Before the first Act of Union in 1535, which saw Wales annexed to England, Monmouthshire was considered Welsh. After the second Act of Union in 1542, it became complicated. Twelve Welsh counties were registered, but Monmouthshire was made directly responsible to courts of Westminster. The Welsh language was a key argument on the side of those claiming the county was Welsh. The English traveller George Borrow in 1862 wrote:

'Monmouthshire is at present considered an English county, though certainly with little reason, for it not only stands on the western side of the Wye, but the names of almost all its parishes are Welsh, and many thousands of its population still speak the Welsh language.'

Newport itself was predominantly a Welsh-speaking town in the early 1800s. More than 100 years later, though, Newport and Monmouthshire had a dominant English-speaking population, but it was growing culturally and economically closer to Wales.