Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/81

 NEWTON

NICHOLA

and 1742. Thomas received a good education, studied law and settled in practice in Norfolk. He was a Republican representative in the 7th- 20th and the 22d congresses, 1801-29 and 1831-33. He claimed election to the 21st congress, but the house by a majority of thirteen gave the seat to George Loyall who had contested it. He retired the oldest member in point of service in the house, having also served for many years as chair- man of the committee on commerce and manu- factures. His son, John Newton (q.v,), was the distinguished soldier and engineer. He died in Norfolk, Va., Aug. 5, 1847.

NEWTON, William Wilberforce, clergyman, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 4, 1843 ; son of the Rev. Richard and Lydia (Greatorex) New- ton. He left the University of Pennsylvania with other students in 1863 to serve in Landis battery in the emergency corps for the defence of the state against Lee's invasion. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, A.B., 1865, A.M., 1868, and at the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal church, Philadelphia, in 1868. He was ordered deacon in 1868, and ordained priest, June 19, 1869, and was as- sistant at the Church of the Epiphany, Philadel- phia, during his father's absence in Europe, 1869- 70. He was married, Nov. 16, 1870, to Emily Stevenson, daughter of the Rev. James Welsh Cooke, of Philadelphia, Pa. He was rector of St. Paul's, Brookline, Mass., 1870-75 ; of Trinity, Newark, N. J., 1875-77; of St. Paul's, Boston, Mass., 1877-81, and in 1881 became rector of St. Stephen's, Pittsfield, Mass. He was a member of the school committee while in Brookline, Mass., and held a similar office in Pittsfield, Mass., 1887- 88. He organized the American congress of churches, which met at Hartford, Conn., in 1885, and at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1886. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1890. He is the author of : Little and Wise (1877) ; Neio Tracts for Neiv Times (1877); The Wicket Gate (1878); Essays of To-day (1879); The Interpreter s House (1879) ; The Palace Beau- tiful (1880); Great Heart (1881); Tlie Voice of St. John (1881) ; Troublesome Children (1880); Priest and Man (1883); Summer Sermons (1885); Toyland (1885); The Vine Out of Egijpt (1887); Prayers of the Ages (1887); A Fathers Blessing (1888); Ragnar the Sea-King (1888) ; Tlie Life of Dr. William A. 3Iuhlenburg, D.D. (1890); The Child and the Bishop (1894) ; A Run Tlirough Russia (1894) ; Philip McGregor (1895). His three poems in The Voice of St. John : Paradise, Tele- machus a,nd Ragnar, were set to music in cantata form by Prof. F. J. Liddle, organist of St. Stephen's church. Pittsfield.

NIBLACK, William Ellis, representative, was born ill Dubois county, Ind., May 19, 1822 ; son

of John and Martha (Hargrave) Niblack. He matriculated at Indiana university in the class of 1844, but left at the close of his freshman year, studied law, was admitted to the bar and after- ward settled in practice in Vincennes. He rep- resented Martin county in the Indiana legislature in 1849 and 1858, and was a state senator, 1850-52. He was appointed circuit judge in January, 1854, and in October, 1854, was re-appointed for a term of six years, but resigned in October, 1857, hav- ing been elected to the 35th congress from the first Indiana district to fill the term of James Lockhart, who died Sept. 7, 1857. He served in the 35th, 86th and 39th-43d congresses, 1857-61, and 1865-75. He was a delegate at large from Indiana to the Democratic national conventions of 1864, 1868 and 1876 ; a member from Indiana of the Democratic congressional committee, 1865-72, and a judge of the supreme court for the first district of Indiana, 1877-89, being defeated for re-election in 1888 by S. D. Cofifey. He was married to Eliza A. Sherman of Cazenovia, N.Y., and of their sons, William Caldwell Niblack, a lawyer of Chicago, 111., is the author of "Niblack on Benefit Societies and Accident Insurance ; " Mason Jenks Niblack, lawyer, Vincennes, Ind., was speaker of the house of representatives in the Indiana legislature, 1889-91, and Albert Par- ker Niblack, lieutenant U.S.N., was inspector of naval militia, 1895-96, naval attache at Berlin, Rome and Vienna, 1896-98, served in Cuba, Man- illa and China waters, 1898-1901, and is the au- thor of " Coast Indians of Alaska." Judge Niblack died in Indianapolis, Ind., May 7, 1893. NICHOLA, Lewis, soldier, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1717, of Huguenot descent. He fol- lowed the calling of his father and grandfather, entering the British army in 1740 as an ensign, and was promoted major. He came to America in 1766 and settled in Philadelphia, Pa., where he was a surveyor. He established and edited the American Magazine in 1769, and edited the Trans- actions of the American Philosophical society of which he was a member. He was appointed barracks-master-general of Pliiladelphia, in 1776, and was subsequently given command of the city guard. He was town-major, with the rank of major in the state militia, 1776-82. He planned a river defence boat and drew maps of the injuries done by the British w.hile they oeeu- pied the city. He offered to congress the sugges- tion that a regiment of invalid soldiers be re- cruited from men disabled in the service, and used as a camp of instruction or military school. His plan was acted upon, and in 1777 he was commissioned colonel and commandant of the school of instruction. He was brevetted brigadiei'-general in November, 1783. He was ail original member of the Pennsylvania branch.