William Newman was an English woodcarver of the Restoration period. He collaborated in the furnishing of the churches of the City of London rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. A number of his works survive including some of his preparatory drawings. It has been emphasised that, despite the persistent idea that Grinling Gibbons was responsible for much of the carving in the rebuilt City churches, in the building accounts and parish minute-books Gibbons's name appears only once, in connection with the exceptional altarpiece at St Mary Abchurch, a church which also contains carvings by William Newman and William Emmett.

St. Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, also called "St Stephen's in the Jewry", was a church in the City of London, at the corner of Coleman Street and what is now Gresham Street, first mentioned in the 12th century. In the middle ages it is variously described as a parish church, and as a chapel of ease to the church of St Olave Old Jewry; its parochial status was defined permanently in 1456.