The liberties and privileges of the town commenced by grants, as early as Henry I, and they have been confirmed by succeeding monarchs. The corporation comprises a high steward, deputy steward, two bailiffs and about twenty-five burgesses, who are entitled to certain property within the parish, the rents arising from which, are chiefly applied to defray the expense of keeping in repair a water-course and pipes, by which, from a spring about a mile distance, the inhabitants are supplied with water—this is conveyed into five large cisterns, placed in different parts of the town, four of which were erected and beautified under the direction of the corporation, at a considerable expense, and are rendered an ornament, as well as a convenience to the inhabitants. There is also derived from a large tract of land, a fund which is applied, amongst other purposes, to the repairs of the streets, lighting the town, and apprenticing poor children. His Grace the Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor, and holds courts leet annually. Petty sessions, for the Newport division of the hundred, are held here by the magistrates, and the County Court, under the new acts, sits one a month in the town hall, for the recovery of debts to any amount not exceeding £50. The parish Church of Saint Nicholas, formerly belonged to the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Shrewsbury, and was alienated by permission of Henry VI, to Thomas Draper and his heirs, by whom it was made collegiate for a warden and four lay chaplains. The church is principally in the ancient style of English architecture with a square tower, and was repaired and beautified in 1827, at a cost exceeding £3,000, and again in 1835; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Crown; the present incumbent is the Rev. William Sandford, A.M. There are places of worship for Independents, Roman Catholics, and Methodists—both Primitive and Wesleyan. The school here was founded, and amply endowed, in 1656, by William Adams, Esq. a native of Newport, who assigned certain lands for the support of a master and an usher, for the endowment of four exhibitions at any of the colleges in Oxford or Cambridge, for the erection and support of four almshouses for that number of that number of poor persons, for annually apprenticing three poor children, and for other purposes. This school also enjoys the benefit of four other exhibitions, founded by Mr. Careswell. The land belonging to this charity yields an annual income of nearly £1,000. There are the town’s almshouses for four poor females, founded and erected in 1446, by William Glover, of this town; a national school, originating from a free grammar school of very ancient foundation, and several other charities and funds vested in trustees. Newport under the new Poor Law, is the centre of an Union, comprising sixteen parishes; and a new and commodious workhouse has been erected. The town is indebted to