Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/238

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Newth
224
Newton

mics, and Hydrostatics' (1851), and 'A First Book of Natural Philosophy' (1854), which are distinguished by clearness and simplicity of treatment, and were long recognised as standard text-books.

In 1855 he was appointed professor of mathematics and ecclesiastical history at New College, St. John's Wood, another of the congregational colleges, where he remained until 1889. In his work at this college, the students attending which number from thirty to forty, the varied character of Newth's attainments was of special value. In 1867 he added the teaching of classics to his other duties, and in 1872 succeeded Robert Halley [q. v.] as principal of the college. This post and the professorships of New Testament exegesis and ecclesiastical history he retained until his resignation in 1889, after which, however, he still maintained his position as a member of the college council.

Newth's great work lay in the influence which he exerted as principal of New College on the minds of the divinity students who came under his care. Although his rule was strict, he gained their affection and esteem. He was a most accurate scholar in all of the many branches of learning which he cultivated, and was deeply versed in the history of the nonconformist colleges. In 1870 his ability and reputation as a Greek scholar were recognised by his appointment as a member of the company of New Testament revisers, and he took an active part in the revision which was completed in 1880. A general account of the labours of the revisers, together with an historical sketch of the whole question of biblical translation, was given by him in a series of 'Lectures on Bible Revision,' published in 1881.

Newth attained a very high position among congregational divines, and received the highest honours at the disposal of the congregational union. In 1875 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Glasgow, and in 1880 he was elected chairman of the congregational union of England and Wales, while he also officiated as chairman of the London congregational board, and organised the congregational library at the Farringdon Street Memorial Hall. For the last eight years of his life he resided at Acton, where he died on 30 Jan. 1898.

In addition to the works already mentioned Newth published 'Mathematical Examples,' 1859, and 'Christian Union,' an address delivered to the congregational union, 1880; and edited 'Chambers of Imagery,' a series of sermons by his brother, the Rev. Alfred Newth, 1876, to which he contributed a memoir of the author. He was also the author of an essay on 'The New Testament Witness concerning Christian Churches,' contributed to a series of essays by various writers published under the title 'The Ancient Faith' in 1897, and wrote numerous articles in the 'Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature.'

[Short biographical notices are given in the Times, 31 Jan. 1898; Nature, lvii. 322; the British Weekly, 3 Feb. 1898; the Independent, 3 Feb. 1898; Congregational Year Book, 1899, p. 62; 'Dr. S. Newth,' a memorial address by Joseph Parker, British Weekly, 3 Feb. 1898; Some Memories of Dr. Newth, the Independent, 3 Feb. 1898.]

NEWTON, Sir CHARLES THOMAS (1816–1894), archæologist, second son of Newton Dickinson Hand Newton, vicar of Clungunford, Salop, and afterwards of Bredwardine in the same county, was born in 1816. He was educated at Shrewsbury School (then under Samuel Butler), and at Christ Church, Oxford (matriculating 17 Oct. 1833), where he graduated B.A. in 1837 and M.A. in 1840.

Already in his undergraduate days Newton (as his friend and contemporary, Ruskin, tells in Præterita) was giving evidence of his natural bent; the scientific study of classical archaeology, which Winckelmann had set on foot in Germany, was in England to find its worthy apostle in Newton. In 1840, contrary to the wishes of his family, he entered the British Museum as assistant in the department of antiquities. As a career the museum, as it then was, can have presented but few attractions to a young man; but the department, as yet undivided, probably offered to Newton a wider range of comparative study in his subject than he could otherwise have acquired.

In 1852 he was named vice-consul at Mytilene, and from April 1853 to January 1854 he was consul at Rhodes, with the definite duty, among others, of watching over the interests of the British Museum in the Levant. In 1854 and 1855, with funds advanced by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, he carried on excavations in Calymnos, enriching the British Museum with an important series of inscriptions, and in the following year he was at length enabled to undertake his long-cherished scheme of identifying the site, and recovering for this country the chief remains, of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus. His residence in the Levant was further marked by researches at Cnidus and Branchidae, both of which resulted in important gains to the nation, and by the disinter-