NOTT
NOTT
^■C^M/^A^
NOTT, Eliphalet, educator, was born in Ash-
foril. Conn., Jnne 25, 1773: son of Stephen and
Deborah (Selden) Nott; grandson of the Rev.
Abraham (1696-1756) and Phebe (Tapping) Nott,
of Saybrook, and of Samuel Selden, of Lyme, and
a descendant of John
Nott, who emigrated
from Nottingham,
England, to America
inlG40, and settled in
Wethersfield, Conn.,
where he was a re-
presentative at the
general court for
several years. He was
educated bj' his
mother and in the
office of Dr. Palmer,
at Ashford. until his
mother's death in
1788, when he entered
the family of his
brother, the Rev. Samuel Nott, pastor of the Con-
gregational clmrcli, Franklin, Conn., 1781-1852.
He was principal of the academy at Plainfield,
Conn., 17'J3-!)5; studied theology under the Rev.
Joel Benedict, pastor of the Plainfield Congrega-
tional church, and was married in 1796 to Sallie
Benedict, daugiiter of his preceptor in theology.
Upon passing the senior examination at Brown
university in 1795, he received the honorary de-
gree A.M. He was licensed to preach, June 26,
1796; went to Cherry Vallej'. N. Y. , as a missionary
in that year, where he established an academy and
acted as both pastor and teacher. He was ordained
by the presbytery of Albany. N.Y., Oct. 13, 1798,
pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Albany,
and served 1798-1804. He was elected a trustee of
Union college, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1800, and
president as successor to Dr. Jonathan Maxcy in
180-1. Through his efforts the state legislature
passed a law in 1805 by which financial aid was
.secured through four lotteries to be drawn for
the benefit of the college, the management of
which lotteries was given to Dr. Nott and con-
ducted by him for several years. The sum of
$80,000 was the sum first agreed upon, but as the
drawings did not take place until 1814, the legis-
lature made a furtlier grant of $200,000 for which
Dr. Nott was made personally resjxjnsible. His
government of the college was parental, for he
had little regard for the obedience or studious-
ness that was compulsory, and was as a result
greatly loved by his pupils, 4000 of whom were
graduated during his term of office. He advo-
cated temperance, anti-slavery and civil and
religious liberty throughout his life. He was a
student of the lav\-3 of heat and secured about
thirty patents for stoves and other devices, among
them being the first stove used for the burning of
anthracite coal, which bore his name. He re-
ceived the degree D.D. from the College of New
Jersey in 1805. and LL.D, from Brown university
in 1828. In 1855 he endowed Union college with
property worth $500,000 known as the "Nott
Trust Fund " of which he was a visitor, 1855-66.
He published several sermons and addresses,
among them the famous address on the death of
Alexander Hamilton, and is the author of:
Councils to Yoioig Men (1845), and Lectures on
Temperance (1847). See Memoir by Cornelius
Van Santvoord, with a contribution and revision
by Professor Tayler Lewis (1876). He died in
Schenectady, N.Y., Jan. 29, 1866.
NOTT, Henry Junius, educator, was born in Union district. S.C., Nov. 4, 1797; son of Judge Abraham and Angelica (Mitchell) Nott: grand- son of Josiah and Zerviah (Clark) Nott, and a descendant of John Nott. the immigrant, 1640. His father, a native of Saybrook, Conn., was graduated at Yale, 1781, taught school in Georgia, 1781-91, was admitted to the bar in Camden, S.C, 1791; was a Federalist representative in the 7th congress. 1801-03; a judge of the state court, 1810-24, and president of the court of appeals of South Carolina, 1824-30. Henry Junius Nott was graduated at South Carolina college in 1812. He visited Europe in 1866. studied law in Colum- bia, S.C, under William Harper (q.v.), and was admitted to the bar in 1818. He settled in practice in Columbia, in partnership with David J. McCord, but in 1821 abandoned his profession on account of ill health, visited Eu- rope, and engaged in literary work in Hollaiid and France until 1825, when he returned to the United States. He was professor of the elements of criticism, logic and the philosophy of languages in South Carolina college, 1825-34, visited New York in 1837, with his wife, a French lady whom he had married in Paris, and on the homeward voyage the vessel was wrecked oflf the coast of North Carolina and both lost tiieir lives. He was an essayist and lecturer, and contributed a series of sketches in the Southern Review, which were afterward published in book form under the title Novelettes of a Traveller (2 vols., 1834). He also published Law Reports of South Carolina with David J. McCord (2 vols., 1818-20). He died at sea. Oct. 13, 1837.
NOTT, Joel Benedict, educator, was born in Cherry Valley. N.Y., Dec. 14, 1797; son of the Rev. Dr. Eliphalet an<l Sallie (Benedict) Nott. He was graduated at Union college. A.B., 1817, A.M., 1820; was tutor there, 1820-22; lecturer in chemistry, 1822-23: professor of chemistry. 1823- 31. In 1837 he retired to a farm in Guilderland, Albany county, where he continued to reside during his lifetime. He was married in 1826 to
