Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/114

 NOTT

NOTT

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NOTT, Eliphalet, educator, was born in Ash- foril. Conn., Jnne 25, 1773: son of Stephen and Deborah (Selden) Nott; grandson of the Rev. Abraham (1696-1756) and Phebe (Tapping) Nott, of Saybrook, and of Samuel Selden, of Lyme, and a descendant of John Nott, who emigrated from Nottingham, England, to America inlG40, and settled in Wethersfield, Conn., where he was a re- presentative at the general court for several years. He was educated bj' his mother and in the office of Dr. Palmer, at Ashford. until his mother's death in 1788, when he entered the family of his brother, the Rev. Samuel Nott, pastor of the Con- gregational clmrcli, Franklin, Conn., 1781-1852. He was principal of the academy at Plainfield, Conn., 17'J3-!)5; studied theology under the Rev. Joel Benedict, pastor of the Plainfield Congrega- tional church, and was married in 1796 to Sallie Benedict, daugiiter of his preceptor in theology. Upon passing the senior examination at Brown university in 1795, he received the honorary de- gree A.M. He was licensed to preach, June 26, 1796; went to Cherry Vallej'. N. Y., as a missionary in that year, where he established an academy and acted as both pastor and teacher. He was ordained by the presbytery of Albany. N.Y., Oct. 13, 1798, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Albany, and served 1798-1804. He was elected a trustee of Union college, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1800, and president as successor to Dr. Jonathan Maxcy in 180-1. Through his efforts the state legislature passed a law in 1805 by which financial aid was .secured through four lotteries to be drawn for the benefit of the college, the management of which lotteries was given to Dr. Nott and con- ducted by him for several years. The sum of $80,000 was the sum first agreed upon, but as the drawings did not take place until 1814, the legis- lature made a furtlier grant of $200,000 for which Dr. Nott was made personally resjxjnsible. His government of the college was parental, for he had little regard for the obedience or studious- ness that was compulsory, and was as a result greatly loved by his pupils, 4000 of whom were graduated during his term of office. He advo- cated temperance, anti-slavery and civil and religious liberty throughout his life. He was a student of the lav\-3 of heat and secured about thirty patents for stoves and other devices, among

them being the first stove used for the burning of anthracite coal, which bore his name. He re- ceived the degree D.D. from the College of New Jersey in 1805. and LL.D, from Brown university in 1828. In 1855 he endowed Union college with property worth $500,000 known as the "Nott Trust Fund " of which he was a visitor, 1855-66. He published several sermons and addresses, among them the famous address on the death of Alexander Hamilton, and is the author of: Councils to Yoioig Men (1845), and Lectures on Temperance (1847). See Memoir by Cornelius Van Santvoord, with a contribution and revision by Professor Tayler Lewis (1876). He died in Schenectady, N.Y., Jan. 29, 1866.

NOTT, Henry Junius, educator, was born in Union district. S.C., Nov. 4, 1797; son of Judge Abraham and Angelica (Mitchell) Nott: grand- son of Josiah and Zerviah (Clark) Nott, and a descendant of John Nott. the immigrant, 1640. His father, a native of Saybrook, Conn., was graduated at Yale, 1781, taught school in Georgia, 1781-91, was admitted to the bar in Camden, S.C, 1791; was a Federalist representative in the 7th congress. 1801-03; a judge of the state court, 1810-24, and president of the court of appeals of South Carolina, 1824-30. Henry Junius Nott was graduated at South Carolina college in 1812. He visited Europe in 1866. studied law in Colum- bia, S.C, under William Harper (q.v.), and was admitted to the bar in 1818. He settled in practice in Columbia, in partnership with David J. McCord, but in 1821 abandoned his profession on account of ill health, visited Eu- rope, and engaged in literary work in Hollaiid and France until 1825, when he returned to the United States. He was professor of the elements of criticism, logic and the philosophy of languages in South Carolina college, 1825-34, visited New York in 1837, with his wife, a French lady whom he had married in Paris, and on the homeward voyage the vessel was wrecked oflf the coast of North Carolina and both lost tiieir lives. He was an essayist and lecturer, and contributed a series of sketches in the Southern Review, which were afterward published in book form under the title Novelettes of a Traveller (2 vols., 1834). He also published Law Reports of South Carolina with David J. McCord (2 vols., 1818-20). He died at sea. Oct. 13, 1837.

NOTT, Joel Benedict, educator, was born in Cherry Valley. N.Y., Dec. 14, 1797; son of the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet an<l Sallie (Benedict) Nott. He was graduated at Union college. A.B., 1817, A.M., 1820; was tutor there, 1820-22; lecturer in chemistry, 1822-23: professor of chemistry. 1823- 31. In 1837 he retired to a farm in Guilderland, Albany county, where he continued to reside during his lifetime. He was married in 1826 to