Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/658

600 N O T N V museum of natural history, a mechanics institute, and a free public library with nearly 40,000 volumes. Among the educational establishments the principal are Uni versity College, for which a splendid range of buildings was opened in 1881 ; the free grammar school, founded in 1513, for some time in disuse, but revived in 1807, and now, since its removal in 1868 to new buildings, known as the High School ; the Nottingham High School for girls ; the blue-coat school, founded in 1723 ; the people s college, founded in 1846 for children of the working classes, and now under the direction of the Board as a middle-class school ; the Congregational institute for the education of students, chiefly for evangelistic and mission work ; and the Nottingham school of art, for which a fine building was erected in 1865 in the Italian style, and which is attended by over 500 students. There are a large number of bene volent institutions, including the general hospital, founded in 1781, and possessing an endowment of over 26,000, the garden hospital, the children s hospital, the nursing institution, the Nottingham and Midland eye infirmary, the dispensary, the lunatic hospital, the lunatic asylum for Nottinghamshire, the Nottingham borough asylum, the Midland institution for the blind, the homes for aged poor, incurable orphans, and deserted infants, and the hospital for women. There are also a large number of almshouses and other charities. Nottingham has been a manufacturing town for more than 600 years, and towards the close of the last century became an import ant seat of the stocking trade. It was here that Richard Arkwright in 1769 erected his first spinning frame, and here also Hargreaves had the year previously removed with his spinning jenny after his machine had been destroyed by a mob at Blackburn. While Leicester became the centre of woollen hosiery, Nottingham has devoted itself chiefly to cotton, silk, and merino hosiery. Up to 1815 point lace was also an important manufacture. In 1808 and 1809 John Heathcoat of Nottingham obtained patents for machines for making bobbin net, which inaugurated a new era in the lace manufacture. Besides hosiery and bobbin net lace manu facture, the industries include bleaching, the dyeing, spinning, and twisting of silk, the spinning of cotton and woollen yarn, tanning, engineering, and brewing. There is also an extensive trade in malt. The population increased from 31,638 in 1801 to 79,604 in 1851, to 86,621 in 1871, and to 111,648 in 1881, of whom 51,892 were males and 59,756 females. Up to 1877 the municipal and parlia mentary limits were coextensive, but in that year the municipal limits were increased from 1996 to 9960 acres, with a population in 1881 of 186,575, of whom 87,633 were males and 98,942 females. The number of inhabited houses in the parliamentary area in 1881 was 23,128, while 915 were uninhabited and 318 building. In the municipal area there were 38,548 inhabited houses, 1429 unin habited, and 767 building. Nottingham, or Snotingaham, is supposed to have been a Celtic settlement. It first became important in the 9th century. For some time after Alfred s defeat in 868 the town was in the hands of the Danes, and constituted one of their five boroughs, but it was restored and repeopled by Edward the Elder, who erected a portion of the town wall, rebuilt the castle, and threw a bridge over the Trent (920-4). The growing importance of Nottingham is evidenced by the fact that Athelstan, the successor of Edward the Elder, established there a royal mint. In 1013 the town submitted to Sweyn. After the Conquest Nottingham Castle was rebuilt to over awe the people north of the Trent, its governorship being bestowed on William de Peverel, reputed natural son of the Conqueror. And it was whilst residing in it that Roger Mortimer, earl of March, and Isabella, widow of Edward II., were seized in the dead of night by Edward III. in 1330. Parliaments were held at Nottingham in 1334, 1337, and 1357, and it was the scene of the conference of the judges with Richard II. in August 1387. Several important persons have been imprisoned in the castle, among others David II. of Scot land. Edward IV. assembled his troops at Nottingham in 1461 ; and it was the headquarters of Richard III. before the battle of Bosworth in 1485. In 1642 Charles I. finally broke with the Parlia ment by setting up his standard at Nottingham, and during the ensuing civil war the castle was held by each of the two parties more than once. In 1644 it was dismantled by Cromwell s orders ; but in 1674-79 it was re-erected in the Palladian style by the duke of Newcastle. During the Reform riot in 1831 it was partly de stroyed by fire. The town received a charter from Henry II. con firming privileges granted to it by Henry I. In the reign of Henry VI. it was constituted a county under the title of "the town and county of the town of Nottingham. " A surreptitious surrender of its charter was obtained by Charles II., but he was persuaded sub sequently to grant it a new one. This charter was withdrawn by James II., but restored by William III. Since the reign ef Edward I. Nottingham has returned two members to parliament. In 1870 it was made the seat of a suffragan bishop in the diocese of Lincoln. NOTTINGHAM, EARLS OF. I. HENEAGE FINCH (1621- 1682), first earl, lord chancellor of England, was descended from an old family, many of whose members had attained to high legal eminence, and was the eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, recorder of London, by his first wife Frances, daughter of Sir Edmund Bell of Beaupre Hall, Norfolk. In the register of Oxford university he is entered as born in Kent, 23d December 1621, and prob ably his native place was Eastwell in that county. He was educated at Westminster and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he remained till he became a member of the Inner Temple in 1638. He was called to the bar in 1645, and soon obtained a lucrative practice, acquiring from his per suasive powers the titles of "the silver-tongued lawyer" and " the English Cicero," and from his graceful action that of the "English Roscius." He was chosen a member of the convention parliament of April 1660, and shortly afterwards was appointed solicitor-general, being created a baronet the day after he was knighted. In May of the following year he was chosen to represent the university of Oxford, and in 1665 the university created him a D.C.L. In 1670 he became attorney -general, and in 1675 lord chancellor. He died in Great Queen Street, Lincoln s Inn Fields, 18th December 1682, and was buried in the church of Ravenstone in Bucks. The contemporaries of Lord Chancellor Nottingham of both sides of politics agree in their high estimate of his integrity, moderation, and eloqxience, while his abilities as a lawyer are sufficiently attested by the fact that he is still spoken of as "the father of equity." His most important contribution to the statute book is "The Statute of Frauds." While attorney -general he superintended the edition of Sir Henry Hobart s Reports, 1671. He also published Several Speeches and Discourses in the Tryal of tJie Judges of King Charles I., 1660 ; Speeches to both Houses of Parliament, 1679 ; Spcectiat the Sentence of Viscount Stafford, 1680. He left Chancery Reports in MS., and notes on Coke s Institutes. See Burnet, History of His Own Time (1724-34) ; Wood, Athenx Oxoniensis (1691) ; Horace Walpole, Royal and Noble Authors (1758) ; Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1649) ; Foss, Judges of England (1848-64) ; and Black- stone, Commentaries. II. DANIEL FINCH (1647-1730), second earl, son of the preceding, entered parliament for Lichfield in 1679. He was one of the privy councillors who in 1685 signed the order for the proclamation of the duke of York, but during the whole of the reign of James II. he kept away from the court. At the last moment he hesitated to join in the invitation to William of Orange, and after the abdication of James II. he was the leader of the party who were in favour of a regency. He declined the office of lord chan cellor under William and Mary, but accepted that of secretary of state, retaining it till December 1693. Under Anne he in 1702 again accepted the same office in the ministry of Godolphin, but finally retired in 1704. On the accession of George I. he was made president of the council, but in 1716 he finally withdrew from office. He succeeded to the earldom of Winchelsea 9th September 1729, and died 1st January 1730. NOVALIS. See HARDENBERG, vol. xi. p. 472. NOVARA, a city of Italy, the chief town of a province, stands between the Agogna and the Terdoppio on a hill 545 feet above sea-level in the plain between the Sessia and the Po. It is an important railway junction, 30 miles west of Milan, on the main line from Turin to Venice, which there connects with the continuation of the St Gotthard line and the Simplon route, as well as with a line to Alessandria and Genoa. Previous to 1830 Novara was still surrounded by its old Spanish ramparts, which were entered by only four gates, and gave the place a