Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/35

 aged 75. He was buried in the Friends' burial-ground at Widcombe Hill, near Bath. He married Frances, daughter of Jasper Capper, and sister of Samuel Capper, author of ‘The Acknowledged Doctrines of the Church of Rome,’ London, 1849. His son, Arthur John Naish (1816–1889), was co-founder with Paul Bevan [see under ] of the valuable ‘Bevan-Naish Library’ of Friends' books, now deposited in the library, Dr. Johnson Passage, Birmingham. Naish's chief publications, nearly all undated, are: 1. ‘The Negro's Remembrancer,’ in thirteen numbers; many of the later numbers ran to second and third editions. 2. ‘The Negro's Friend,’ in twenty-six numbers. 3. ‘A Short History of the Poor Black Slaves who are employed in cultivating Sugar, Cotton, Coffee, &c. Intended to make little Children in England pity them, and use their Endeavours to relieve them from Bondage.’ 4. ‘Reasons for using East Indian Sugar,’ 1828: this proceeded to a fifth edition. 5. ‘A Brief Description of the Toil and Sufferings of Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies … by several Eye-witnesses.’ 6. ‘The Negro Mother's Appeal’ (in verse). 7. ‘A Comparison between Distressed English Labourers and the Coloured People and Slaves of the West Indies, from a Jamaica Paper.’ 8. ‘Plead the Cause of the Poor and Needy.’ 9. ‘The Advantages of Free Labour over the Labour of Slaves. Elucidated in the Cultivation of Pimento, Ginger, and Sugar.’ 10. ‘Biographical Anecdotes: Persons of Colour,’ in five numbers. 11. ‘A Sketch of the African Slave Trade, and the Slavery of Negroes under their Christian Masters in the European Colonies.’ 12. ‘Sketches from the History of Pennsylvania,’ 1845. 13. ‘The Fulfilment of the Prophecy of Isaiah,’ &c., London, 1853. 14. ‘George Fox and his Friends as Leaders in the Peace Cause,’ London, 1859. A tale, ‘The Negro Slave,’ 1830, 8vo, is also attributed to Naish in the ‘British Museum Catalogue;’ but from the preface it is evidently the work of a lady.

[Smith's Cat. ii. 210–14; registers at Devonshire House; information from Mr. C. E. Naish.]

 NALSON, JOHN (1638?–1686), historian and royalist pamphleteer, born about 1638, is said to have been educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, but his name does not appear in the list of admissions. He entered the church, and became rector of Doddington in the Isle of Ely. In 1678 he took the degree of LL.D. (Graduati Cantabrigienses, p. 336). Nalson was an active polemical writer on the side of the government during the latter part of the reign of Charles II. In a petition addressed to the king in 1682 he describes himself as having published 'a number of treatises for the vindicating of truth and his majesty's prerogative in church and state from the aspersions of the dissenters' (Tanner MSS. ciii. 247). The first of these was 'The Countermine,' published in 1677, which at once went through three editions, and was highly praised by Roger L'Estrange [q. v.] (, Illustrations of Literary History, iv. 69). Though published anonymously its authorship was soon discovered, and the parliament of 1678, in which the opposition, whom he had attacked, had the majority, resolved to call Nalson to account. On 26 March 1678 he was sent for on the charge of having written a pamphlet called 'A Letter from a Jesuit in Paris, showing the most efficient way to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion,' a clumsy jeu d'esprit, in which the names of various members of parliament were introduced. After being kept in custody for about a month, he was discharged, but ordered to be put out of the commission of the peace, and to be reprimanded by the speaker (1 May). 'What you have done,' said the speaker, 'was beneath the gravity of your calling and a desertion of your profession ' (Commons Journals, ix. 572, 570, 592, 608; Grey's Debates, vii. 32, 103, 164- 167; Preface to the 4th edit. of The Countermine, 1684, pp. ii-ix). Nalson, however, undeterred by this experience, published several other pamphlets, undertook to make a collection of documents in answer to Rushworth (1682), and printed the 'Trial of Charles I' (1684), prefixing to his historical works long polemical attacks on the whigs. He estimated the value of his services very highly, and lost no chance of begging for preferment. 'A little oil,' he wrote to Sancroft, 'will make the wheels go easy, which truly hitherto without complaining I have found a very heavy draught. It is some discouragement to see others, who I am sure have not outstript me in the race of loyal and hearty endeavours to serve the king and church, carry away the prize ' (14 July 1683; Tanner MSS. xxxiv. 80). He asked on 14 Aug. 1680 for the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge, which he justly terms 'preternatural confidence,' on 21 July 1680 for the deanery of Worcester, and to be given a prebend either at Westminster or Ely (ib. xxxiv. 79, 135, xxxvii. 117, ciii. 247). In 1684 he was at length collated to a prebend at Ely. He died on 24 March 1685-6, aged 48, and was buried at Ely. His epitaph is printed in Le