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Simpson Newland

pastoralist, author and politician in South Australia (1835-1925)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ7521120
Source-derived summary

Simpson Newland CMG (2 November 1835 – 27 June 1925), pastoralist, author and politician, was a pioneer in Australia who made significant contributions to development around the Murray River. He was also an author of practical works and novels.

Early years

Newland was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, a son of Rev. Ridgway William Newland (died 1864) and his wife Martha Newland, née Keeling (died 1870), who emigrated with their eight children to South Australia aboard the Sir Charles Forbes, arriving in June 1839.

He and his siblings were educated to a high standard at home by their mother.

Simpson Newland became a competent stockrider and bushman.

Pastoralist and prosperity

In 1864 Newland moved to a cattle station near Wilcannia on the Darling River, and developed an interest in the country's environmental history and indigenous population. By age 40 he had become very prosperous. On 12 September 1872 at Buckanbee, New South Wales, he married Jane Isabella Layton.

Undelcarra

In 1876, with three sons, they moved to Adelaide and bought a mansion at Burnside which they called "Undelcarra"; Newland continued to manage the stations from Adelaide.

Editorial summary

“Simpson Newland” enters the record as pastoralist, author and politician in South Australia (1835-1925). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Simpson, Newland and pastoralist can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1835, 1925, 1864, 1870—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1835-11-02. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Simpson, Newland and pastoralist.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Simpson Newland” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Simpson, Newland and pastoralist provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7521120. VIAF identifies the subject as 39744899. The Library of Congress control number is n90675135. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1835, 1925, 1864 and 1870.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Simpson Newland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Simpson Newland primary sources, Simpson Newland archive and Simpson research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Simpson Newland”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Simpson Newland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.