yachting and skating races. Washington Park is in the central part of the city. Downing Park, named in honour of the horticulturist and landscape gardener Andrew Jackson Downing, (1815–1852), a native of Newburgh, lies on a high plateau overlooking the city and the surrounding country. Among Newburgh’s institutions are a public library, St Luke’s Hospital, a Children’s Home, Mount St Mary’s Academy (Roman Catholic) and a business college. In Colden Square there is a statue of Governor George Clinton. Cotton, woollen and silk goods, laces, paper, plaster, plush, felt and felt hats, carpets, engines and boilers, and mill and farm machinery are manufactured, and there are ship and brick yards. In 1905 factory products were valued at $7,142,327, an increase of 33·3% over their value for 1900. Newburgh was first settled in 1709 by a colony of Germans from the Rhenish Palatinate under their minister, Joshua Kockethal (d. 1719), and was known as “the Palatine Parish of Quassaic.” Toward the middle of the century many of the Germans removed to Pennsylvania, and Scottish and English settlers took up their abandoned lands. In 1752 the place was renamed Newburgh, after the town of that name in Scotland, whence many of the new settlers had come. From the spring of 1782 until August 1783 Washington made his headquarters here, occupying the Hasbrouck House (built by Jonathan Hasbrouck between 1750 and 1770), which is still standing in Washington Park, and was bought by the state in 1849. It long contained a collection of historical relics, for which the state has erected a brick building in Washington Park. It was here on the 27th of May 1782 that he wrote his famous letter of rebuke to Colonel Lewis Nicola (1717–c. 1807), who had written to him on behalf of a coterie of army officers, it is said, suggesting that he assume the title of king. Here, also, Washington made his reply to the so-called “Newburgh Addresses,” written by John Armstrong, and calling for action. on the part of the army to force Congress to redress its grievances. Here the arrangements were completed for the disbandment of the Continental Army, and the centenary of the disbandment was celebrated here on the 18th of October 1883. In commemoration of the disbandment also a monument, known as the “Tower of Victory” (53 ft. high, with a life-sized statue of Washington), was erected in Washington Park by Federal and state authorities. Newburgh was incorporated as a village in 1800 and chartered as a city in 1865. The U.S. Geographic Board spells the name Newburg, but the spelling Newburgh is adopted locally and by the U.S. Post Office.
See E. M. Ruttenber, History of the Town of Newburgh (Newburgh, 1859) and History of Orange County (Newburgh, 1872).
NEWBURGH, a royal and police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland.
Pop. (1901) 1904. It is situated on the Firth of Tay, 7 m. N.W.
of Ladybank Junction by the North British Railway. Its
industries chiefly consist of the making of linen and floorcloth,
malting and quarrying, and there are fisheries, especially of
salmon. The harbour is used for the transhipment of the cargoes
of Perth-bound vessels of over 200 tons. On high ground, about
1 m. S.W., stand the remains (only the pedestal) of Macduff’s
Cross, which marks the spot where the clan Macduff—in return
for the chief’s services against Macbeth—was granted rights
of sanctuary and composition for murder done in hot blood.
Denmyln castle, about 112 m. S.E. of Newburgh, was the home
for more than 250 years of the Balfour family, of which the two
brothers, Sir James (1600–1657), the annalist and Lyon King,
and Sir Andrew (1630–1694), founder of the Botanic Garden in
Edinburgh, were the most distinguished members. Lindores
abbey, the gem of the district, is situated on the Tay, close to
Newburgh, and 112m. N. of the village of Lindores. Of the
Benedictine abbey, founded in 1178 by David, earl of Huntingdon,
brother of William the Lion, there only remain the groined
arch of the principal entrance, a portion of the west tower and
other Early English fragments, but the ground plan of the whole
structure can still be traced. The monks were noted agriculturists
and their orchards famous. At Blackearnside, a forest of alders,
to the east of the village, Wallace defeated the earl of Pembroke
in 1298.
NEWBURN, an urban district in the Tyneside parliamentary
division of Northumberland, England, on the Tyne, 512 m. W.
of Newcastle by a branch of the North Eastern railway. Pop.
(1901) 12,500. It has Collieries, and iron, steel, engineering,
tool and fire-clay works, and there is a large industrial population.
Newburn is of considerable antiquity. Roman remains have been
discovered in proximity to Hadrian’s Wall. A church here was
destroyed by fire in 1072 in the course of a dispute between two
claimants of the earldom of Northumberland. Here in 1640 the
Scottish Covenanters planted guns to protect them while fording
the river, after which they defeated the English on the Durham
side at Stellaheugh, and subsequently occupied Newcastle. The
name of Scotswood, one of the manufacturing villages between
Newburn and the city, commemorates one of their positions.
The district has many associations with the famous engineer
George Stephenson, born at Wylam, 3 m. W.
NEWBURY, a market town and municipal borough in the Newbury parliamentary division of Berkshire, England, 53 m. W. by S. of Reading by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 11,061. It is beautifully situated in the narrow well-wooded
valley of the Kennet, which is followed by the Kennet and Avon canal. The town has north and south communications by the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton railway (worked by the Great Western company), and is the terminus of the Lambourn
Valley light railway. The church of St. Nicholas is a large
Perpendicular building of the beginning of the 16th century.
It is said to have been built mainly at the charge of John
Winchcombe or Smalwoode (Jack of Newbury), an eminent
clothier, who, according to the brass to his memory, died in
February 1519. A few picturesque old buildings remain in the
town, including part of Winchcombe’s house and the Jacobean
cloth hall, now a public museum. The almshouses called King
John’s Court are supported by a foundation known as St Bartholomew’s
Hospital, to which in 1215 King John. granted
by charter (renewed in 1596 to the corporation) the profits
of a fair on St Bartholomew’s day (24th of August). Shaw
House, on the outskirts of the town to the north-east, is an
Elizabethan mansion of brick, dating from 1581; to the north
is Donnington castle, retaining a Perpendicular gateway and
other fragments. The suburb of Speenhamland was formerly
an important posting station on the Bath road. At Sandleford
Priory, to the south of Newbury, the site and part of the buildings
of an Augustinian priory (c. 1200) were utilized in the erection
of a mansion, in 1781, for Mrs Elizabeth Montague. The householders
of Newbury have the right to elect boys and girls to the
educational foundation of Christ’s Hospital. The cloth industry
is long extinct in Newbury, but large wool fairs are held annually;
there is considerable agricultural trade, and there are breweries
and flour mills. A racecourse was opened in the vicinity of
the town in 1905, and six meetings are held annually. The
borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors.
Area, 1828 acres.
Newbury (Neubiri, Neubiry) possibly owes its origin to the village of Speen on the other side of the Kennet, which probably marks the site of the Roman station Spinae. The name Newbury (new town or borough) is first mentioned by Odericus Vitalis; it is probable, however, that the manor of Uluritone, entered in Domesday as held by Ernulph de Hesdain and containing fiftyone houses, covered a large part of the site of the town. The manor was subsequently held by the Marshalls, and later by the Mortimers, through whom it passed to the house of York and the crown. It formed part of the dowry of several queens-consort, and was held by Elizabeth before her accession. In 1627 it was granted by Charles I. at a fee-farm to the corporation. Newbury was a borough by prescription; in 1187 its inhabitants are called “burgesses” and a document of the time of Edward I. speaks of it as “burgus.” It was incorporated by a charter of Elizabeth (1596) which was confirmed by Charles I. and Charles II.; a doubtfully valid charter of James II. (1685). Newbury sent two representatives to the parliament of 1302 and delegates to a council held in the reign of Edward III.
Newbury early became a centre of the woollen industry,
