Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/584

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544
NUGENT
NUNEZ

by one of the finest law libraries in this country, which, upon his death, he gave to Hamilton college. He became one of the most powerful advocates at the New York bar. In 1857 he was appointed by the legislature a com- missioner with Alex- ander W. Bradford and David Dudley Field to codify the laws of the state, and he was engaged in this work up to the time of his death. In the autumn of that year he was nominat- ed as a Republican for attorney-general of the state, but was defeated by Lyman Tremain. In 1861 he was appointed by the legislature a commis- sioner to the peace conference, where he

steadily labored to

preserve the integrity of the republic, and at the same time maintain the honor of the loyal states. When, in the winter of the same year, the legisla- ture had to elect a U. S. senator, he was one of the chief candidates for the nomination. Mr. Noyes was retained in some of the most cele- brated cases of his day. His masterly analysis of moral insanity on the trial of Huntington, his argument in the court of appeals in the New Haven railroad case, his elaborate speech in the suit of the Delaware and Hudson Canal company vs. The Pennsylvania Coal company, and his nu- merous arguments in some of the most important will cases, were marked by leai'ning, eloquence, and close logic. He was a firm advocate of temperance, and devoted much time to addresses on this sub- ject. His talents were always enlisted on the side of the people among whom he lived, and more than once fraudulent judgments against the city were vacated through his clear demonstration of their fallacy. As an equity lawyer he was without a parallel, and in cross-examination he had no equal. Few witnesses that went on the stand before him with the determination to commit perjury ever left it without being exposed. In 1856 he delivered an address before the graduating class of the law de- partment of Hamilton college, and, although he never had received a collegiate education, yet that institution conferred on him the degree of LL. D. True to his motto, that it was " better that a man's brain should wear out than rust out," he continued to the last in the practice of his profession. His death was the result of apoplexy.


NUGENT, Sir George, British soldier, b. in Berkshire, England, 10 June, 1757 ; d. there, 11 March, 1849. He was educated at Woolwich mili- tary academy, commissioned as a lieutenant in September, 1777, and served with the British army in this country, being present at the storming of Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton in New York state. He served as captain in New Jersey and Connecticut, and was promoted major in May, 1782. He subsequently served under the Duke of York in the Netherlands and as a major-general in the suppression of the Irish rebellion of 1798, and was created a baronet for military services in 1806. He was afterward governor of Jamaica, became com- mander-in-chief of the forces in the West Indies in 1811, and rose to the rank of field-marshal in 1842, He married in 1797 Maria, a daughter of Cortland Skinner, Royalist attorney - general of New Jersey. — His brother, Sir Charles Edmoiul, British naval officer, b. in Berkshire, England, in 1759 ; d. in 1844, served during the Revolutionary war as a lieutenant and captain at Fort Moultrie and in New York and Rhode Island. He attained the rank of admiral-of-the-blue in 1808, and was made admiral of the fleet in 1883.


NUGENT, George, philanthropist, b. in Phila- delphia, Pa., 3 May, 1809 ; d. in Atlantic City, N. J., 21 June, 1883. He was educated at Clermont acade- my, and removed with his father to Montgomery county, Pa., where he became a manufacturer. In 1832 he became a deacon in the Baptist church at Balligomingo, and he afterward officiated as such in Philadelphia and Germantown. In this capa- city he was accustomed to visit the sick and the poor in their homes. This gave him the first idea of a home for such persons, and he was the founder of the Baptist home of Philadelphia, now a pros- perous institution. After a successful business career he retired to Germantown and devoted his time to benevolent and charitable purposes. He was president of the Baptist home, treasurer of the Baptist historical society, and a member of the Baptist publication society and the Sunday-school union. He took great interest in the education of the young, and was a generous giver to churches and other religious societies. He was one of the founders of the 2d Baptist church of German- town, and gave the greater part of the money to build the church edifice. His estate amounted to nearly half a million of dollars, and he gave by will nearly all of it to found a home for Baptist ministers, their widows, and members of Baptist and other evangelical churches. It has been char- tered as " The George Nugent Home for Baptists," and is located at Germantown. Mr. Nugent wrote and published " The Baptist Home of Philadel- phia, its Origin and History " (Philadelphia, 1880).


NUNES, Leonardo (noo'-nes). Portuguese mis- sionary, b. in San Vicente de Beira in 1499 ; d. on the coast of Brazil, 30 June, 1554. He was a Jesuit, went in his youth to Hispaniola, was employed for fifteen years in the missions of Central America, and, returning to Portugal, became director of a college of his order. When Thome de Sousa ob- tained a grant of Brazil in 1549 he asked Nunes to accompany him, and the latter, with several other Jesuits, established the first Brazilian mission, ac- quiring an influence among the Indians that greatly facilitated the progress of the Portuguese. Instead of adopting a cruel policy toward the In- dians, he made them the allies and supporters of the settlers. In June, 1554, Nunes sailed for Lis- bon to obtain more missionaries, but perished by shipwreck in a hurricane near the coast. Pie left a dictionary and a grammar of the Tupi dialect which exist in manuscript in Coimbra, and other works that were afterward lost according to Vas- concellos in his " Noticia do Brazil."


NUNEZ, Casto Mendez (noon'-yayth), Spanish naval officer, b. in Galicia about 1880; d. about 1880. He was graduated at the Royal nautical college, entered the navy, and was a commodore when, in 1864, he joined the Spanish fleet in the Pacific in the iron-clad ram "Numancia." In January, 1865, he went with the squadron from the Chincha islands to Callao, where the treaty of peace between Admiral Pareja {q. v.) and the Peruvian government was concluded. He remained stationed in Callao, while the admiral proceeded to Chili, and when the dissatisfaction about the treaty resulted in the deposition of President Pezet, 7 July, and the consequent riots, many of the Spanish