Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nuttall, William
NUTTALL, WILLIAM (d. 1840), author, son of John Nuttall, master fuller, born at Rochdale, Lancashire, kept a school in that town for many years. He married three times, the last time unhappily. About 1828 he removed to Oldham, but poverty and distress overtook him, and he committed suicide in 1840. He was buried in Oldham churchyard. He wrote: 1. ‘Le Voyageur, or the Genuine History of Charles Manley,’ 1806. 2. ‘Rochdale, a Fragment, with Notes, intended as an Introduction to the History of Rochdale,’ 1810. It is in doggerel verse, and is curious as the first attempt at a history of the town. The manuscript of his intended history of Rochdale was utilised by Baines in his ‘History of Lancashire.’
[Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, 1880 (paper by H. Fishwick); W. Robertson's Old and New Rochdale, p. 102; Fishwick's Lancashire Library.]