Dame Sarah Holte (née Newton)

Sister of Elizabeth Newton (q.v.) and with her co-heiress of the estate of their brother John Newton (q.v.).

1. Sarah, daughter of Samuel Newton, Armigeri, and his wife Elizabeth, baptised in Kings Bromley, Staffordshire, 13/12/1723.

2. Sir Lister Holte of Aston near Birmingham bart married Sarah Newton of this parish by licence in Kings Bromley 13/06/1755. She was his third wife. Sarah apparently brought a dowry of £2,000 and the marriage settlement included the clause that she was to have an annuity of £700 per annum on the death of her husband. Lister died 08/04/1770 and bequeathed Aston Hall, its contents and its surrounding parkland (but not the agricultural estate) to Sarah for life, as well as increasing the annuity of £1,500 per annum for life. The estate was entailed to Lister's brother Charles and thereafter through the male line. Charles married Anne Jesson in 1755 and they had one child, a daughter, Mary. According to a later family historian, "The characters of Lady Holte and her sister-in-law [Anne Jesson] were not congenial. The former was haughty, cold, and selfish; and the high spirit and keen wit of the latter could ill brook the assumption of superiority indulged in by Lady Holte... an open quarrel soon ensued..." The will of Lister was later challenged in a Chancery suit.

3. Sarah Holte, wife of Sir Lister Holte Bart of Aston Hall, died "Suddenly" and was buried 09/04/1794 aged 70 "in a vault in the North East Corner of the church" of St Peter and St Paul, Aston.

4. Will of Dame Sarah Holte of Aston Hall Birmingham [made in 1784] proved 29/04/1794. In the will, she rehearsed the trust will of her brother John Newton, under which she and he sister were left as the contingent remainders of the Mount Alleyne estate on Barbados, behind Sir John Gay Alleyne and his children. She left her contingent interest to her sister Elizabeth Newton, together with all the rest of her estates in Britain and Barbados.

1. Findmypast, Staffordshire Baptisms [database online].

2. Findmypast, Staffordshire Marriages [database online]; Alfred Davidson, A history of the Holtes of Aston, baronets; with a description of the family mansion, Aston Hall, Warwickshire (1854) pp. 44-48; the will of Sir Lister Holt or Holte of Aston Hall, PROB 11/957/330.

3. Ancestry.com, Birmingham, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

4. PROB 11/1244/244.