Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/606

Rh 558 N O R N O R infirmary (1747), the general lunatic asylum (1837), the union workhouse (1837), and the Royal Victoria Dispens ary (1844). Among the public buildings are the town-hall in the Gothic style (1864), the county-hall in the Grecian, the corn exchange buildings in the Italian, the county jail, the borough jail, the barracks, and the theatre. There is a fine public promenade, and a racecourse with an area of 117 acres. A new cattle market was opened in 1873. Northampton is unrivalled in England for the manufac ture of boots and shoes. There are also currying works, breweries, mailings, iron-foundries, flour and paper mills, and brick and tile works. The population of the muni cipal borough (area 1342 acres) in 1801 was 7020, which in 1831 had increased to 15,357, in 1851 to 26,658, in 1871 to 41,168, and in 1881 to 51,881, of whom 25,249 were males and 26,632 females. The parliamentary borough was enlarged in 1868 to 2046 acres, and the population in 1871 was 45,080, which in 1881 had in creased to 57,544. There is a tradition that Northampton was founded by Belinus, a British king, while according to some it is of Roman origin. X either of these suppositions is supported by any tangible evidence. In the Saxon Chronicle it is called Hamptune. From 917 to 921 it was in possession of the Danes, and in 1010 was nearly wholly de stroyed by Sweyn. After the Norman Conquest it was defended by embattled walls, bastion towers, and a strong fortress. North ampton has been more than once the scene of a parliament. The priory of St Andrew, founded before the Norman Conquest, was rebuilt by Simon de St Liz, and was of very great extent. During the Civil War the town was fortified for the Parliament. The borough received its charter of incorporation from Henry II., which was subsequently extended by the 36 of George III., and this con tinued to be the governing charter until the passing of the Muni cipal Act of 1835, when the government was vested in a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors, the town being divided into three wards. Northampton has returned two members to parlia ment since the time of Edward I. NORTHAMPTON, a city of the United States, the county seat of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, is situated on the west side of the Connecticut river, 17 miles by rail north of Springfield, and is connected with Hadley by a bridge 1230 feet long. The village of North ampton lies in rich alluvial meadow-land, about a mile from the bank of the river, and with its semi-rural streets and venerable trees has the reputation of being one of the prettiest villages in New England. Of note among its buildings are Smith College (1871 ; endowment, $500,000) for the higher education of women, the free public library (18,000 volumes) and memorial hall, the Clarke institution for deaf-mutes (1867 ; endowment, $300,000) on rising ground to the west, and the State lunatic asylum (1858; 460 patients). A tramway runs 3 miles to Florence, a manufacturing village producing sewing-machines, silk goods, paper, &c. The population of the township was 5278 in 1850, 6788 in 1860, 10,160 in 1870, and 12,172 in 1880. Nonotuck, bought from the Indians in 1653, became the village of Northampton in 1654, and was incorporated as a city in 1883. Jonathan Edwards was pastor from 1727 to 1750, and David Brainerd died under his roof in 1747. Timothy Dwight, Arthur, Benjamin, and Lewis Tappan, and W. D. Whitney were born at Northampton. NORTHAMPTON, HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF (c. 1539- 1614), the second son of the earl of Surrey, the poet, born about 1539, was restored in blood by the first parliament of Elizabeth. He bore a high character for learning, but during the greater part of Elizabeth s reign he remained in obscurity, sharing the fortunes of his family. Towards the end of the century he attached himself first to Essex and afterwards to Cecil, and took part in the secret cor respondence of the latter with James VI. of Scotland. When James became king of England, Lord Henry Howard at once sprang into favour. Though a Catholic in princi ple, he was ready to attend the Protestant service to please the king, and it is probable that he was one of the few who, in consideration of the services which they were able to render, were authorized by the authorities of that church to take this course. He was a good flatterer, and in 1603 he became a privy councillor. In 1604 he was made lord warden of the Cinque Ports and earl of North ampton. In 1608 he became lord privy seal, and in 1612 one of the commissioners of the treasury. In politics he gave his support to the Spanish alliance and to the toleration of the Catholics, believing, as was said by a Catholic agent, that the restoration of the Catho lic religion in England was the only bulwark against Puri tan democracy. After the signature of the treaty with Spain in 1604 he accepted a pension from the king of Spain. After Salisbury s death in 1612 he won over Carr, who was then earl of Rochester, to his interests by coun tenancing the favourite s intimacy with his great-niece, Lady Essex, and by supporting the divorce which made a marriage possible between them. Rochester, who soon became earl of Somerset, placed himself completely at Northampton s service in supporting an alliance with Spain. Northampton died in 1614, before the detection of the murder of Overbury, which brought about the fall of Somerset, and ultimately the exclusion from office of the Howard family. NORTHAMPTON, SPENCER COMPTON, EARL OF (1601- 1643), born in 1601, was the son of the Lord Compton who obtained a large fortune by his wife, the daughter of Sir John Spencer, the rich lord mayor, and who was created earl of Northampton in 1618. The young Lord Compton accompanied Prince Charles to Spain in 1623. He suc ceeded to the earldom in 1630. Though he sometimes appeared at court ceremonies, he preferred a home life. In the Civil War he took the king s side, opposing Lord Brook in Warwickshire in 1642, and taking part in the battle of Edgehill. When Banbury was taken he was placed in command of the garrison, and was active on the Royalist side in Staffordshire and Northamptonshire, as well as in his own county of Warwick. On 19th March 1643 he was dismounted in the fight at Hopton Heath near Stafford. His life was offered to him, but he answered that &quot;he scorned to take quarter from such base rogues and rebels as they were,&quot; and was immediately slain. NORTH BIERLEY, an urban sanitary district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, about 2 miles south of Bradford, includes the villages of Bierley Lane, Wibsey, and Low Moor, and other smaller hamlets. There are extensive collieries in the district as well as blast and puddling furnaces and rolling-mills, the ironworks at Low Moor employing between 3000 and 4000 persons. The church of the Holy Trinity at Low Moor was erected in 1606 in the Early English style, but has undergone restora tion. The manor of North Bierley originally belonged to the Swillingtons of Swillington, who were strong adherents of the house of Lancaster. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 4309 acres) in 1871 was 18,616, and in 1881 it was 20,935 ; that of the township of North Bierley (area 3342 acres) in the same years was 14,433 and 15,620. NORTH CAROLINA, one of the original thirteen States Plate that formed the American Union, is situated on the Atlantic XVIII. seaboard between 33 50 and 36 33 N. lat. and between 75 27 and 84 20 W. long. It stretches 500 miles east and west across the entire breadth of the Atlantic slope of the Appalachians in a long narrow rudely triangular belt, its western extremity, less than 20 miles wide, resting on the highest plateau and summits of that continental system of mountains, while its eastern end spreads out to a breadth of 200 miles in a low, level, and gently undulating plain on the Atlantic coast, with a curving shore-line of more