Jervis's interest, it is as probable that Nepean's voice was not without influence in the selection of Jervis for the Mediterranean command. With both Jervis and Nelson he corresponded on terms of friendly familiarity. He married Margaret, daughter of William Skinner, a captain in the army, and had by her four sons and a daughter.
[Gent. Mag. 1822, ii. 373; Haydn's Book of Dignities; Nicolas's Dispatches of Lord Nelson (freq.); Tucker's Mem. of Earl St. Vincent; Official Documents in the Public Record Office; Some correspondence with Jeremy Bentham about the Panopticon is in Addit. MSS. 33541, 33543.]
NEPER. [See Napier.]
NEQUAM, ALEXANDER (1157-1217), poet and theologian. [See Neckam.]
NESBIT. [See also Nisbet.]
NESBIT, ANTHONY (1778–1859), schoolmaster and writer of school-books, was the son of Jacob Nesbit, farmer, of Long Benton, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was baptised on 3 May 1778. In the preface to his ‘Arithmetic’ he states that he was educated ‘under the direction of some of the first commercial and mathematical preceptors in the kingdom,’ and that, having a decided predilection for teaching, he became a schoolmaster at an early age. He lived successively at Whitby, Malton, Scarborough, Bridlington, and Hull. In 1808–9 he was an under-master at Preston grammar school, as appears from a communication to the ‘Lady's Diary’ for 1809. In 1810 he describes himself on the title-page of his ‘Land Surveying’ as ‘land surveyor and teacher of the mathematics at Farnley, near Leeds.’ About 1814 he set up a school at Bradford, removing in 1821 or thereabouts to Manchester, where his school in Oxford Road became well known. About 1841 he removed to London, and started a school at 38 Lower Kennington Lane [see Nesbit, John Collis.]
His books, which had a considerable reputation in their day, especially in the North of England, are: 1. ‘Land Surveying,’ York, 1810. 2. ‘Mensuration,’ 1816. 3. ‘English Parsing,’ 1817. 4. ‘Practical Gauging,’ York, 1822. 5. ‘Arithmetic,’ Liverpool, 1826; second part, London, 1846. 6. ‘An Essay on Education,’ London, 1841. His sons, John Collis Nesbit and Edward Planta Nesbit, took part in the compilation of the last-named work. Some of his books went through several editions, and his ‘Land Surveying,’ revised by successive editors, still retains its popularity, the twelfth edition appearing in 1870. He was an excellent teacher, though somewhat severe; and in the preface to his ‘Arithmetic’ he laments that an over-fond parent too often ‘prohibits the teacher from using the only means that are calculated to make a scholar of his son.’ He contributed to the mathematical portions of the ‘Lady's Diary,’ ‘Enquirer,’ and ‘Leeds Correspondent.’ He died in Kennington Lane on 15 March 1859, and was buried in Norwood Cemetery (Gent. Mag. May 1859, p. 547 a).
[Authorities as cited; personal knowledge.]
NESBIT, CHARLTON (1775–1838), wood-engraver, was born at Swalwell, in Durham, in 1775, being the son of a keelman. He was apprenticed to Thomas Bewick [q. v.] of Newcastle about 1789; and it was stated that during his apprenticeship he both drew and engraved the bird's nest which heads the preface in vol. i. of the ‘Birds,’ and that he engraved the majority of the vignettes and tail-pieces to the ‘Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell,’ 1795. He is also credited with a caricature of Stephen or George Stephen Kemble [q. v.], manager of the Newcastle Theatre, in the character of Hamlet. This was a quarto etching on copper, appropriately executed in Drury Lane, Newcastle. In 1796 Nesbit engraved a memorial cut to Robert Johnson (1770–1796) [q. v.], from one of that artist's designs, and little more than a year later he published, for the benefit of Johnson's parents, a large block after a water-colour by Johnson, still preserved at Newcastle, representing a north view of St. Nicholas's Church. This, being fifteen inches by twelve, was, at the time of publication, one of the largest engravings on wood ‘ever attempted in the present mode.’ A copy of it was presented by the engraver to the Society of Arts, who awarded him their lesser silver palette. About 1799 Nesbit removed from Newcastle to London, and took up his abode in Fetter Lane. Among his earlier labours in the metropolis was a frontispiece, after Thurston, to Bloomfield's ‘Farmer's Boy,’ published by Vernor & Hood in 1800. To this followed in 1801 woodcuts for Grey's edition of Butler's ‘Hudibras.’ In 1802 the Society of Arts awarded Nesbit a silver medal. He was also employed on the ‘Scripture Illustrated,’ 1806, of William Marshall Craig [q. v.], and upon Wallis and Scholey's edition of Hume's ‘History of England,’ to the cuts in which latter his name is often affixed. With Branston and Clennell he engraved the head and tail pieces to an edition of Cowper's ‘Poems,’ in 2 vols. 1808. But his most am-
