NEWTON, William Henry. b. about 1789; lieutenant 1 foot 23 Aug. 1804; captain 64 foot 25 June 1808; captain 62 foot 29 June 1815, placed on h.p. 25 May 1817; major in the army 27 May 1825, placed on h.p. 11 May 1826; lieut. col. in the army 28 June 1838; major royal Canadian rifle regiment 16 July 1841, lieut. col. 18 Dec. 1845, sold out 9 Dec. 1849; K.H. 1836. d. 1874.
NEWTON, Sir William John (son of James Newton the engraver). b. London 1785; engraved a few plates; became a miniature-painter; exhibited 343 miniatures at the R.A. 1808–63; miniature-painter in ordinary to Wm. IV and queen Adelaide 1831, and to Victoria 1837–58; knighted by the queen at St. James’s palace 19 July 1837; invented a plan for joining several pieces of ivory to form a large surface; his three large miniatures The coronation of the queen 1838, The marriage of the queen 1840, and The christening of the prince of Wales 1842, were lent to the Victorian exhibition at the New gallery 1892; many of his portraits were engraved; a collection of his works was sold at Christie’s 23 June 1890. d. 6 Cambridge terrace, Hyde park, London 22 Jany. 1869.
NEWTON, William Samuel. b. 16 Aug. 1816; ensign Coldstream guards 5 Dec. 1834, lieut. col. 13 Dec. 1860 to 2 July 1861; served in the Crimean campaign Oct. 1854 to April 1855; commanded at Malta 1868–70, at Dublin 1870–72; col. 82 foot 4 March 1872 to death; general 1 Oct. 1877; placed on retired list 1 July 1881. d. Eastbourne 16 Oct. 1889.
NIAS, Sir Joseph (3 son of Joseph Nias, ship insurance broker). b. London 2 April 1793; entered navy 19 Nov. 1807; served in W. E. Parry’s three expeditions to the Arctic regions 1818–23; first lieutenant of the Asia at battle of Navarino 7 Sept. 1829, captain 8 July 1835; captain of the Herald, frigate in the East Indies 1838–43, served at capture of Canton; commanded the Ordinary at Devonport 1850–3; granted good service pension 12 Jany. 1854; superintendent of victualling yard and hospital at Plymouth 2 Nov. 1854 to 13 Nov. 1856; R.A. 14 Feb. 1857, V.A. 12 Sept. 1863, retired admiral 18 Oct. 1867; C.B. 29 June 1841, K.C.B. 13 March 1867. d. 56 Montagu sq. London 17 Dec. 1879.
NIBLO, William. b. Ireland 1789; went to New York, where he established a hotel and coffee-house; proprietor of Niblo’s Garden, New York 1829; purchased the library of Dr. Francis L. Hawks and presented it to New York historical society; left a library to the New York Young men’s christian association. d. New York 21 Aug. 1875.
NICHOL, James. b. Brechin, Forfarshire 1806; publisher in Edinburgh 1859 to death. d. Edinburgh 26 April 1866. Bookseller May 1866 p. 481.
NICHOL, John (only son of the succeeding). b. Montrose, Forfarshire 8 Sept. 1833; ed. in univ. of Glasgow 1848–55, and at Balliol coll. Oxf. 1855–9; B.A. Oxford 1859, M.A. 1874; LL.D. St. Andrews 1873, student of Gray’s Inn 12 Nov. 1859; professor of English literature in univ. of Glasgow 1861, resigned 1889; a private tutor at Oxford; lectured especially to ladies’ classes in Scotland and England; author of Fragments of criticism 1860; Hannibal, a classical drama 1872; Tables of European literature and history A.D. 200–1876, 1876, 5 ed. 1888; The death of Themistocles and other poems 1881; American literature, an historical review 1882; Lord Bacon’s Life and philosophy, 2 vols. 1887–9. d. 11 Stafford terrace, Kensington, London 11 Oct. 1894.
NICHOL, John Pringle (eld. son of John Nichol, gentleman farmer). b. Huntly Hill, near Brechin, Forfarshire 13 Jany. 1804; ed. at King’s college, Aberdeen; licensed as a preacher before he came of age; head master of the Hawick gr. sch.; editor of the Fife Herald; head master of Cupar academy; rector of Montrose academy 1827–34; regius professor of astronomy in univ. of Glasgow 1836 to death, procured transference of the Glasgow observatory from the college grounds to its present site at Dowanhill 1840; hon. LL.D. Aberdeen 1837; F.R.A.S.; F.R.S. Edinb. 1836; author of Views of the architecture of the heavens 1837, 9 ed. 1868; Phenomena of the solar system 1838; The system of the world 1846, 2 ed. 1848; The stellar universe 1847; The planetary system 1848; The planet Neptune 1855; A cyclopædia of the physical sciences 1857; translated Willm’s Education of the people 1847; one of the editors of Mackenzie’s Imperial dictionary of biography 1857. d. Glenburn house, near Rothesay, Buteshire 19 Sept. 1859. Maclehose’s Hundred, Glasgow men ii 249–52 (1886) portrait; G. Gilfillan’s A second gallery of literary portraits (1850) 231–55; C. Mackay’s Forty years’ recollections i 313–24 (1877).
NICHOLAS, Richard Griffin. b. 23 Jany. 1843; cornet 3 dragoon guards 18 Feb. 1862, sold out 3 April 1866; served in the ranks 5 years and 9 months; riding master 4 dragoon guards 13 April 1872; lieut. 1 dragoon guards 14 Feb. 1874, adjutant 1874–81; captain 5 lancers 15 Oct. 1881; captain 1 dragoon guards 1 April 1882 to death. d. Canterbury 23 Jany. 1884. bur. St. Thomas’s hill cemet. 26 Jany.
NICHOLAS, Thomas. b. near Treffgarne chapel, Solva, Pembrokeshire 1820; ed. at Lancashire college, Manchester and in Germany, where he took degree of Ph.D.; became a Presbyterian minister; professor of biblical literature and mental and moral science at Presbyterian college, Carmarthen 1856, resigned 1863 and settled in London; one of promoters of a scheme for the furtherance of higher education in Wales on unsectarian principles, the University college of Wales was founded at Aberystwith 1867, one of the governors, drew out a new scheme of education; author of Middle and high class schools and university education for Wales 1863; Pedigree of the English people 1868, 5 ed. 1878; Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales, 2 vols. 1872; History and antiquities of the county of Glamorgan and its families 1874. d. 156 Cromwell road, London 14 May 1879. Athenæum 24 May 1879 p. 662.