Newport's Canterbury
Here's some links and info related to Newport's home town Canterbury and the surrounding area in Kent.
Historic Canterbury
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Historic Canterbury is a site curated by Tina Machado. It provides a wealth of history of Canterbury. I will include some pages from her site and others that relate to George Newport and his world in the early to mid-19th century.
The Canterbury Philosophical and Literary Society (CPLS) is where Newport broke free from his work as a wheelwright to pay off his father's debts.
William Henry Weekes was Newport's first scientific mentor who helped Newport transition from a wheelwright to a locally recognized entomologist and part of the Canterbury intelligentsia. They met at the CPLS in the 1820s and Newport became Weekes' unpaid surgical apprentice. Weekes performed sensational experiments during his lectures at the CPLS. Like Andrew Crosse, he claimed to have created tiny insects from electricity. In Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, Robert Chambers published a letter from Weekes detailing these experiments. Weekes also promoted his signature device called a "Universal Portable Eudiometer" (Mechanics Magazine, pp. 161-172). Alan Twyman compiled a biography of Weekes and his primary sources. Weekes undoubtedly introduced Newport to electricity and chemistry research, which may have started Newport's interest in the interaction of vital and physical forces that motivated his work in the 1840s and 50s. Weekes' CPLS lectures and local research are examples of scientific practice and scientific mentoring in the peripheries of London.
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Some other information about Weekes
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Another link related to Weekes' family in Canterbury.