an important and influential element in the population. There were few settlers on the site of New Bedford until the middle of the 18th century, and there was no village, properly speaking, until 1760. The town was first called Bedford after Joseph Russell, one of the founders, whose family name was the same as that of the dukes of Bedford; and it was later called New Bedford to distinguish it from Bedford in Middlesex county. During the War of Independence the harbour became a rendezvous for American privateers; this led to an attack, on the 5th of September 1778, by a fleet and armed force under Earl Grey, which burned seventy ships and almost destroyed the town. In 1787 New Bedford was set off from Dartmouth and separately incorporated as a township; in 1812 the township of Fairhaven was separated from it. New Bedford was chartered as a city in 1847. Its first newspaper, the Marine Journal, was established in 1792. The Mercury, founded in 1807, now one of the oldest newspapers in continuous publication in the country, was for some time edited by William Ellery Channing (1818–1901). There are Portuguese and French weekly newspapers.
See Daniel Ricketson, History of New Bedford (New Bedford, 1858); Z. W. Pease and G. W. Hough, New Bedford (New Bedford, 1889); D. H. Hurd, History of Bristol County (Philadelphia, 1883); L. B. Ellis, History of New Bedford and its Vicinity 1602–1892 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1892); W. S. Tower, A History of the American Whale Fishery (Philadelphia, 1907); and The Old Dartmouth Historical Sketches (1903 seq.), published by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society.
NEWBERN, a city, port of entry and the county-seat of
Craven county, North Carolina, U.S.A., near the head of the
estuary of the Neuse river and at the mouth of the Trent river,
about 90 m. N.E. of Wilmington. Pop. (1890) 7843; (1900)
9090, of whom 5878 were negroes; (1910 census) 9961.
Newbern is served by the Atlantic Coast Line and the Norfolk
& Southern railways. The Federal government has improved
both the Neuse and the Trent rivers for navigation; the Neuse
has a channel of 8 ft. at low water to Newbern and one of 4 ft.
from Newbern to Kinston, and the Trent a channel of 3 ft.
from Newbern to Trenton. The Trent and the Neuse are both
spanned here by railway and county bridges. The “Waterway
between Newbern and Beaufort,” projected in 1884, had in
1908 a controlling depth at mean low water of only 2 to 212 ft.;
it was decided to abandon this waterway on the completion of
an inland waterway about 18 m. long with a channel 10 ft.
deep at low water and 90-250 ft. wide, projected in 1907, which
would give Newbern an outlet to the ocean at Beaufort. The
remains of Tryon Palace, the residence of the royal governor
and the meeting-place of the legislature, which was built by
William Tryon (q.v.) in 1765–1770, and was said to be the finest
building of its time in the colonies, are of historic interest, and
among the principal buildings are the United States government
building, the county court house, the county jail and
the county home. At Newbern is one of the national cemeteries
of the Federal government, containing many fine monuments.
The most important industries are the manufacture of lumber
(especially pine) and trucking. The total value of factory
products in 1905 was $1,343,384. In 1907 about 1000 men,
mostly negroes, were employed in the saw-mills, whose annual
product averages about 170,000,000 ft. Among the manufactures
are fertilizers, cotton seed oil and carriages; repair shops of
the Norfolk & Southern railway are here; the fisheries are of
considerable importance; and the city ships quantities of fish,
cotton and market-garden produce—much of the last being
forced under canvas with steam heat. It is the port of entry
of the Pamlico customs district; in 1908 its imports were
valued at $71,421. Newbern was settled in 1710 by a company
of Swiss and Germans under the leadership of Baron Emanuel
de Graffenried (d. 1735) and was named for Bern, Switzerland.
It was incorporated as a city in 1723, but its present charter
dates from 1899 with amendments adopted in 1907. For several
years it was the capital of the province and for a long time was
the chief seaport of the state. Although strongly fortified
early in the Civil War, Newbern was captured by a Union force
under General A. E. Burnside on the 14th of March 1862 after
an engagement near the city in which the loss to the Confederates,
who were under the command of General Lawrence O’Brien
Branch, was about 578 in killed, wounded, captured and missing,
and the loss of the Union force was 90 killed and 380 wounded.
Unsuccessful attempts to recapture the city were made by the
Confederates on the 14th of March 1863, and on the 1st of
February and the 5th of May 1864.
NEWBERRY, JOHN STRONG (1822–1892), American geologist,
was born at Windsor, Connecticut, on the 22nd of December
1822, and received a medical education at Cleveland, Ohio,
taking the degree of M.D. in 1848. He completed his medical
studies in Paris. His attention was early attracted to geology
by collecting coal-measure plants from mines that had been
opened by his father, and an acquaintance with Professor James
Hall established his interest in the science. Hence while in
Paris he studied botany under A. T. Brongniart. In 1851 he
settled in practice at Cleveland, but in 1855 he was appointed
surgeon and geologist to an exploring party in northern California
and Oregon, and in 1857 his reports on the geology, botany
and zoology were published. Between then and 1861 he was
employed on similar work in the region of the Colorado river
under Lieutenant J. C. Ives, and his researches were extended over
a large area of previously unknown country in Utah, Arizona
and New Mexico, the further results being published in 1876.
During the Civil War he did important work as a member of
the U.S. Sanitary Commission, his organizing capacity being
specially marked during the operations in the Mississippi Valley.
In 1866 he was appointed professor of geology and palaeontology
at the Columbia School of Mines, New York, where he commenced
the formation of a magnificent collection of specimens; in 1869
he was made state geologist of Ohio and director of the (second)
Geological Survey there, and in 1884 palaeontologist to the U.S.
Geological Survey. Four volumes on the geology of Ohio were
published while he was director of the survey, his own reports
being confined to the surface geology and to the coal-measures
and their fossil plants. He devoted much labour to the study
of Triassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary plants, and in particular to
those of the Laramie stage. He also carried on researches among
the Palaeozoic and Triassic fishes of North America. Among his
other publications may be mentioned The Origin and Classification
of Ore Deposits (1880). His work throughout was characterized
by great care and conscientious study, and it was
recognized by his inclusion in most of the learned societies of
America and the Old World. He received the Murchison
medal of the Geological Society of London in 1888, and was
president of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (1867), of the New York Academy of Sciences (1867–1891),
and of the International Congress of Geologists (1891).
He died at New Haven, Conn., on the 7th of December 1892.
Memoir (with portrait) by J. J. Stevenson, American Geologist (July 1893).
NEWBOLT, HENRY JOHN (1862–), English author, was born on the 6th of June 1862, the son of H. F. Newbolt, vicar of St Mary’s, Bilston. He was educated at Clifton College, where he was head of the school in 1881 and edited the school magazine, and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1887 and practised until
1899. His first book was a story, Taken from the Enemy (1892), and in 1895 he published a tragedy, Mordred; but it was the publication of his ballads, Admirals All (1897), that created his literary reputation. These were followed by other volumes of stirring verse, The Island Race (1898), The Sailing of the Long-ships (1902), Songs of the Sea (1904). From 1900 to 1905 he was the editor of the Monthly Review. Among his later books his novels The Old Country (1906) and The New June (1909) attracted considerable attention.
NEW BRIGHTON, formerly a village (coextensive with the town of Castleton) of Richmond county, New York, U.S.A., but since the 1st of January 1898 the first ward of the borough of Richmond, New York City. It is at the north-eastern end of Staten Island, about 6 m. S.W. of the borough of Manhattan, with which it is connected by ferry. Pop. (1890) 16,423; (1900)
