Jonah (who also used the surname Bulkley" for unknown reasons) was the oldest son of Peter and Azubah Newport of Hatfield, Massachusetts, possibly born between 1760 and 1765. The family was enslaved by Joseph Billings, who stipulated in his 1781 will that "the children of the said Peter, to wit Jonah, Peter, Eliphalet and Amos, shall be manumitted and set free as soon as they shall arrive, respectively, at the age of twenty-one years; in the mean time they shall be subjected to, under the control of, and in the immediate service of, my aforesaid loving cousins David Billing and Silas Billing." Joseph Billings died in 1783, by which time Jonah had probably reached age 21.
In 1779, while still enslaved, Jonah's father purchased land from David Billings in Williamsburg, Massachusetts and moved his family there to farm. In 1787, Jonah sold some property in Williamsburg and in 1797, he bought land and a house in Hatfield, which he might have shared with his brother Amos. In 1805, Jonah moved to New York State, possibly to escape a legal matter, and that same year and in 1806, he sold land in Hatfield to Amos, which might have been where the two brothers had been living. After 1806 nothing more is known of Jonah's whereabouts.
Sources Consulted
"'His Own Proper Negro Slave': Amos Newport & his Descendants in Hatfield, Williamsburg & Amherst", Eric W. Weber, 2014