of the Clarke School for the Deaf (1867, founded by John Clarke of Northampton); of Smith College, one of the foremost colleges for women in the country; of the Mary A. Burnham School for Girls (1877), a preparatory school chiefly for Smith College, founded by Miss Mary A. Burnham; and of the Miss Capen School (preparatory) for girls. Besides the college library, there are in Northampton two public libraries, the Clarke (1850) and the Forbes (1894). The Forbes library was established with funds left by Charles E. Forbes (1795–1881), from 1848 to 1881 a justice of the state supreme court. The People’s Institute was started as a Home-Culture Clubs movement by George W. Cable, who became a resident of Northampton in 1886. The Smith Charities is a peculiar institution, endowed by Oliver Smith (1766–1845) of Hatfield, who left an estate valued at $370,000, to be administered by a board of three trustees, chosen by electors representing the towns of Northampton, Hadley, Hatfield, Amherst and Williamsburg in Hampshire county and Greenfield and Whately in Franklin county—the beneficiaries of the will. The will was contested by Smith’s heirs, but in 1847 was sustained by the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts. Of the total sum, $200,000 was to accumulate until it became $400,000. Of this $30,000 was to found Smith’s Agricultural School at Northampton, which opened for instruction in 1908; an income of $10,000 was to be paid to the American Colonization Society, but this society failed to comply with the restrictions imposed by the will, and the $10,000 was incorporated with the Agricultural School fund; and $360,000 was devoted to indigent boys and girls, indigent young women and indigent widows. The remainder of Smith’s property was constituted a contingent fund to defray expenses and keep the principal funds intact. Florence, a village on the Mill river in the city limits, is a manufacturing village, silk being its principal product, and cutlery and brushes being of minor importance. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $4,706,820 in 1900 to $5,756,381 in 1905, or 22·3%. Northampton was first settled in 1654, became a township in 1656, and was incorporated as a city in 1883. In September 1786, at the time of the Shays Rebellion, the New Hampshire Gazette (still published; daily edition since 1890) was established here in the interest of the state administration. Jonathan Edwards was pastor here from 1727 to 1750. Caleb Strong (1745–1819), a member of the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, and governor of Massachusetts in 1800–1807 and 1812–1816; Joseph Hawley (1723–1788), one of the most prominent patriots of western Massachusetts; Timothy Dwight; Arthur (1786–1865), Benjamin, and Lewis (1788–1873) Tappan, prominent philanthropists and anti-slavery men; and William D. Whitney were natives of Northampton.
See J. R. Trumbull, History of Northampton (2 vols., Northampton, 1898–1902).
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, an east midland county of England, bounded N. by Lincolnshire, N.W. by Rutland and Leicestershire, W. by Warwickshire, S.W. and S. by Oxfordshire, S.E. by Buckinghamshire, and E. by Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire. The area is 1003·1 sq. m. The surface is undulating and somewhat monotonous, notwithstanding that the country is richly cultivated and in some parts finely wooded. Elevations over 700 ft. are few. The most picturesque scenery is found in the western and south-western districts. For long Northamptonshire has been famed for its ash trees, and there are also some very old oaks, such as that associated with Cowper’s posthumous poem “Yardley Oak,” in Yardley Chase near Northampton, as well as a few fine avenues of elm. The north-eastern extremity belongs to the great Fen district. The county forms the principal watershed of central England, nearly all the more important rivers of this region having their sources within its boundaries. The Avon, with a westward course, forms for some distance the northern boundary of the county, till near Lilbourne it passes into Warwickshire. The Nene passes southward past Northampton, whence it takes an easterly course, skirting the eastern boundary of the county. The Welland flows in an easterly direction forming the boundary of the county with Leicester, Rutland and Lincoln. The Cherwell, rising in a spring at Charwelton, where it is crossed by a very ancient bridge, passes into Oxfordshire, and then forms for a considerable distance the southernmost portion of the boundary of Northamptonshire with that county; the Leam forms a portion of the boundary with Warwickshire. The Ouse, which rises near Brackley, soon afterwards leaves the county, but again touches it near Stony Stratford, separating it for some distance from Buckinghamshire.
Geology.—With the exception of the superficial glacial and river deposits, all the rocks exposed in the county are of Jurassic age; they all dip in a general way towards the S.E., the strike of the outcrops being from south-west to north-east. The oldest rocks exposed belong to the Liassic formation; they come to the surface over a large area in the south-west and centre, around Banbury, Daventry and Market Harborough, and by the removal of the overlying Oolitic strata they are exposed along the rivers and stream courses near Towcester, Northampton, Wellingborough and Kettering. The Lower Lias, blue clay with limestone bands and cement stones, has few exposures; it has been cut through by the railways at Kilsby and Catesby, and at Braunston it is dug for brick-making. The Middle Lias consists of grey micaceous marls, sandstones and clays, often ferruginous; ironstone appears near King’s Sutton; at the top is the marlstone or “rock bed,” used as a building stone and for road metal. The Upper Lias is again a blue argillaceous series of strata, with limestones and cement stones; it is employed for brick-making. Through the middle of the county from north-east to south-west is an elevated tract of Oolitic rocks which contrasts strongly with the low-lying grass-covered Liassic ground. The lowest subdivision of the Inferior Oolite, sands, sandstone and calcareous beds, is an important source of iron ore, with from 9 to 12 ft. of workable beds at Blisworth, Kettering, Northampton, Thrapstone, Towcester and Wellingborough. The flaggy sandstone of Duston (Duston slate) belongs to this series. The upper part of the Northampton sands is known as the Lower Estuarine Beds; these are white and reddish clays and sands. In the north-eastern part of the county from about Maidwell, the Lincolnshire Limestone is developed at the expense of the Northampton Sand; the well-known building stone of Barnack (Barnack Rag) and Weldon belong to this horizon; a hard shelly variety is known as Weldon or Stamford marble. Locally at the base is a series of flaggy strata, the Collyweston slates. The Great Oolite series comprise the Upper Estuarine Beds, the Great Oolite Limestone, Great Oolite Clay, Forest Marble and Cornbrash (very fossiliferous at Rushden). On the south-east border a belt of Oxford Clay occupies the surface; good exposures occur in the brick-fields about Peterborough. Glacial sands and gravels, including the great Chalky Boulder Clay, occur in patches on the older rocks, as at Hillmorton, and fill up old channels of the rivers sometimes to a considerable depth, as in the old valley of the Ouse at Furtho, where the Boulder Clay is 100 ft. thick. Borings have revealed the existence of Rhaetic and Keuper rocks resting on an ancient quartz-porphyrite beneath the Lias at Orton; and at Gayton and Northampton the Carboniferous and possibly Old Red Sandstone strata have been proved, but no Coal Measures were encountered. The water-bearing strata of Northamptonshire include the marlstone of the Lias, the Lincolnshire Limestone, Collyweston beds and ironstone beds of the Inferior Oolite, and the Cornbrash and Great Oolite Limestone.
Climate and Agriculture.—The climate of Northamptonshire is mild and genial, while the absence of lofty hills renders it much drier than many other inland districts. The mean annual rainfall at Wellingborough is 27·2 ins. The prevailing soil is a rich brown but light and crumbling mould, sometimes with a rocky subsoil. The richest soil is the black mould of the fen district, which is specially suited for grass, as are all the heavier soils. Nearly all the land is capable of cultivation, although there is some stiff wet soil on the slopes of the hills. Nearly nine-tenths of the total area, a high proportion, is under cultivation, and of this considerably over three-fifths is in permanent pasture, the acreage devoted to this use increasing steadily. Less than one-fifth is under grain crops, and the area decreases. Wheat and barley are the principal grain crops. The fattening of cattle is the chief occupation of the Northamptonshire farmer. The favourite stock for breeding purposes is the shorthorn, but the most common custom is to buy in Hereford, Scotch, Welsh and Irish cattle in the spring and fatten them on the rich pastures, a few being retained and fed for the Christmas market. In autumn additional cattle are bought in to eat the coarse grass off the pastures, and these are usually retained during winter. The most common breed of sheep on the rich pastures is the improved Leicester, which is preferred on account of its length
