Newman became a key figure in the local Quaker Meeting, travelling and preaching throughout Herefordshire, Radnorshire and beyond, and attracting new members and attendees to the Society of Friends.

[3] The Newmans were also responsible for establishing and sustaining a series of linked philanthropic enterprises aimed at improving social conditions, education and well-being in Leominster.

A year later he formed the Leominster Tract Association to publish short, simple stories on religious and moral themes to appeal to working people.

The Press printed hundreds of thousands of leaflets for the Tract Association, teaching materials and books for adult schools and the profits went to support the Orphan Homes.

The Trustees were all eminent Quakers linked to the Newmans by birth or marriage and included George Cadbury, Thomas Barrow and Theodore Neild.

[9][10] He travelled the country speaking at public meetings, many of them outdoors, and wrote hundreds of letters in support of temperance and changes to the licensing laws.

[11] Mary Anna Newman was both wife and partner to her husband in all his undertakings, travelling with him to Palestine and America, taking his class at adult school when he was absent from Leominster, deputising for the matrons at the Orphan Homes, and providing hospitality to visiting Friends and missionaries.