Whitson is a village on the outskirts of the city of Newport, South Wales. It is located about 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Newport city centre on the Caldicot Levels, a large area of coastal land reclaimed from the sea. Administratively, Whitson is part of the community of Goldcliff.

Sir Joseph Bradney, in his History of Monmouthshire (1922), is undecided on the derivation of the name of the manor and surrounding village, but notes early spellings such as Witston, Widson and Wyttston. It seems most likely, however, that the name came from "Whitestone", similar to the adjacent "Goldcliff". In 1358 the manor was held "...by John de Saint Maur of Penhow of Peter de Cusance by knight service, as of his manor of Langstone". In the 18th and 19th centuries the Phillips family owned a large estate in the parish and lived at what was then called "Whitson House" (now "Whitson Court").

Together with the neighbouring larger parishes of Nash and Goldcliff it is one of the so-called "Three Parishes" which have long been treated as a unit – geographically, socially, economically and ecclesiastically.

At high-tide much of the land in the village is below sea-level. A main drainage ditch, with an origin near Llanwern, known as "Monksditch" or "Goldcliff Pill" passes through the village on its way to the sea. Local folklore maintains that the sides of the Monksditch are laced with smuggler's brandy.

The layout of the village and its houses and farmsteads reflects a medieval 'cope' land allocation pattern, similar to that used in land reclamation in Holland. Porton House is situated next to the sea and accessed from Great Porton. Historically, Porton has been part of Goldcliff and may have once had its own separate church, although confusion with Whitson church seems more likely. For many years Porton, like Goldcliff, was the site of a salmon fishery.^{[citation needed]}

The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) describes the village as "a parish in the lower division of Caldicott Hundred, county Monmouth, 6 miles S.E. of Newport" and says, "The land is partly in common. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Llandaff value £180, in the alternate patronage of the Chapter of Llandaff and the Provost of Eton College. The church is said to have belonged to Portown, a place now swallowed up by the sea." Kelly's Directory of 1901 lists the Parish Clerk as one William Roberts and sub-postmaster as one Richard Keyte. Two private dwellings are listed for a Mr. St. John Knox Richards Phillips J.P. at Whitson Court and for Reverend John Price of St.Bees (vicar of Whitson & Goldcliff) at the Vicarage.

Commercial residents are listed as:

The Rev. Henry Morgan reports the story of Eve, daughter of the Whitson postmaster, who died at The Farmer's Arms in Goldcliff. Said to have haunted the area, Eve's ghost was chased by the villagers whereupon she flung herself into a well. The well became known as "Ffynnon Eva" or Eve's Well – in the Newport district in Beechwood now known as Eveswell.