Naomi Rebecca Newitt was born on 2nd February 1843 in Northampton. She was the eldest of 8 children, all boys except for her and Mary. Their father, John Newett, was a shoemaker and his wife Eliza worked as a shoe binder. They lived in Summers Terrace, Northampton in 1851, not far from Eliza's parents, John and Frances Pack. John Pack was also a shoemaker, although in 1851 his occupation is given as Militia Staff Sergeant.
By the time she was 18, Naomi was a shoe closer, as was her brother Henry. The next child, Samuel, was a brickmaker but whether that was because there wasn't enough shoemaking work to go round or because he preferred another trade is a matter for conjecture. They were all living in Grafton Street in that year (1861), including Naomi's grandfather, James Newitt, still a shoemaker at 70 years old.
A year later Naomi married James Bradshaw Osborn and within a few years they had started a family. On (or close to) her 50th birthday Naomi was given a silver name pin - a popular Victorian ornament.
Naomi died in Colchester in 1910.
Although several of her siblings lived in Northampton there seems to have been no contact that carried on down the generations. Her brother Samuel married Sarah Elizabeth Hawker and their daughter, Lizzie Newitt (pictured) was born in Ross, Herefordshire in 1882.
Naomi's nephew, Alfred, (born in Northampton to her youngest brother, Herbert) was killed in France in 1916. He died "in the arms of his brother Herbert" who was two years older.
John Newitt and Eliza Pack, Naomi's parents, were married in College Street Chapel in Northampton "according to the rites of the Baptist denomination" in 1842. John's father, James Newitt, was born in Oxford to James and Mary Newitt in 1787. He married Susanna Day, born in Birmingham in 1787 to Richard and Ann Day, also of Birmingham, on Christmas Day 1811 at St Mary le Strand, Westminster. James and Susanna's daughter Mary Newitt (born 1821) was baptised in Northampton but also had her baptism recorded in Paternoster Row, London, with her maternal grandparents present. All of the baptisms for this branch of the family appear to be Wesleyan.
James and Susanna's youngest son, James, was baptised in May 1828 in Oxford St Giles with the notation, "to James and Susana of Somer's Town". It is not clear whether this is the Summertown area of Oxford or of Somer's Town near St Pancras in London. Both were fairly poor areas and each has possible family links. Although one thinks of people staying in one place in those days, Robson's Waggon and Cart Conveyance List for 1822 shows that one waggon for Oxford left London every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon, and that was from just one departure point; there were many more.
A cordwainer of St Ann West, called Richard Day, appears in Dare's Notebook of the Fleet Notebooks (of clandestine marriages), marrying Ann Thorp of "St Magnus at the Bridge Foot" (that's London Bridge) on 30th August 1741. The names are right and the occupation fits nicely to enable James and Susanna to meet, but so far there is no proof that they are 'our' Richard and Ann Day.
Eliza's parents were John Guess Pack and Frances Knight. The Packs came from Rushden but can only be found as far back as John's father - another John, who married Rebecca Guess. Frances Knight's father, Samuel, was a Baptist deacon and was also a carpenter and joiner, as was her brother, another Samuel. Her youngest brother, Ebenezer, was the founder of the Rushden Temperance Society and was a Baptist preacher. Their line can be traced back to the late C17th (and on her mother's side - the Sabeys - to 1515 in Finedon) but with little further detail to give it colour and depth. The Knights were all from near Rushden, where the surname is very common.