Lambton, Lambton, Wallsend and Plattsburg. The population of the municipality of Newcastle is 14,250; of the town and suburbs about 70,000.
The mouth of the Hunter river (named after Governor John Hunter), now known as Newcastle Harbour, was discovered in 1797 by Lieutenant John Shortland, who accompanied Hunter to New South Wales. For many years after its discovery it was used as a convict station. It became a free settlement in 1821, and in 1859 was erected into a municipality. The centenary of the landing of Shortland was celebrated in 1897, when a monument commemorating the event was erected.
NEW CASTLE, a city of New Castle county, Delaware, U.S.A., in the northern part of the state, at the head of Delaware Bay, on a high point of land extending into the Delaware river, 6 m. south of Wilmington. Pop. (1890) 4010; (1900) 3380 (315 foreign-born); (1910) 3351. It is served by the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington (Pennsylvania System), and (viâ Wilmington) the Baltimore & Ohio railways, and by steamship lines connecting with Baltimore, Philadelphia and river ports. The “old” county court house, possibly built by the Swedes, is in New Castle; and there are a public library, the Immanuel Protestant Episcopal Church (partly built in 1689), and several residences of Dutch and colonial types. The city has a good harbour and an excellent river front for manufacturing sites and for shipping; it is included in the customs district of Wilmington. Its industrial establishments include shipyards, rolling mills and steel works, flour-mills, and manufactories of cotton and woollen goods. The shad fisheries are of some importance. In 1651 Governor Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherland established near the place Fort Casimir, as the first determined move in his aggressive policy against the Swedes, who had settled in this vicinity about 1640. The Swedes captured the fort in 1654, but this precipitated the crisis in which New Sweden (Delaware) was lost to the Dutch in 1655. Fort Casimir (renamed Fort Amstel) was made the seat of government of the local Dutch possessions, and in 1657 was placed under the jurisdiction of the City of Amsterdam, under which it remained, though prospering little—disease, famine and fears of English attack causing most of the inhabitants to leave in 1658 and 1659—until just before the English seized the settlements in Delaware in 1664. Under the English the name was changed to New Castle, and trade and commerce prospered; and an arc with a radius of 12 m., having the New Castle court house as a centre, became the northern boundary of the “counties on the Delaware.” New Castle was frequently the meeting place of the colonial legislature, and after the legislative separation of Delaware from Pennsylvania in 1704 it was the seat of administration of the colony until 1777. It was chartered as a city in 1875.
NEWCASTLE, a seaside resort of Co. Down, Ireland, finely situated on the western shore of Dundrum Bay, at the foot of Slieve Donard, the highest eminence of the Mourne Mountains. Pop. (1901) 1553. It is the terminus of the Belfast and County Down railway, being 36 m. S. of Belfast; and is also served by a branch of the Great Northern railway. A fort guarded the passage of the river Shimna here in early times, but the town is entirely modern. The sandy shore affords good bathing, there is a small spa, and the scenery of the Mournes is fine. The demesnes of Donard Lodge and Bryansford are of great beauty. The golf links of the County Down Club here are well known.
NEWCASTLE, a city and the county-seat of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Shenango river, at the mouth of Neshannock Creek, about 50 m. N.N.W. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 11,600; (1900) 28,339, 5324 being foreign-born and 463 negroes; (1910) 36,280. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Baltimore & Ohio, the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie railways. Cascade Park, in the neighbourhood, is a pleasure resort. The surrounding country, with which the city has an extensive trade, is well adapted to agriculture, and abounds in bituminous coal, iron ore, limestone, sandstone and fire-clay. In 1905 the city ranked fifth among the cities of the state in the value of its factory product, and of its products (valued at $29,433,635, an increase of 47·1% since 1900) iron and steel, and tin and terne-plates were the most important. Newcastle was founded in 1802, became a borough in 1869, and was first chartered as a city in 1875, its charter being revised in 1887.
NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME, a market town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Staffordshire, England, 2 m. W. of Stoke-upon-Trent by the North Staffordshire railway. Pop. (1901) 19,914. The parish church of St Giles was rebuilt in 1873–1876 by Sir Gilbert Scott, with the exception of the tower, which dates from the 12th century. The free grammar school, originally founded in 1602, possesses large endowments, increased by the amalgamation of various subsequent bequests for educational purposes, and now consists of high and middle schools for boys and Orme’s school for girls. There is also a school of art included with a free library in handsome municipal buildings. The manufacture of hats was once the staple trade, but it has declined. There are cotton and paper mills; and tanning, brewing, malting and the manufacture of army clothing are carried on. In the neighbourhood there are large collieries, as at Silverdale and elsewhere. Partly included in the parliamentary borough is the populous parish of Wolstanton, of which the fine church, well placed on high ground, has good details of the 13th century, with a massive tower and spire. The mining town of Audley lies 4. m. N.W., with a fine early Decorated church. Newcastle-under-Lyme is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 671 acres.
Newcastle-under-Lyme (Neofchastell-sur-Lyme, Newcastle-under-Lyme) is not mentioned in Domesday, but it must early have become a place of importance, for a charter, known only through a reference in a charter to Preston, was given to the town by Henry II. The town owes its name to a castle built here in the 12th century to supersede an older fortress at Chesterton about 2 m. to the north, of which the ruins were to be seen in the 16th century, and to the fact that it was situated under the forest of Lyme. Henry III. (1235) constituted it a free borough, granting a gild merchant and other privileges; in 1251 he leased it at fee-farm to the burgesses; the governing charter in 1835 was that of 1590 enlarged by that of 1664, under which the title of the corporation was the “mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of Newcastle-under-Lyme.” Newcastle, which was originally held by the crown, was granted (1265) to Simon de Montfort, and subsequently to Edmund Crouchback, through whom it passed to Henry IV. In Leland’s time the castle had disappeared “save one great Toure”; in the 17th and 18th centuries the town was flourishing and had a manufacture of hats. The market was originally held on Sunday; in the reign of John it was changed to Saturday; by the charter of Elizabeth it was fixed on Monday. Markets are now held on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Grants of fairs were given by Edward I., Edward III. and Henry VI. Up to the time of the passing of the Municipal Reform Act the farce of electing a mock mayor was gone through annually after the election of the real mayor. Newcastle sent two members to parliament from 1355 to 1885, when it lost one representative.
See Victoria County History, Stafford; T. Ingamells, Historical Records and Directory of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, a city and county of a city, municipal, county and parliamentary borough, and port of Northumberland, England, 272 m. N. by W. of London, on the North-Eastern railway. Pop. (1891) 186,300; (1901) 215,328. It stands on the N. bank of the Tyne, which is here high and steeply inclined above the river. The mouth of the river into the North Sea is 8 m. below Newcastle and its banks are lined with docks and industrial towns, while its narrow waters are crowded with traffic.
Though Newcastle owes its origin to a Roman station at a bridge over the river, its modern growth has largely destroyed traces of antiquity. Of the old walls which, according to Leland, “for strength and magnificence far surpassed all the walls of the cities of England and of most of the towns of Europe,” and the circuit of which was 2 m. 239 yds., there are slight remains, although the fortifications were allowed to go into disrepair
