the Captain as Nelson's flag-lieutenant; went with Nelson to the Minerve, was severely wounded in the action with the Sabina on 20 Dec. 1796, and on the eve of the battle of St. Vincent returned with Nelson to the Captain. In the battle he commanded a division of boarders, and, assisted by the boatswain, boarded the San Nicolas by the spritsail-yard. For this service he was promoted to be commander, 27 Feb. 1797. On his return to England he was examined at Surgeons' Hall, and obtained a certificate that ‘his wounds from their singularity and the consequences which have attended them are equal in prejudice to the health to loss of limb.’ The report was lodged with the privy council, but, ‘as a voluntary contribution to the exigencies of the State,’ he did not then apply for a pension. Some years later, when he did apply, he was told that ‘their lordships could not reopen claims so long passed where promotion had been received during the interval.’ In March 1798 he was appointed to the command of the sea fencibles on the coast of Sussex, and on 29 April 1802 was advanced to post rank. He had no further service, and on 10 Jan. 1837 was promoted to be rear-admiral on the retired list. On 17 Aug. 1840 he was moved on to the active list; and on 9 Nov. 1846 became a vice-admiral. He died in London on 24 Oct. 1851. He was three times married, and left issue.
[His autobiography (privately printed) contains a full account of his family and service career. It seems to have been written from memory, apparently about 1830, and is not accurate in details. It says, for instance, that when made prisoner in November 1795 he was taken before Bonaparte for examination, a thin young man with a keen glance. Bonaparte was, at the time, in Paris. O'Byrne's Naval Biog. Dict.; Gent. Mag. 1852, i. 92; Nicolas's Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (see Index); Tucker's Memoirs of the Earl of St. Vincent, i. 285, 288.]
NOBLE, JOHN (1827–1892), politician and writer on public finance, was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, on 2 May 1827. For seventeen years he was known in East Lincolnshire as an energetic supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League. He came to London in 1859, entered for the bar, and engaged in social and political agitation. He was one of the founders of the Alliance National Land and Building Society, and joined Washington Wilks and others in establishing the London Political Union for the advocacy of manhood suffrage. In 1861 he was active in lecturing on the free breakfast-table programme. In 1864 he was in partnership with Mr. C. F. Macdonald as financial and parliamentary agents promoting street railways in London, Liverpool, and Dublin. He actively promoted the election of John Stuart Mill for Westminster in 1865, and advocated municipal reform in London. In 1870 he became parliamentary secretary to Mr. Brogden, M.P. for Wednesbury. On the formation of the County Council Union in 1889 he became its secretary. He delivered in his day many hundreds of lectures on political, social, and financial subjects, habitually took part in the proceedings of the Social Science Congress, and was lecturer to the Financial Reform Association. He died on 17 Jan. 1892, and was buried at Highgate.
Noble wrote:
- ‘Arbitration and a Congress of Nations as a Substitute for War in the Settlement of International Disputes,’ London, 1862, 8vo.
- ‘Fiscal Reform: Suggestions for a further Revision of Taxation, reprinted from the “Financial Reformer,”’ 1865, 8vo; a lecture read at the meeting of the National Association of Social Science at Sheffield.
- ‘Fiscal Legislation 1842–65: A Review of the Financial Changes of the period and their Effects on Revenue,’ 1867, 8vo.
- ‘Free Trade, Reciprocity, and the Revivers: an Enquiry into the Effects of the Free Trade Policy upon Trade, Manufactures and Employment,’ London, 1869, 8vo.
- ‘The Queen's Taxes,’ London, 1870, 8vo.
- ‘Our Imports and Exports,’ 1870, 8vo.
- ‘National Finance,’ 1875, 8vo. ‘Local Taxation,’ 1876, 8vo.
- ‘Facts for Liberal Politicians,’ 1880, revised and brought up to date as ‘Facts for Politicians’ in 1892.
[Works in Brit. Mus. Library; Memoir by Herbert Perris prefixed to Facts for Politicians, 1892.]
NOBLE, MARK (1754–1827), biographer, born in Digbeth, Birmingham, in 1754, was third surviving son of William Heatley Noble, merchant of that city. His father sold, among many other commodities, beads, knives, toys, and other trifles which he distributed wholesale among slave traders, and he had also a large mill for rolling silver and for plating purposes. Mark was educated at schools at Yardley, Worcestershire, and Ashbourne, Derbyshire. On the death of his father he inherited a modest fortune, and was articled to Mr. Barber, a solicitor of Birmingham. On the expiration of his indentures he commenced business on his own account, but literature and history proved more attractive to him than law, and he soon abandoned the legal profession. In 1781 he was ordained to the curacies of Baddesley Clinton and Packwood, Warwickshire.
