Gavin Newsom Family History

Gavin Christopher Newsom was born on October 10th, 1967 to William and Tessa Newsom in San Francisco, California.

His parents divorced in 1971 when he was three, leaving his mother Tessa to raise him and his younger sister Hilary on her own.  She would work three jobs – as a waitress, bookkeeper and secretary – in order to support the family.

Gavin’s childhood was challenging, shaped in part by their financial insecurity and also by his own struggles with dyslexia which was pretty severe at that time.  He needed remedial reading classes so that he could cope with his learning difficulties.

He enrolled at Santa Clara Univerisity in 1985 on a partial baseball scholarship.  A torn elbow ligament put paid to those ambitions.  However, he did become interested in politics and graduated with a degree in political science.

Business Success.  It was with the financial help of a family friend – the billionaire Gordon Getty – that he and other investors were able to start up PlumpJack Winery in 1992.

It began as a wine store, but soon expanded into so much else – wineries, cafes, restaurants and clothing stores in the San Francisco area and outside.  His business holdings were valued at $7 million in 2002.

Political Success.  Gavin began his political career in a small way.  San Francisco’s Mayor Willie Brown appointed him to fill a vacancy on its Board of Supervisors in 1998.  By 2003 he had run to be its Mayor and won the election.  Politics then came first and he sold out his business interests in the city.

He climbed up the political ranks in California – from Mayor of San Francisco to Lieutenant Governor of the state in 2010 and to its Governor in 2018.  He was re-elected Governor in 2022.  There is speculation that he might be a US Presidential candidate in 2028.

The Newsom Name

Newsom is not a very common surname.  Its origin is English.  It is an abbreviation of the name Newsham or Newholm meaning “new home” that was to be found as place names in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The “s” had been silent.  Hence the abbreviation to either Newsome (the more common variation) or to Newsom.  There are more Newsoms in America than in England today.

English Forebears.  Gavin’s forebears in England came from Newsham Hall in Lancashire.  The Newsham hamlet lay some six miles north of Preston.  These Newsoms were lords of its manor through seven generations, from John Newsom born there around 1467 to Richard Newsom who sold the place around 1630.  Richard died two years later.

It was William Newsom of this line, born in Newsham Hall in 1614, who at a chaotic time for him decided to depart for Virginia.  Not only had the ancestral home been sold.  But he had been married twice and lost both of his wives within the space of four years between 1631 and 1635.

Virginia Roots

The same year of 1635 saw William arriving in Virginia on the George and making his home at Lawnes Creek in Surry county.  This was the first English settlement that had been made in Virginia south of Jamestown and away from the James river.

William received a land grant and was a planter there.  He married again and raised four children with, it is thought, his third wife Elizabeth.  His descendants were to remain in that part of Virginia for the next 150 years and through five generations:

• William Newsom (1648-1691)
• Thomas Newsom (1685-1745)
• Jacob Calvin Newsom (1727-1778)
• Jacob Calvin Newsom (1762-1840) who moved to North Carolina around 1795
• James Barham Newsom (1794-1875) who moved to Indiana around 1832.

There is not much known about their lives.  William Newsom married Anne Shepherd in 1659 (he was the second of her three husbands).  His son Thomas married Elizabeth Crawford in 1709 and they went on to have eleven children between 1705 and 1732.  And names such as Crawford, Holt and Barham were to recur in marriages, probably reflecting family connections.

Later Developments.  Jacob Newsom served in the Revolutionary War.  Afterwards, around 1795, he and his wife Lucy left Virginia for North Carolina.  Their son James was just one when they departed Virginia.  James was in his thirties when he set off in 1832 with his family and other relatives for Greene county in Indiana.

James and his wife Celia raised eight children there.  Both James and Celia died and were buried in Greene county.  Seven of their eight children remained in the area.  But one of their sons did not stay.  In 1864 Alfred was in his late twenties and he upped sticks and headed west for San Francisco.  Alfred was Gavin’s twice great grandfather.

California and Politics

Alfred Cain Newsom died young in San Francisco, aged just forty-eight in 1878.  But his first son William, born in 1865, was to start the Newsom family dynasty in San Francisco.

Alfred did start something new for Newsoms.  He married an Irish Catholic.

• Alfred C, Newsom ( I836-1878) married Elizabeth Eagen from Ireland in 1864
• William A. Newsom I (1865-1933) married Bella Collins from an Irish family in 1889
• and William A. Newsom II (1902-1977) married Christina Brennan from an Irish family around 1930.

Thus the Newsom family today is Catholic.

For most of his life, William Newsom the first was involved in the building trade, as either a contractor or a construction superintendent.  He appeared in the  1930 census as a banker.  He died three years later.

Newsoms and Politics.  His son William A. Newsom II was also a building contractor.  But he was as well an associate of the San Francisco Democratic Party boss William Malone.  And over time William initiated Newsom relationships with prominent California political familes such as the Browns, Pelosis and billionaire Gettys.

He had run the Pat Brown campaign for San Francisco District Attorney.  Pat in 1959 became Governor of California.  When Pat’s administration developed Squaw Valley for the 1960’s Winter Olympics, Pat awarded a concession to operate it to William and his partner John Pelosi.

The Newsom and Pelosi families had gotten together when their granddaughter and grandson Belinda Newsom and Ronald Pelosi married in 1956.  Both Ronald and his brother Paul grew rich from their business ventures.  They funded Paul’s wife Nancy Pelosi’s rise to become Speaker of the US Congress.

William’s son William A. Newsom III was the attorney for oil magnate J. Paul Getty.  He famously delivered the $3 million ransom to the Italian kidnappers of Getty’s grandson John Paul Getty III in 1973.  Afterwards William was appointed a Judge to the California Court of Appeals by Governor Jerry Brown in 1978.   He retired from the bench in 1995 and died in 2018.

He lived to see his son Gavin become Governor-elect of California.

And the Menzies Line

Gavin’s mother Tessa, a college drop-out, had married Bill Newsom in 1966 when she was just nineteen.  The romance did not last.  They divorced in 1971.

Tessa was left to bring up Gavin and his younger sister Hilary on her own.  She scrimped and saved to ensure that they would make something of their lives.

Later she worked for Gavin’s company PlumpJack, becoming a controller there. She is remembered by her family and friends as a natural athlete, one who enjoyed travel and antiques.

Scottish Kin.  Tessa’s forebears were Scottish.  Her great grandparents Thomas and Agnes Menzies had departed Edinburgh, Scotland for California in 1880.  Tessa’s line ran through their second son Kenneth and Kenneth’s second son Arthur.

Arthur, born in 1915, had fought in World War Two in the Philippines where he had been taken prisoner by the Japanese. He survived there three years, slave work in a coal mine and the infamous Bataan death march.

On his return from the war, Arthur married Jean Addis in San Francisco in 1946.  Jean was the daughter of Scottish-born Thomas Addis, a physician noted for his knowledge of kidney diseases.  With her nickname of Trigger, Jean had been a stage actress in San Fransisco before the war.

Later in 1946 were born Arthur and Jean’s twins, Tessa and Anne.

However, Arthur never seemed to overcome the horrors of his wartime death march.  In 1973 he committed suicide in front of Tessa and Anne.  It was just two years after Tessa’s divorce.

Gavin Newsom’s Family Tree

• William Newsom from Newsham Hall, Lancashire (1614-1657) m. Penelope Ramsey (died in 1633); rem. Sarah Fisher (died in 1635); and then came to Surry county, Virginia in 1635 and m. Elizabeth Wilson (1614-1670)
• – Alice Newsom (1638-1675) m. Roger Rawlings
• – Robert Newsom (1643-1693) m. Frances
• – William Newsom (1648-1691)
• – Thomas Newsom (1650-1745)

• William Newsom from Lawnes Creek, Surry county m. Anne Shepherd (1645-1710) in Surry county in 1669.  Anne was previously married to Richard Payne and later married George Foster.
• – Elizabeth Newsom (1670-1707)
• – William Newsom (1672-1751) m. Phillis King
• – John Newsom (1674-1724) m. Sarah Crawford
• – Robert Newsom (1681-1757) m. Judith Towles
• – Anna Newsom (1684-1708) m. Augustine Hunicuff
• – Thomas Newsom (1685-1745)

• Thomas Newsom m. Elizabeth Crawford (1685-1755) in Surry county, Virginia in 1705
• – Anne Newsom (1705-1755) m. Thomas Holt
• – William Newsom (1706-1736)
• – Thomas Newsom (1708-1779) m. Hannah Chandlee and Tephanus Holt
• – Moses Newsom (1709-1785) m. Judah
• – Sampson Newsom (1711-1779) m. Mary Braswell
• – Nathaniel (1717-1762) m. Priscilla
• – Benjamin Newsom (1718-1791) m. Mary Crawford
• – Sarah Newsom (1720-1804) m. Thomas Barham
• – Solomon Newsom (1720-1788) m. Martha Matthews
• – Jacob Newsom (1727-1778)
• – David Newsom (1732-1767) m. Mary Barham

• Jacob Calvin Newsom from Southampton, Virginia m. Tabitha Gilliam (1730-1777) in Surry county in 1751
• – Littleberry Newsom (1752-1818) m. Mary
• – Gilliam Newsom (1757-1825) m. Hulda Roper
• – Jacob Newsom (1762-1840)
• – Lucy Newsom (b. 1765) m. Thomas Porter