Marshall Hall.
DR. MARSHALL HALL was the sixth of eight children of ROBERT HALL. He was born at Basford in 1790; at 15 read "Chemical Essays," was apprenticed to a chemist, went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, and worked early and late. "Hall never tires" the students were accustomed to say. In 1813 he gave a valuable course of lectures on Diagnosis, and this afterwards became one of his distinguished features. Instead of bleeding indiscriminately, he rcognized the presence and nature of disease by carefully observing its symptoms. His system of inducing respiration in cases of drowning has saved many lives. He settled in Nottingham, was appointed Physician to the General Hospital, afterwards removed to London, where he wrote several learned works, for which he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. To his profound physiological researches are owing discoveries, especially that of the duplicate nervous systems, which have conferred lasting benefits on mankind. To the subject of the discovery of the spinal system alone he devoted 35,000 hours. His views excited violent opposition among medical men; they were in advance of the times, and to use his own words "I appeal from the first half of the 19th century, to the second," and the second adopted them. "The Memoirs of Marshall Hall," by his widow, is a book of over 500 pages, which should be read, and it contains a list of nearly 200 books, essays, papers, etc.. which he wrote between 1812 and 1857. "Though I have taken great interest in my profession, and in scientific pursuits, yet religion has been with me the principal thing for more than thirty years." was a remark he made in his last illness. He desired to be buried at Basford, but was interred in the Nottingham General Cemetery, where is a granite monument near the Derby Road entrance. Basford people would do well to see that the tomb of its greatest son should have attention. He died in 1857, aged 67. Had his life been devoted to war, destroying life, instead of to saving it, honours would have been showered upon him.
LAWRENCE HALL was another brother who travelled abroad, and developed a trade in the bleaching of starch, the improvement of which was really Samuel's invention, but "Lawrence Hall's Patent Starch" held the field many years.
DR. JOHN SPRAY, musician, was born at Basford. Possessing an excellent voice he succeeded in obtaining election as a chorister in Lichfield Cathedral, and afterwards as a member of the choir of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, at Dublin; he achieved great success, and the degree of Doctor of Music was conferred upon him. He died in 1827, aged 59, when according to Brown's "Worthies of Notts." the Dublin papers deplored the loss of "one of the most distinguished members of the musical profession in this country—at once the ornament of our cathedral, and the animating spirit of social song in our higher classes of musical society," and the monument in St Patrick's describes him as having been the first tenor in the empire.
Duke of Newcastle.
HENRY, FIFTH DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, lord of the manor of Basford, had a stained-glass window erected in Basford Church to his memory in 1865, and restored in 1902. He is usually called the "Crimean Duke," for in that war he was Secretary for War, in which office he showed great zeal and ability, but the departments were inactive and obstructive, and the contractors fraudulent, the result being that the Puke had to bear a torrent of undeserved reproach and it hastened his end, although he bore it with manliness and dignity. He had intended to restore, and occasionally to reside at Nottingham Castle His executor and trustee, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, who leased the Castle to the Nottingham Corporation, said of him, "We saw in him a man of powerful, comprehensive, and capacious intellect, devoting himself with an ardour never surpassed to the service of his country." He died in 1864. and his portrait may be seen in the Grand Jury room at the Shire Hall, presented by Sir Thomas Birkin, Bart.
The REV. ROBERT SIMPSON, Vicar of Basford, has his memory perpetuated by a brass, which before the fire was in the chancel, but is now very unfortunately left unfixed. It states—"By his unwearied exertions the cemetery was obtained, and the National School erected; the Church and churchyard also were repaired and beautified. This tablet is here placed to record his useful labours, and the respect in which he was held." Let us honour the memory of a man who did his best to supply the children with facilities for education nearly a generation before his fellow parishioners awoke to make a general demand. He died in 1847, aged 64.
The printed accounts shew that the cost of enclosing and adapting the cemetery was £331 15s. 10d., to which Mr. Simpson gave £114 17s. 10d., the rest being raised by donations and subscriptions.
THOMAS NORTH On a obelisk standing in the old cemetery it is stated that he died in 1868, aged 57, and it is added "By great enterprize he was the means of finding employment for a large number of people who have subscribed to erect this monument to his memory." Cinder Hill colliery was established in 1842, and Mr. North worked Babbington, Newcastle and other collieries.
He formerly resided at Babbington Cottage, and afterwards at Basford Hall; Mr. R. G. Barber being the resident engineer. Mr. North was Mayor of Nottingham in 1844, and to celebrate the event there was a grand ball on Jan. 16th, 1845, when 800 ladies and gentlemen were entertained with splendour and display. The dancing was kept up till seven o'clock in the morning. A service of plate was presented, subscribed for by 800 persons, and costing £810, and bearing a laudatory inscription, but there were some traits in his character that cannot be commended.
HY. MOSES WOOD, an architect and surveyor, was born at Basford in 1788, educated at the Grammar School, and entered the office of Mr. Staveley, the Corporation Surveyor, whom he ultimately succeeded. He married Miss Wilson, of Shelford. and they had eleven children. He founded the Notts. & Derbyshire Insurance Company, and acted as its Secretary. He was for some years a Director of the Nottm. & Notts. Bank. Many of the Corporation works done in his day were under his direction. He projected and principally laid out the Arboretum, and the recreation walks. He was first sheriff of the new Corporation, and the last chamberlain of the old. His recreations were field sports, cricket, the fine arts, and the drama. He died in 1868, aged 80.
WILLIAM SCALING came from Edinburgh, and in the works adjoining Coalpit lane, now called Bagnall Road, he set up basket works, putting the willows through the processes of heat, and manual labour, and making them into articles of the greatest elegance and diversity. He invented a patent implement for splitting osiers. He exhibited his articles at the Crystal Palace in 1851, and at Sydenham. He introduced superior canes made up into phaeton carriages, art wicker work, perambulators, etc., and thus he brought an entirely new industry into Basford, which has largely developed. He went in for osier growing. He was ten years basket maker to Her Majesty. He wrote a book on "The Salix or Willow," and two others on like subjects, and many papers. He did better for the district than for himself. He died in 1886, aged 66.
The REV. JOHN ALCORN was minister of High Street Chapel, and during a four years' ministry 121 members were added, the Chapel being crowded on Sunday evenings. He was a man of great ability and zeal. He resigned in 1882, and died in 1888, aged 73, after a ministry of 51 years. A book of sermons by him was published by his son' in 1898, under the title of "The Sure Foundation," with a memoir by Dr. Clifford.
HENRY ASHWELL was a bleacher, dyer and finisher, and did an extensive business, which he carried on many years. He was intended for the ministry, and studied at Bradford College, but was called to take charge of his uncle Heard's business. He served some years on the Basford Local Board, and afterwards as member and chairman of the Nottingham School Board, and was on other public and social bodies. He was a man of firm convictions, and with a keen sense of duty. He died in 1909, aged 81.
The REV. W. DYSON was minister of the Baptist Chapel in High Street, and his son FRANK W. DYSON is the Astronomer Royal at Greenwich Observatory, Fellow of the Royal Society, L.L.D., F.R.A.S. The father, Bssford people remember as a very kindly man, friendly with everybody, sympathetic and cheerful. He died in 1904, aged 67. The son was for several years a scholar at Mr. Cargill's school—Eland School on Radford Road (see page 132). By attentive study, and energetic care, he gained the Isaac Newton Scholarship, became Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was second Wrangler; Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society 1889, Astronomer Royal for Scotland 1905, and for England 1910, and is still at work.
JOHN CRAMPTON was born at Arnold, and for forty years was foreman joiner at H. Ashwell & Co.'s bleach yards, a position he obtained and retained by strict attention to business, perseverance, and faithful discharge of his duties. He was very cheerful and kindly, sympathetic to suffering, an intense lover of nature, a studious man to whom literature was a recreation. His holiday tours in Sherwood Forest, Derbyshire, Wales, Devonshire, etc., were described in articles written for newspapers and magazines, and a collection of them was compiled and published. He was superintendent of the Baptist Sunday School, High Street, and for twenty years had charge of the senior class; his influence with the young people being considerable, and well exercised. He died in 1897, aged 66.
MILNES FARRAND, a member of an old Basford family of bleachers, and afterwards a soap manufacturer at Whitemoor, deserves to be remembered. He voluntarily played the organ in the parish church 42 years, and provided the music for the use of the choir at his own cost. He died in 1906, aged 77.
GEORGE WOODHEAD was National Schoolmaster 40 years, and was choirmaster.