In 1807, he retired from the office of chief cashier, after declining
a pension. He had hitherto been accustomed, after the business at
the Bank in his department had closed, and he had dined moderately,
to order his carriage and drive to Highbury, where he drank tea at a
small cottage. Many who lived in that neighbourhood long recollected
Newland's daily walk--hail, rain, or sunshine--along Highbury Place. It
was said that he regretted his retirement from the Bank; but he used
to say that not for 20,000_l._ a year would he return. He then removed
to No. 38, Highbury Place. His health and strength declined, it is
said, through the distress of mind brought upon him by the forgeries of
Robert Aslett, a clerk in the Bank, whom Newland had treated as his own
son. It was well known that Abraham had accumulated a large fortune;
legacy-hunters came about him, and an acquaintance sent him a ham as a
present; but Newland despised the mercenary motive, and next time he
saw the donor he said, "I have received a ham from you; I thank you for
it," said he, but raising his finger in a significant manner, added, "I
tell you it won't do, it won't do."
Newland had no extravagant expectations that the world would be drowned
in sorrow when it should be his turn to leave it; and he wrote this
ludicrous epitaph on himself shortly before his death:--
Beneath this stone old Abraham lies:
Nobody laughs and nobody cries.
Where he's gone, and how he fares,
No one knows, and no one cares!
His physician, in one of his latest visits, found him reading the
newspaper, when the doctor expressing his surprise, Newland replied,
smiling, "I am only looking in the paper in order to see what I am
reading to the world I am going to." He died November 21, 1807, without
any apparent pain of body or anxiety of mind, and his remains were
deposited in the church of St. Saviour, Southwark.
Newland's property amounted to 200,000_l._, besides a thousand a year
landed estates. It must not be supposed that this was saved from his
salary. During the whole of his career, the loans for the war proved
very prolific. A certain amount of them was always reserved for the
cashier's office (one Parliamentary Report names 100,000_l._), and
as they generally came out at a premium, the profits were great. The
family of the Goldsmids, then the leaders of the Stock Exchange,
contracted for many of these loans, and to each of them he left 500_l._
to purchase a mourning ring. Newland's large funds, it is said, were
also occasionally lent to the Goldsmids to assist their various
speculations.
[Illustration: Squire Mytton on his bear.]
The Spendthrift Squire of Halston, John Mytton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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