A life of Lord Anson, inaccurate in some details but valuable and interesting, was published by Sir John Barrow in 1839. The standard account of his voyage round the world is that by his chaplain Richard Walter, 1748, often reprinted. A share in the work has been claimed on dubious grounds for Benjamin Robins, the mathematician. Another and much inferior account was published in 1745 by Pascoe Thomas, the schoolmaster of the “Centurion.”
(D. H.)
ANSON, SIR WILLIAM REYNELL, Bart. (1843- ), English jurist, was born on the 14th of November 1843, at Walberton, Sussex, son of the second baronet. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, he took a first class in the final classical schools in 1866, and was elected to a fellowship of All Souls in the following year. In 1869 he was called to the bar, and went the home circuit until 1873, when he succeeded to the baronetcy. In 1874 he became Vinerian reader in English law at Oxford, a post which he held until he became, in 1881, warden of All Souls College. He identified himself both with local and university interests; he became an alderman of the city of Oxford in 1892, chairman of quarter sessions for the county in 1894, was vice-chancellor of the university in 1898-1899, and chancellor of the diocese of Oxford in 1899. In that year he was returned, without opposition, as M.P. for the university in the Liberal Unionist interest, and consequently resigned the vice-chancellorship. In parliament he preserved an active interest in education, being a member of the newly created consultative committee of the Board of Education in 1900, and in 1902 he became parliamentary secretary. He took an active part in the foundation of a school of law at Oxford, and his volumes on The Principles of the English Law of Contract, (1884, 11th ed. 1906), and on The Law and Custom of the Constitution in two parts, “The Parliament” and “The Crown” (1886-1892. 3rd ed. 1907, pt. i. vol. ii.), are standard works.
ANSONIA, a city of New Haven county, Connecticut, U.S.A., coextensive with the township of the same name, on the Naugatuck river, immediately N. of Derby and about 12 m. N.W. of New Haven. It is served by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by interurban electric lines running N., S. and E. Pop. (1900) 12,681, of whom 4296 were foreign born; (1910 census) 13,152. Land area about 5.4 sq. m. The city has extensive manufactures of heavy machinery, electric supplies, brass and copper products and silk goods. In 1905 the capital invested in manufacturing was $7,625,864, and the value of the products was $19,132,455. Ansonia, Derby and Shelton form one of the most important industrial communities in the state. The city, settled in 1840 and named in honour of the merchant and philanthropist, Anson Green Phelps (1781-1853), was originally a part of the township of Derby; it was chartered as a borough in 1864 and as a city in 1893, when the township of Ansonia, which had been incorporated in 1889, and the city were consolidated.
ANSTED, DAVID THOMAS (1814-1880), English geologist, was born in London on the 5th of February 1814. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and after taking his degree of M.A. in 1839 was elected to a fellowship of the college. Inspired by the teachings of Adam Sedgwick, his attention was given to geology, and in 1840 he was elected professor of geology in King’s College, London, a post which he held until 1853. Meanwhile he became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1844, and from that date until 1847 he was vice-secretary of the Geological Society and edited its Quarterly Journal. The practical side of geology now came to occupy his chief attention, and he visited various parts of Europe and the British Islands as a consulting geologist and mining engineer. He was also in 1868 and for many years examiner in physical geography to the science and art department. He died at Melton near Woodbridge, on the 13th of May 1880.
Publications.—Geology, Introductory, Descriptive and Practical (2 vols., 1844); The Ionian Islands (1863); The Applications of Geology to the Arts and Manufactures (1865); Physical Geography (1867); Water and Water Supply (Surface Water) (1878); and The Channel Islands (with R.G. Latham) (1862).