Ordained deacon in 1844 and priest in 1845, he became curate of Bluntisham, Huntingdonshire, and in 1848 of Comberton, Cambridgeshire, but subsequently refused at least one living from conscientious motives.

About 1860 he took up his residence at Turnham Green, London, spending much of his time in the botanical department and reading-room of the British Museum.

He afterwards lived for some years in Albany Street, Regent's Park, and, after taking temporary duty at Honington, Warwickshire, during a vacancy, he, in 1879, moved to Kew Green.

He also signs, with Mr. John Gilbert Baker, the introduction to the second edition of his friend Hewett Cottrell Watson's ‘Topographical Botany’ (1883), upon which he bestowed much labour.

His acute discrimination added five or six species to our knowledge of the British flora; but all his attainments were employed in helping other scientific workers rather than in making a reputation for himself.

In addition to botany, Newbould was much interested in phrenology (the great phrenologist Johann Spurzheim having, as he was pleased to relate, nursed him, as a boy, on his knee) and in spiritualism.