Hibbert Newton, his signature from a regimental paylist dated Lincoln, England, 9 August 1781
Nationality: American (possibly from the Province of Nova Scotia)
Born: 1762
Regimental commission dates:
Ensign, 1 March 1776
Lieutenant, 19 April 1780
Location during the Northern Campaign of 1777: recruiting in Ireland or Great Britain
Exchanged into another regiment: 11 January 1782 (with Lieutenant William Oldham, 53rd Regiment)
Died: Ireland, 1795
Hibbert Newton was one of the small number of British Army officers of American birth serving in the 62nd Regiment. His father, Philips Newton, was from a founding family of civil and military officers of Nova Scotia, while his mother Elizabeth (née Wickham), was of a prominent Newport, Rhode Island, family. By 1776, at the age of 13 or 14, Newton was already serving in America with the British army in Boston as a volunteer in the 45th Regiment of Foot. On 1 March 1776, Newton was appointed ensign in the 62nd Regiment and assigned to Captain Richard Baily's additional company, which was then recruiting in Great Britain or Ireland. Because of his recruitment duties, Newton did not serve in the Northern Campaign of 1777 and was therefore not part of the subsequent prisoner Convention Army. It is ironic that one of the regiment's few officers to have been born in the Western Hemisphere should have spent the war in Britain.
After the 62nd Regiment was repatriated to England in 1781, Newton, then a lieutenant, was assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel John Anstruther's company. Newton soon after engaged in the first of a series of lateral exchanges into other corps which, in the records, would define the rest of his martial career. On 11 January 1782, he swapped regiments with Lieutenant William Oldham of the 53rd Regiment of Foot, a regiment long assigned to the Canada garrison. Newton remained with that regiment until he exchanged into O'Donnell's Irish Regiment, with a commission date of 20 July 1794. Newton's final commission, with a date of 12 November 1794, was in Fox's Irish Regiment. He died soon after.