NORTH, THOMAS (1830–1884), antiquary and campanologist, son of Thomas North of Burton End, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, by his wife, Mary Raven, was born at Melton Mowbray on 24 Jan. 1830. He was educated at the grammar school of his native town. Upon leaving school he entered the office of Mr. Woodcock, a solicitor at Melton Mowbray, but presently gave up the law, removed to Leicester, and entered Paget's bank there. Here he remained until 1872, when failing health compelled him to retire to Ventnor. North was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1875. In 1881 he removed to the Plâs, Llanfairfechan, where he resided until his death on 27 Feb. 1884. He married, on 23 May 1860, Fanny, daughter of Richard Luck of Leicester, by whom he had an only son. The Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society erected to his memory a brass tablet in the church of St. Martin, Leicester.
From an early age North was a student of archæology and antiquities. In 1861 he was elected honorary secretary of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society, and he edited all its ‘Transactions’ and papers from that time until his death, himself contributing upwards of thirty papers. Among the most important of these were ‘Tradesmen's Tokens issued in Leicestershire,’ ‘The Mowbrays, Lords of Melton,’ ‘The Constables of Melton,’ ‘Leicester Ancient Stained Glass,’ ‘The Letters of Alderman Robert Heyricke,’ &c. Eight of these papers relate to his native town, of which he projected a history, although he never lived to complete it. His earliest and perhaps best known book was ‘A Chronicle of the Church of St. Martin in Leicester during the Reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, with some Account of its minor Altars and ancient Guilds,’ 1866, a work of learning and research, which has been referred to in several ecclesiastical suits. In later life he made campanology his special study, and brought out in rapid succession a series of monographs on the church bells of various counties, other volumes being in preparation at the time of his death.
North's works are: 1. ‘A Chronicle of the Church of St. Martin in Leicester,’ &c., 1866, referred to above. 2. ‘The Church Bells of Leicestershire: their Inscriptions, Traditions, and peculiar Uses, with Chapters on Bells and the Leicester Bell Founders,’ 1876. 3. ‘The Church Bells of Northamptonshire,’ 1878. 4. ‘The Church Bells of Rutland,’ 1880. 5. ‘The Church Bells of Lincolnshire,’ 1882. 6. ‘The Church Bells of Bedfordshire,’ 1883. 7. ‘The Accounts of the Churchwardens of St. Martin's, Leicester, 1489–1844,’ 1884. 8. ‘The Church Bells of Hertfordshire,’ 1887, edited, after North's decease, from his materials by J. C. L. Stahlschmidt. He also edited the first five volumes of the ‘Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society's Transactions,’ and the Leicestershire section of vols. vi. to xvii. of the ‘Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers.’
[Transactions of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archæological Society, vol. vi.; Church Bells, 8 March 1884; and information kindly communicated by his widow.]
NORTH, WILLIAM, sixth Lord North (1678–1734), elder son of Charles, fifth baron, by Catherine, only daughter of William, lord Grey of Wark, and grandson of Dudley, fourth baron North [q. v.], was born on 22 Dec. 1678. His father, upon his marriage in 1673, had been summoned by special writ to take his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Grey of Rolleston, and he succeeded to the barony of North in 1677, from which time he was known as Lord North and Grey. A few months after his father's death in January 1691, his mother remarried the Hon. Francis Russell, governor of Barbados, leaving his younger brother Charles and his sister Dudleya to the young peer's care. The three had been brought up together, and among them there had grown up ‘a deep and romantic affection.’ The two brothers entered at Magdalene College, Cambridge, together on 22 Oct. 1691, and Charles, the younger, graduated M.A. in 1695, and was elected to a fellowship at his college in 1698. William, however, left Cambridge without taking a degree in 1694, and entered at Foubert's military academy, which had been established by William III in Leicester Fields, with a view to qualify himself for the profession of arms. Dissipation soon involved him heavily in debt, and to extricate himself, he, by the advice of his uncle, Roger North, travelled for three years, remaining abroad until he came of age and took his seat in the House of Lords in 1699. In March 1702 William III signed his commission as captain of footguards in the new levies. He was soon despatched to the seat of the war, and on 15 Jan. 1703 he was made colonel of the 10th regiment of foot (Beatson, Political Index, ii. 210). He lost his right hand at Blenheim on 13 Aug. 1704 (Boyer, Annals of Anne, 1735, p. 153). When Marlborough returned to England in December, Lord
