Reference:
1852 / Canada West / Hamilton (city) / 440 St. George's (ward) / p.106a, 106b, (106)Current: Line 1: New, Paul and the suggested correction of New, David.
New Suggested Correction: Line 1: New, Daniel.
With respect to the transcription as "David": While the first 3 letters of the first name could be "Dav", there is no "i" and the last letter looks more like an "l" than a "d". Also note that the enumerator's listing of "David New" in Line 4 clearly has an "i" and a fully-formed "d" as the last two letters of "David".
With respect to the transcription as "Paul": While the last 3 letters of the first name do look like "aul", I believe the first letter is a "D". See an example of the enumerator's "D" on Line 1, column 40, entered as "Dwelling". Further, the enumerator has used several abbreviations in this family; when abbreviations are used, there is one dot placed below the superscripts (see Lines 7, 10 and 11); there are two dots below the "l" in Line 1, which suggests an abbreviation. Most telling is the abbreviation for "Samuel" written as "Saml" in Line 10; notice the superscript "l" of Line 10 is the same as the superscript "l" in Line 1. The third letter is the one giving the most problems: It was interpreted first as a "u", then a "v" and I am suggesting, based on my arguments, that it is an "n". So, as entered, the first name is "Danl" which is an abbreviation for "Daniel"
For a third-party source of the name Daniel New, see
Business and History - National Sewer Pipe Limited. The third paragraph of the article (beginning "National Sewer Pipe Limited is a family business...") describes Daniel New as an Englishmen in the brick making business in Hamilton in the 1840s (all of which is confirmed in the census data Line 1) and references his son, Henry New (who is listed in Line 8 as his child). That paragraph also talks of Henry's brother, Jacob, who is not listed in the 1852 census because his date of birth was 1862.
John P. New
(Great-great grandson of Daniel New)