NEWARK (or in full Newark-upon-Trent), a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of Nottinghamshire, England, is situated in the midst of a flat but highly cultivated country, near the Trent, on the river Devon, and on the Great Northern and Nottingham and Lincoln Railways, 120 miles north of London, and 19 east of Nottingham. By means of a canal 1∣ miles in length it is connected with the Trent navigation. The town is well built, with wide but irregular streets, which diverge from the market-place. The church of St Mary Magdalene, one of the largest and finest parish churches of England, is specially notable for the beauty of the tower and of the octagonal spire (223 feet high) by which it is surmounted. The central piers of the old church, dating from the 11th or 12th century, still remain, and the lower part of the tower is a fine example of Early English when at its best. The upper parts of the tower and spire were completed about 1350, the nave between 1384 and 1393, and the chancel in 1489. The sanctuary is bounded on the south and north by two chauntry chapels, the former of which has on one of its panels a remarkable painting from the Dance of Death. There are a few old monuments, and an exceedingly fine brass of the 14th century. The castle, supposed to have been founded by Egbert, king of the West Saxons, was partly rebuilt and greatly extended by Alexander, consecrated bishop of Lincoln in 1123, who established at it a mint. The castle from its position and its great strength was for a long time known as the “key of the North.” Of the original Norman stronghold the most important remains are the gate-house and the lofty rectangular tower at the south-west angle. The building seems to have been reconstructed in the early part of the 13th ...century. In the reign of Edward III. it was used as a state prison. During the civil war it was garrisoned for the king, and endured three sieges. Its dismantling was commenced 11th May 1646. There is a very beautiful and interesting cross (the “Beaumond” cross) of the latter part of the 15th century in good preservation in the town. A grammar and song school was founded in the reign of Henry VIII., and endowed by Archdeacon Magnus. The other principal public buildings are the town-hall in the Grecian style (erected in 1774), the corn exchange (1848), the Stock library and Middleton newsroom (1828), the mechanics’ institution (1836), the new hospital (1881, a very fine building). Two elegant buildings—a cofiee palace and a free library—were given to the town in 1882. By means of the Trent navigation Newark carries on a large trade in coal, corn, and cattle. The manufacture of malt is by far the chief source of wealth in the town. There are iron and brass foundries, boiler-works, agricultural implement manufactories, and breweries. Gypsum and limestone are obtained in the neighbourhood, and plaster of Paris is extensively manufactured. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough (area 1933 acres) in 1871 was 12,195, which in 1881 had increased to 14,018.
From the large number of Roman remains found in the neighbourhood, from traces of ditches, and from supposed portions of Roman buildings that still exist, some antiquarians suppose that Newark was an important Roman station built to protect the navigation of the Trent, and identify it with the British Ael Tavum, the Roman Eltavona, and the Saxon Sidnacester, which was an episcopal see of Mercia. The balance of probability seems, however, to favour the opinion that Sidnacester was situated in Lincolnshire. The first authentic notice of N ewark is during the Saxon heptarchy. The town was partly destroyed by the Danes, but during the reign of Edward the Confessor it was rebuilt. By Leofric, earl of Mercia, the manor of Newark was bestowed upon the monastery of Stow, near Lincoln. The castle and manor were conveyed to the crown by Henry Holbeach, bishop of Lincoln, in the reign of Edward VI., by whom the town was incorporated in 1549. It was created a mayoralty by Charles II. in 1625. It is supposed to have sent members to parliament in the reign of Edward VI., but it is not known how long the privilege had been in abeyance when it was restored by Charles II. in 1625, from which time it has returned two members. Newark is the birthplace of Bishop Warburton; David Hartley taught in its grammar school; and the first volume of Lord Byron’s poems was printed by Ridge, a Newark bookseller.
Of the various histories of Newark the most recent is the beautiful and elaborate volume by Cornelius Brown, Annals of Newark-upon-Trent, 1879.
NEWARK, the principal city of the State of New Jersey, United States, is situated in Essex county, on the west bank of the Passaic river, 4 miles above Newark Bay, and covers an area of about 18 square miles. The original site was a crescent-shaped ridge, or double chain of low hills, extending from north-east to south-west, now much changed by levelling and cutting. The main part of the city is on the lower ground which stretches east and south towards the Newark and Hackensack Meadows (salt marshes). The surface is, in general, well adapted for drainage and sewage. The climate is mild, tempered by the proximity of Newark Bay and the Atlantic (12 miles distant), and the place bears a good reputation for healthfιu-ness. The water-supply comes from the Passaic. There are about 130 miles of streets, generally wide and well-shaded, one-fifth of which are paved. The principal thoroughfare, Broad Street (120 feet wide), is lined throughout a good part of its length with fine old elms, and where not occupied by business premises is fronted by numerous handsome residences. There are several small parks, the principal of which are Military and Washington Parks, bordering on Broad Street. The public buildings are for the most part unsightly and unsuitable; on the other hand, the city is not overburdened by debt or by heavy taxation.
Notwithstanding that the central portion of Newark is but 9 miles distant from the general post-office in New York city,—being considerably nearer that; point than are the northern portions of New York city proper—Newark has more the character of an independent city than a suburb. This it owes in part to its situation within another State, but still more to its independent and distinctive manufacturing interests. Even prior to 1872 it was called “the Birmingham of America.” In that year a very successful exhibition, consisting of the manufactures of Newark, greatly stimulated the investment of capital.
The United States census of 1880 gives the following statistics of manufactures for Newark :— [table]
The principal industries are—jewellery, tanning and currying, celluloid (a substitute for ivory, coral, &c.) and celluloid goods, hat-making, boot and shoe making, trunk and valise making, saddlery hardware, harness-making, breweries (mostly lager beer) and malt-houses, building, carriage and waggon making, clothing, chemical works, cigar and tobacco factories, edge tools, hammers, &c., cabinetmaking, and iron and steel works. There are also large cotton, woollen, and silk-thread factories, and an extensive sewing-machine factory, together employing about 3000 hands.
The shipping facilities of Newark are abundant, and four great trunk lines of railroad—the Pennsylvania, the New York, Lake Erie, and Western, the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western, and the Central Railroad of New Jersey (Reading Railroad)—give ready communication with all parts of the United States, and with the steamship lines at Jersey City and in New York. Newark is intersected by the Morris Canal, and has considerable coasting trade by way of the Passaic river. The city has 112 churches and missions :—Presbyterian, 23; Reformed Presbyterian, 1; United Presbyterian, 1; Congregational, 2; Reformed Dutch, 9; Baptist, 13; Episcopal, 12; Episcopal Reformed, 1; Methodist, 22; Lutheran, 4; Roman Catholic, 11; Jewish synagogues, 3; besides Bethel, Uni versahst, Unitarian, Independent Catholic, and other independent churches. It has an admirable, free public school system. There are three well-appointed hospitals. The city has six daily newspapers, four English and two German, besides two Sunday morning newspapers and a weekly German paper.
In 1810 the population of Newark was 6000; in 1836, when the town became a city, it was 19,732; in 1840 it was 17,290, shortly after which began a stream of immigration which has continued almost uninterruptedly since. In '1850 the population had more than doubled, reaching 38,894; in 1860 it was 71,941, having again almost doubled; during the next decade, including the period of the civil war, it increased to 105,059, and it has since grown in like ratio, being 136,508 in 1880. This had risen to 145,000 (estimated) in 1883. In 1880 there were 17,628 persons of German, 13,451 of Irish, 4478 of English, and 1090 of Scotch birth, together with Italians, French, Swedes, Swiss, and other nationalities in numbers which bring the total of foreign-born population up to 40,330. Those of German and Irish birth, together with their children (minors) born within the United States, constitute fully three-fifths of the entire population.
History.— On or about May 17, 1666—the exact date cannot be determined—there anchored in the Passaic river, opposite what is now Newark, a small vessel from Milford, Connecticut, having on board a company of thirty persons, Puritans, who had come to form a new settlement in the New Jersey wilderness. Before the landing was completed, the Hackensack Indians demanded compensation from the new comers, which they finally received. The price then paid for the land upon which Newark and the adjacent towns and villages of Essex county are built being “fifty double hands of powder, one hundred bars of lead, twenty axes, twenty coats, ten guns, twenty pistols, ten kettles, ten swords, four blankets, four barrels of beer, ten pairs of breeches, fifty knives, twenty horses, eighteen hundred and fifty fathoms of wampum, two ankers of liquor (or something equivalent), and three troopers’ coats.” Subsequently another vessel arrived from Connecticut containing a somewhat larger party, but both together numbered, all told, less than seventy persons. Their chief desire was to establish a community whose spiritual and temporal affairs would be controlled and directed “according to God and a godly government.” Their pastor was Abraham Pierson, originally from Newark-on-Trent, in whose honour the name of the settlement was changed from Milford to Newark. The town was laid out in lots, and everything was ordered and governed mainly according to Mosaic law. The foremost among the settlers was Captain Robert Treat, a brave, resolute, wise, and kindly man, who, after remaining long enough to see the new settlement fairly established, returned to Connecticut, and became governor of the colony. He had previously been deputygovernor for thirty-two years. The dream of Pierson and his Puritan followers was not realized. Before many years the Mosaic bars had to be removed one by one, and gradually the townspeople broadened their ideas of government. But even to this day, despite the cosmopolitan character of the population, the old Puritan leaven is still at work, largely leavening the whole lump.
The first occurrence of special interest in the history of the town after its settlement was a schism in the old church. Colonel Josiah Ogden, a rich and influential member, and a man of strong individuality, saved his wheat one dry Sunday, in a wet season. He maintained that it was a work of necessity; the church declared it tp be a violation of God’s law. The immediate result was the withdrawal of Ogden and his followers, and the founding of the first Episcopal or Church of England Society in Newark, —Trinity Church. The affair led also to an exacerbating controversy which lasted from 1734 until long after the Revolutionary war which closed in 1783. Newark was, from 1748 to 1756, the seat of the college of New Jersey, thereafter permanently established at Princeton, founded by the Rev. Aaron Burr, father of the nuire celebrated American of the same name; the latter was born in Newark. During the war of independence, the great majority of the thousand inhabitants of Newark sided with the Americans; the town suffered severely from the ravages of the British and marauding parties of American loyalists; on the other hand the American revolutionists drove out all loyalists, and confiscated their property. After the war, manufactures began to prosper, and have continued to do so ever since. At one time chair-making was carried on extensively, and it is stated that among those who worked at it in Newark was the famous Talleyrand.
NEWARK, a city of the United States, capital of Licking county, Ohio, is situated on the Licking river and on the Ohio and Erie Canal, and is 33 miles from Columbus by the railway to Pittsburg. It is a flourishing agricultural and industrial centre, with extensive railway shops, foundries, and manufactories of glass, paper, steam-engines, and agricultural implements: and sandstone quarries and coal-mines are worked in the neighbourhood. Some of the most extensive and interesting of the earth-work remains of the prehistoric inhabitants of North America are found here. The population was 3654 in 1850, 6698 in 1870, and 9602 in 1880.
NEWARK, David Leslie, Lord (1601-1682), a celebrated Scottish military character during the civil war, was born in 1601, the fifth son of Patrick Leslie of Pitcairley, commendator of Lindores, and Lady Jane Stuart, daughter of the first earl of Orkney. In his early life he served in the armies of Gustavus Adolphus, where he rose to the rank of colonel of horse. On his return he was appointed major-general in the army that was sent into England under the earl of Leven to assist the Parliament. This army engaged the Royalists under Prince Rupert at Marston Moor, and totally defeated them, in July 1644. When Scotland after the battle of Kilsyth was at the mercy of Montrose and his army, Leslie was recalled from England in 1645, and made lieutenant-general of horse. In September he defeated Montrose at Philiphaugh near Selkirk, with great loss, and was rewarded by the committee of estates for this service with a present of 50,000 merks and a gold chain. He completely suppressed the civil war in Scotland in 1647, was declared lieutenant-general of the forces, and, in addition to his pay as colonel, had a pension of £1000 a month settled on him. Leslie then returned to England, and was present at the siege of Newark. On his return to Scotland he reduced several of the Highland clans that supported the cause of the king. In 1649 he purchased the lands of Abercrombie and St Monance, Fifeshire. In 1650 he was sent against Montrose, whom he made prisoner; andon the resignation of the earl of Leven he was appointed to the chief command of the army raised on behalf of Charles II. He baflled the forces of Cromwell, who was then invading Scotland, by shutting him up in Dunbar, and would have cut off his whole army, but, yielding to the advice of the church and state committee, he rashly left his commanding position on the Doon Hill, and was signally defeated on the 3d September 1650. After various skirmishes Leslie afterwards accompanied Charles to Worcester, where he was lieutenant-general under the king, who commanded in person. On the defeat of the royal army, Leslie, intercepted in his retreat through Yorkshire, was committed to the Tower, where he remained till the Restoration in 1660. He was fined £4000 by Cromwell’s “Act of Grace” in 1654. He was in 1661 created Lord Newark, and received a pension of £500 per annum. He died in 1682. The title became extinct in 1790.
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