NEWPORT, a municipal, county and parliamentary bor ough, seaport and market town of Monmouthshire, England, on the Usk, 5 m. from its confluence with the Severn, and 1331 m. from London by the G.W. railway. Pop. (1931) 89,198. It lies chiefly on the right (west) bank of the river, and on the east, north and west it is sheltered by a line of hills.
An ancient mesne borough and castle, it occupied an important position on the Welsh marches. The town, which is not men tioned in Domesday, grew up round the castle built early in the 12th century. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing in 1187, calls it Novas Bur gus, probably to distinguish it from Caerleon, whose prosperity declined as that of Newport increased. From Robert Fitz Hamon (d. 1107) the lordship passed to the earls of Gloucester and Stafford and the dukes of Buckingham. Hugh le Despenser, who held the lordship for a short time, obtained in 1323 a charter of liberties for the burgesses, granting them free dom from toll throughout England, Ireland and Aquitaine. The earl of Stafford granted a further charter in 1385, confirmed by his grandson in 1427, which gave the burgesses the right of self government and of a merchant gild. On the attainder of the duke of Buckingham in 1483 the lordship lapsed to the Crown, of whom it was held in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Pem brokes, and in the 19th by the Beauforts. The town was in corporated by charter of James I. in 1624 under the title of "Mayor and Bailiffs." This charter was confirmed by Charles II. in 1685. In 1385 the borough obtained a market lasting 15 days from the vigil of St. Lawrence (Aug. 1o). The charter of granted two fairs, one on the feast of the Ascension, and a second on St. Leonard's day (Nov. 6). Newport was the scene of a serious Chartist riot in 1839.
The old parish church of St. Woollos (since 1921 the cathedral church of the Anglican diocese of Monmouth) stands on Stow hill. Originally it consisted only of the present nave, a fine speci men of grand, though unadorned, Norman architecture ; but a massive square tower (of the time of Henry III.) and a chancel
were subsequently added ; a large western Early English lady chapel is interposed between the nave and the tower. The castle, founded at the close of the nth century, was greatly altered in the late Perpendicular period. The old Dominican monastery is entirely rebuilt and occupied as a private residence; but there are a few fragments of a house of White Friars. There is a museum and art gallery. Newport owes a rapid increase in im portance during the second half of the 19th century to its situa Lion on a deep and spacious tidal river, which renders it an outlet for the eastern section of the South Wales coalfields.
Its population in 18o1 was only 1,135. The Old dock was par tially formed in 1842, while the Alexandra was opened in 1875. There were many subsequent extensions of the docks (particu larly in 1907 and 1913), which are now owned by the G.W.R. company. The administration of the docks is in the hands of the Harbour commissioners. There are the Alexandra, North and South, docks with a quayage of 7,839 and 17,189 ft. respectively, and the Town (Old) dock with a quayage of 4,853 feet. The average depth of water in both Alexandra docks, which form a single sheet of water, is 45 ft. at spring tides and 35 ft. at neap tides. In the Old dock the depths are 3o ft. and 20 ft. respectively. There are two dry docks connected with the Alexandra docks, one owned by the G.W.R. company being 523 ft. long and 74 ft. wide, while the privately owned dry dock is 415 ft. long and 6o ft. wide. There are six other private dry docks all of them en tered from the river. The town has grown rapidly during the first quarter of the 20th century under a town planning scheme, and extensive building has been carried out at Somerleyton and St. Julien's. It is now spreading over Caerleon. Newport returns one member to parliament.