NOTT, ELI I' 1 1. \ LIT. 



5*8 



In 1830 In- was appointed one of the Lords of 



t!u> Tn-.i-iiry, holding the office four years, 

 when In- rclinqtiislu'd it to become one of the 



joint senvtnri.- tlu-r.-of. In 1839 lie accepted 



i cii.'iiici-llor of the Exchequer, and 

 in tti.it capacity took a prominent part in 

 'it the arrangement for the pcnny- 

 yt -y-triii, which had I>een commenced by 

 his predecessor, Lord Monteagle. In 1849 

 the office of First Lord of 

 \dminilty, which ho held for a term of 

 three years. At the last general election for 

 iiiemM-s of Parliament, Lord Northbrook, in a 

 graceful address to the electors, declined to bo 

 again a candidate. Nearly a year before his 

 death ho was raised to the peerage, being 

 created Baron North brook of Stratton, in the 

 county of Southampton. lie was a man of re- 

 fined and educated tastes, and particularly fond 

 of classical studies, for which ho was distin- 

 guished in early life. 



NORTH GERMAN CONFEDERATION. 

 (See GERMANY.) 



NORWAY. (See SwEOEx. 1 ) 



NOTT, EUPHALET, D. D., LL. D., an Amer- 

 ican clergyman and educator, for sixty-two 

 years president of Union College, born in Ash- 

 ford, Windham county, Conn., June 25, 1778; 

 died in Schenectady, N. Y., January 29, 1866. 

 His paternal grandfather was a clergyman of 

 Saybrook, Conn. ; and his father was for many 

 years in the mercantile business, but a series of 

 misfortunes reduced him to poverty at a time 

 when the son needed his aid in obtaining a lib- 

 eral education. His mother, however, was a 

 woman of fine culture, and did much towards 

 stimulating his love for learning, and turning 

 his mental faculties in the right direction. He 

 studied Latin and Greek under the guidance of 

 his brother, Rev. Samuel Nott, for more than 

 threescore and ten years pastor of the Congre- 

 gational church, of Franklin, Conn. When 

 about sixteen years of age, he took charge of a 

 school in Plainfield, Conn., at the same time 

 pursuing his classical and mathematical studies 

 under the Rev. Joel Benedict, D. D., whose 

 daughter he afterwards married. On leaving 

 Plainfield he spent one year in Brown Uni- 

 versity, Providence, and during that time was 

 at the head of his class in mathematics and the 

 languages. He graduated out of due course in 

 1795. Returning to his brother's, at Franklin, 

 he studied theology, and the same year was 

 licensed to preach by the New London Congre- 

 gational Association, which sent him as a mis- 

 sionary into the then desolate part of New 

 York bordering upon Otsego Lake, when he 

 established a flourishing academy at Cherry 

 Valley, and acted in the double capacity of 

 preacher and teacher for nearly three years. 

 In 1798, upon a visit East, he received and 

 accepted a call from the First Presbyterian 

 Church of Albany, where he labored success- 

 fully until 1804, when he was invited to assume 

 the presidency of Union College. The institu- 

 tion was yet in its infancy its corporate exist- 



ence dating from 1795 and when he took 

 ciiargo of its affairs, it was without funds, suit- 

 able buildings, library, or philosophical appa- 

 ratus, and involved in debt. He devoted all his 

 energies at once to the work of removing these 

 disabilities, and providing for these pressing 

 needs. Through his persistent efforts, the State 

 Legislature passed a law, in 1814, which laid 

 the foundation for the future success of tlio 

 institution. The amount of financial aid thus 

 afforded to the college was to be derived from a 

 lottery, a method of raising money then re- 

 garded as legal and unexceptionable. The 

 management of this lottery was confided to 

 Dr. Nott, and by him conducted with great 

 ability, though the complications which resulted 

 from his investment of the proceeds of it subse- 

 quently caused him great trouble and anxiety. 

 The investments, though not in all cases imme- 

 diately productive, eventually greatly enhanced 

 the amount of the endowment of the college, 

 and when, a few years since, at Dr. Nott's own 

 instance, a searching investigation was made of 

 his whole financial management, extending over 

 a period of almost forty years, his foresight, 

 ability, and care for the interests of the institu- 

 tion, were amply vindicated. After this investi- 

 gation was concluded, Dr. Nott crowned his 

 years of solicitude and liberality in his manage- 

 ment of the affairs of the college, by a further 

 endowment of property valued at $500,000 from 

 his own private fortune. During his long in- 

 cumbency upwards of 4,000 young men gradu- 

 ated from the institution, and it may safely be 

 said that from no American college of the same 

 age has there gone forth a greater number of 

 men who have conspicuously succeeded in the 

 political, the commercial, the ecclesiastical, or, 

 to speak generally, the more active and business 

 avocations of the land. Widely as they were 

 scattered, various as might be their occupations, 

 and conflicting as were their views on other 

 subjects, all agreed in respect, veneration, and 

 love for him whose teachings and counsels they 

 had so long enjoyed. But preeminent as Dr. 

 Nott stood as an educator, he deserves grateful 

 recognition for his efforts for the good of man- 

 kind in other departments. His labors in the 

 temperance reform, both by voice and pen, and 

 his various and long-continued experiments on 

 heat, with the view of applying it to useful and 

 economical purposes for human benefit, if not 

 as successful as he had hoped, evince the fer- 

 tility of an intellect which loved to task itself 

 for the good of others. As a preacher, his 

 style of thought, his manner, his elocution, his 

 action, were all his own the chief character- 

 istic being his impressiveness. In 1805 the 

 College of New Jersey conferred upon him the 

 title of D. D., and in 1828 he received that of 

 LL. D. His principal published works are a 

 volume of lectures on temperance, and several 

 occasional discourses, the most celebrated of 

 which are, that on the " Death of Hamilton," 

 and one delivered before the Genera] Assembly 

 of the Presbyterian Church. 



