James was baptised 16 June 1811, the son of James Newman and Rhoda nee Cousens in St Mary's Portsea. His father is variously described as a labourer and a coal dealer, but may also have been a sawyer.
In 1841, James aged 25 is with his parents in North Clarence Street Portsea:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...98?pId=2491981
Father and son are described as labourers, and sister Mary (who had married Daniel Marsh, a sailor) is in the same household.
James married Sarah Diaper nee Barber in 1847:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...065794%2f00065
This time James is described as a sawyer, of North Clarence Street and Sarah, daughter of George Barber is of Diaper's cottage, Fratton Path, in the St Paul's District of Portsea.
In 1851, James aged 40 and Sarah aged 39, both born Portsea are living in Diaper's Cottage Fratton Path:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...356326%2f00863 James is an unemployed sawyer.
So far so good. And I think that James died 30 November 1864 in Broad Street and was buried 3 December 1864 in Mile End Cemetery.
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...ERY%2F00017334
Sarah's parents are in Matrimony Row in 1841:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...hlights=%22%22
George is aged 55, an engineer and his wife Elizabeth aged 60. Sarah is not with them.
This appears to be Sarah, aged 29, a female servant in the household of Elizabeth Diaper in High Street Portsmouth:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...18?pId=2479838
I cannot find a marriage for Sarah to any member of the Diaper family before 1847, so I assume she had a looser relationship than that, and possibly got a cottage out of it.
But what happened to them after 1851? There's no trace of them that I can see in Portsmouth in 1861. Nor can I find Sarah's death. If she had one dubious relationship, she might have had another?
Can anyone spot them in 1861, or Sarah's death? She was baptised in St Marys, so should have Portsea/Portsmouth as PoB. James ought to be a sawyer, or more likely a labourer.