood Abbot, then a Unitarian minister in Toledo, Ohio.

1872

Newman becomes a member of the Central Committee for Women's Suffrage.

June

Newman moves from Clifton to Weston-super-Mare.

October 20

At the Friend’s Institute, in Manchester, he delivers A Lecture on Vegetarianism.

1873

July

Newman reviews Matthew Arnold’s Literature and Dogma for Fraser’s Magazine.

1874

Newman revises his Theism of 1858, republishing it as Hebrew Theism: The Common Basis of Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedism.

February-March

Newman contributes two articles, “Organized Priesthood” and “Parliamentary Government,” to the Fortnightly Review, under the editorship of John Morley.

October 12

Newman reads a paper, On Religious Endowments, to the members of the Reform Club, Manchester. In 1875, this is published in the Theological Review, under the editorship of Newman’s former student Charles Beard, now minister of the Unitarian Church on Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

October 26

He presents his paper The Political Side of the Vaccination System at the Birmingham Anti-Vaccination Conference.

1875

June 6

At the Unitarian Free Church at Clerkenwell, at the invitation of Peter Dean, and during a special meeting organized by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association to commemorate its anniversary, Newman preaches “Sin against God.” At the conclusion of this sermon, Newman publicly announces his union with this Association.

October 15

Newman delivers his speech on the Re-organization of English Institutions at the Manchester Athenæum.

At the invitation of Robert R. Suffield, former Dominican preacher, Newman delivers two discourses at the Free Christian Church in Croydon, London, On the Presence of God and On the Service of God.

He breaks with The Index, on account of F. E. Abbot’s apparent hostility towards Christianity. Newman insists on respecting the religious sentiment in all Theists, regardless of creed, and on speaking the truth with love.

1876

Newman contributes three articles to The Langham Magazine, the short-lived monthly, edited by Charles Voysey, minister of the Theistic Church.

July 16

Newman’s wife, Maria née Kennaway, dies.

October 26

Newman presents a lecture in Manchester, On the Relation of the Supply of Food to the Laws of Landed Tenure.

1877

Newman’s Religion, not History is published

Newman begins contributing to the Contemporary Review, under the new editorship of Alexander Strahan.

1878

He releases his personal family devotions under the title Morning Prayers in the Household of a Believer in God.

March 25

Newman presides at a vegetarian banquet at the Clarendon Hotel, Oxford.

December 3

He marries Eleanor Williams, his former wife’s closest friend who, for eleven years, had lived in the Newmans’ home as Maria’s personal maid.

1879

April 13

At the invitation of Charles Voysey, Newman delivers his sermon "Religious Mischiefs of Credulity" to the Theists meeting at Langham Hall, London. (James Anthony Froude is in attendance.)

Newman becomes Vice-President of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association.

May 12

Newman’s brother John is made Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

His sister Jemima Charlotte, wife of John Mozley, dies.

1880

May 23

Substituting in the pulpit for Voysey, Newman delivers his sermon “Errors concerning Deity” to the Theistic Church in Langham Hall.

1881

He publishes, at his own expense, in pamphlet form, What Is Christianity without Christ?

November

Newman has a mild stroke, resulting in partial paralysis, temporarily preventing him from writing.

1882

His Libyan Vocabulary; an Essay towards Reproducing the Ancient Numidian Language, out of Four Modern Tongues is published.

1883

Newman publishes his indignant protest against British foreign policy, A Christian Commonwealth, and collects his writings on vegetarianism into an anthology, Essays on Diet.

1884

March

Newman’s brother Charles dies. This event, combined with Newman's physical debilitation, is a memento mori, and from about this time, Newman is notably anxious to place his works and final thoughts into the public domain.

Newman’s Christianity in Its Cradle is published.

After decades of teaching Æschylus and assisting scholars in their translations, Newman publishes his Comments on the Text of Æschylus. Six years later, he adds a Supplement.

His Rebilius Cruso: Robinson Crusoe in Latin; a Book to Lighten Tedium to a Learner is published.

1886

A second, enlarged edition of Christianity in Its Cradle is published, and Newman, anxious to correct an impression of confidence in immortality that he conveyed in Hebrew Theism, releases Life after Death? Palinodia, a systematic overview of the arguments for and against survival of personality after death.

1887

Still at work on Berber languages, Newman presents his Kabail Vocabulary: Supplemented by Aid of a New Source.

His second volume of Miscellanies is published, collecting, in revised form, what he regarded as many of his best essays on religion.

1888

His Reminiscences of Two Exiles (Kossuth and Pulszky) and Two Wars (Crimean and Franco-Austrian), an anthology of Mathematical Tracts, and a third volume of Miscellanies is published.

May-June

The Newmans vacation at Bishops Teignton, at the health resort of his former colleague at Bedford College, William B. Carpenter. There they enjoy his Turkish Baths.

June 21-22

Newman presents an address at the “Gaudy” of Worcester College, and is present the following day, as the “oldest living fellow,” at the “Gaudy” of Balliol.

November

Newman meets with his brother John for the last time at his holiday retreat in Rednal.

1889

Newman, having collected together his anti-slavery essays, written between the years 1863 and 1879, has them published under the title Anglo-Saxon Abolition of Negro Slavery.

1890

The fourth volume of Newman’s Miscellanies, including a revised edition of his Lectures on Political Economy, is published.

August 11

His brother John dies. Newman, feeling that his presence would be inappropriate, does not attend the funeral.

1891

Newman’s Contributions to the Early History of the Late Cardinal Newman is published. It quickly passes into a second edition.

The fifth volume of Newman’s Miscellanies is published. Although he plans to release a sixth volume, it never appears.

July

His article on “The Progress of Political Economy from the Time of Adam Smith” is published.

1892

Newman’s collection of revised hymns, suitable for Theists, is published under the title Secret Hymns.

His First Steps in Etruscan and The Higher Trigonometry: Superrationals of the Second Order are published.

1893

No sooner is The Gospel of Paul of Tarsus, and of His Opponent, James the Just, from Our Current New Testament published than Newman begins enlarging and revising it.

1894

The revised edition of The Gospel of Paul of Tarsus is published under the title Christianity before and after Paul of Tarsus, with the Tales Accepted as Sacred in the Anglican Church, 1894.

1895

Newman has published his Hebrew Jesus: His True Creed; from Canonical Texts of the Anglicans, before Paul of Tarsus Was a Christian, with the Cardinal Prayer of Jesus as Our Sole Sufficient Creed.

1897

Summer

Newman loses his footing and falls down a flight of stairs. He is, subsequently, bedridden.

October 4

He dies.

October 9

His funeral is preached by Rev. J. Timperley Grey at the Cemetery Chapel, Weston-super-Mare.

G. J. Holyoake edits a manuscript that he received from Newman and publishes it as Mature Thoughts on Christianity, by F. W. Newman. From a biographical and critical perspective, this is a controversial work, difficult of appraisal, as it raises issues regarding transmission, editorial transcription and intent, as well as Newman’s mental state at the time of dictation. Its publication may be considered the first of Newman’s posthumous misfortunes, the second and most damaging being the unintelligent and unsympathetic Memoir written of him by the niece of Maria Giberne, Isabel Giberne Sieveking, published in 1907.

The information for this chronology has been gleaned from a number of sources, but principally from F. W. Newman's own letters and the autobiographical passages scattered throughout his works, referred to in conjunction with the letters, autobiographies, and biographies of other persons acquainted with Newman. When using the information that is unique to this webpage, please cite your source.