A younger son of William Newenham, of
Coolmore House,
County Cork, and Dorothea, daughter and heiress of
Edward Worth, he was born on 5 November 1734. He was appointed collector of the excise of Dublin in 1764, but was removed in 1772, apparently for political reasons. In the
Irish Parliament Newenham represented
Enniscorthy from 1769 to 1776, and
County Dublin from 1776 to 1797. He was a man of moderate political views, but a reformer of Parliament, within the limits of the constitution, and on strictly Protestant lines. He induced Parliament to add a clause to the Catholic Relief Bill of 1778 for the removal of
nonconformist disabilities; but it was opposed by the government, and struck out by the English privy council. '', 1780 Painting by
Francis Wheatley depicting the Dublin Volunteers on
College Green.Newenham is the figure to the immediate left of the Duke of Leinster, who is positioned centrally, in front of the statue of King William. A noted "Duelist" 3 times over, one of these duels, was over a dispute in parliament. This duel took place on 20 March 1778 between Newenham and
John Beresford, in which, neither was wounded. On the revival of the Catholic emancipation question in 1782 he spoke against further concessions. He disapproved of
Henry Flood's renunciation agitation, on the ground that he did not make his amendments at the proper time, and in parliament supported Flood's Reform Bill. Newenham died at Retiero, near
Blackrock, Dublin, on 2 October 1814. ==Family==