Chapter X: Part 10

Modern statutes now regulate all fisheries, sea or fresh, in territorial or inland waters. As regards sea fishery in England, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has (since 1903, when it took it over from the Board of Trade) power by order to create sea fisheries districts, comprising any part of the sea within which British subjects have, by international law, the exclusive right of fishing, and to provide for the constitution of a local fisheries committee to regulate the sea fisheries in such district, which can make by-laws for that purpose. It appoints fishery officers to enforce them, prescribes a close time for sea fish (which does not include salmon as defined in the Salmon Act), has summary jurisdiction over offences committed on the sea coast or at sea beyond the ordinary jurisdiction of a court of summary jurisdiction, can enforce the Sea Fisheries Acts, or regulate, protect and develop fisheries for all or any kind of shell fish. Special provision is also made by statute for the oyster fishery and herring fishery (applicable also to Scotland), and that of mussels, cockles, lobsters and crabs (applicable to all the United Kingdom). In Scotland the Fishery Board can constitute sea fishery districts, and boards with like powers to those in England, and has general control over the coast and deep-sea fisheries of Scotland; and there are acts relative to herring, mussel and oyster fisheries, and allowing the appropriation of money intended to relieve local distress and taxation towards the encouragement of sea fisheries, and marine superintendence and enforcement of Scottish sea fisheries laws. In Ireland the sea fisheries are under the direction of the inspectors of Irish fisheries, who have replaced the former fishery commissioners and special commissioners for Irish fisheries; special statutes, besides the general ones applying to all the United Kingdom, deal with oyster fisheries and mussel fisheries; and money is also appropriated for sea fisheries under the head of technical instruction. In all three component parts of the United Kingdom there are also special statutes relative to salmon and freshwater fish: for England, the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1861-1907, and the Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1878-1886; for Scotland the chief Salmon Acts are those of 1862-1868, and for trout and freshwater fish those of 1845-1902; for Ireland, the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts 1842-1901. A similar scheme is adopted in each case, namely, fishery districts and district boards are set up which regulate the fishing by by-laws and protect the fish by fixing a close time, and prescribing passes, licences, inspection and the like, breaches of which are punishable by courts of summary jurisdiction. The supreme authorities in each case are--for England the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, for Scotland the Fishery Board, and for Ireland the inspectors of fisheries, and in England a certain official number of conservators on such boards are appointed by the county councils. The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1907 gives the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries power to make provisional orders for the regulation of salmon fisheries or freshwater fisheries within any area on the application of any board of conservators, or of a county council, or of the owners of one-fourth in value of private fisheries. There are also special acts dealing with the fishing in certain rivers, such as the Thames, Medway, Severn, Tweed and Esk. (The act of 1907 applies, however, to the Esk, but not otherwise to Scotland nor to Ireland.) Throughout the United Kingdom the use of dynamite or other explosive substance to catch or destroy fish in any public fishery is prohibited, as it is also in England in any private waters subject to the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts 1878, in which it is also forbidden to use poison or other noxious substance for destroying fish. Officers in the army or marines are forbidden (under penalty) to kill fish without written leave from the person entitled to grant it. There are also provisions of the criminal law dealing with the protection of fisheries generally, as well as the provisions of the acts already mentioned dealing with special kinds of fish.

Special provision is made by the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894-1906 for sea-fishing boats (except in Scotland and the colonies), relating to their registration, carrying official papers, carrying boats in proportion to their tonnage, the punishment of offences on board, the wages of their crews, and keeping record of all casualties, punishments and the like on board. As regards trawlers, especially in the case of those of 25 tons and upwards, a statutory form of agreement with the crew is prescribed, as well as accounts of wages and discharges; and skippers and second hands must have certificates of competency, which are granted under similar conditions to those required in the case of sea-going ships and are registered with the Board of Trade. Scottish fishing boats are regulated by a special statute of 1886 (except as regards agreements to pay crew by share of profits, dealt with by the above act) and by the Sea Fisheries Act of 1868, which applies to all British fishing boats. Particular lights must be carried by fishing boats in navigation. An act of 1908 (The Cran Measures Act) legalized the use of cran measures in connexion with trading in fresh herrings in England and Wales, the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries being empowered to make regulations under the act.

AUTHORITIES.--Green, _Encyclopaedia of Scots Law_ (Edinburgh, 1896);
Stewart, _Law of Fishing in Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1869); Woolrych,
_Waters_ (London, 1851); Paterson, _Fishery Laws of the United
Kingdom_ (London and Cambridge, 1863); Stuart Moore, _Foreshore_
(London, 1888); Phillimore, _International Law_ (3rd ed., London,
1879); Martens, _Causes celebres du droit des gens_ (Leipzig, 1827);
Selwyn, _Nisi Prius_, _Fishery_ (London, 1869). (G. G. P.*)

FISHGUARD (_Abergwaun_), a market town, urban district, contributory parliamentary borough and seaport of Pembrokeshire, Wales, near the mouth of the river Gwaun, which here flows into Fishguard Bay of St George's Channel. Pop. (1901) 2002. Its railway station, which is the chief terminus of the South Wales system of the Great Western railway, is at the hamlet of Goodwick across the bay, a mile distant to the south-west. Fishguard Bay is deep and well sheltered from all winds save those of the N. and N.E., and its immense commercial value has long been recognized. After many years of labour and at a great expenditure of money the Great Western railway has constructed a fine breakwater and railway pier at Goodwick across the lower end of the bay, and an important passenger and goods traffic with Rosslare on the opposite Irish coast was inaugurated in 1906.

The importance of Fishguard is due to the local fisheries and the excellence of its harbour, and its early history is obscure. The chief historical interest of the town centres round the so-called "Fishguard Invasion" of 1797, in which year on the 22nd of February three French men-of-war with troops on board, under the command of General Tate, an Irish-American adventurer, appeared off Carreg Gwastad Point in the adjoining parish of Llanwnda. To the great alarm of the inhabitants a body of about 1400 men disembarked, but it quickly capitulated, practically without striking a blow, to a combined force of the local militias under Sir Richard Philipps, Lord Milford and John Campbell, Lord Cawdor; the French frigates meanwhile sailing away towards Ireland. For many years the castles and prisons of Haverfordwest and Pembroke were filled to overflowing with French prisoners of war. Close to the banks of the Gwaun is the pretty estate of Glyn-y-mel, for many years the residence of Richard Fenton (1746-1821), the celebrated antiquary and historian of Pembrokeshire.

FISHKILL LANDING, or FISHKILL-ON-THE-HUDSON, a village of Fishkill township, Dutchess county, New York, U.S.A., about 58 m. N. of New York City, on the E. bank of the Hudson river, opposite Newburgh. Pop. (1890) 3617; (1900) 3673, of whom 540 were foreign-born; (1905) 3939; (1910) 3902, of Fishkill township (1890) 11,840; (1900) 13,016; (1905) 13,183; (1910) 13,858. In the township are also the villages of Matteawan (q.v.), Fishkill and Glenham. Fishkill Landing is served by the New York Central & Hudson River and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways; by railway ferry and passenger ferries to Newburgh, connecting with the West Shore railway; by river steamboats and by electric railway to Matteawan. Four miles farther N. on Fishkill Creek is the village of Fishkill (incorporated in 1899), pop. (1905) 579. In this village are two notable old churches, Trinity (1769), and the First Dutch Reformed (1731), in which the New York Provincial Congress met in August and September 1776. At the old Verplanck mansion in Fishkill Landing the Society of the Cincinnati was organized in 1783. Among the manufactures of Fishkill Landing are rubber-goods, engines (Corliss) and other machinery, hats, silks, woollens, and brick and tile. The village of Fishkill Landing was incorporated in 1864. The first settlement in the township was made about 1690. The township of Fishkill was, like Newburgh, an important military post during the War of Independence, and was a supply depot for the northern Continental Army.

FISK, JAMES (1834-1872), American financier, was born at Bennington, Vermont, on the 1st of April 1834. After a brief period in school he ran away and joined a circus. Later he became a hotel waiter, and finally adopted the business of his father, a pedlar. He then became a salesman for a Boston dry goods firm, his aptitude and energy eventually winning for him a share in the business. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts during the Civil War, and it is said by engaging in cotton smuggling, he accumulated a considerable capital which he soon lost in speculation. In 1864 he became a stockbroker in New York and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in his war against Vanderbilt for the control of the Erie railway, and as a result of the compromise that was reached he and Jay Gould became members of the Erie directorate. The association with Gould thus began continued until his death. Subsequently by a well-planned "raid," Fisk and Gould obtained control of the road. They carried financial "buccaneering" to extremes, their programme including open alliance with the Tweed "ring," the wholesale bribery of legislatures and the buying of judges. Their attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday of the 24th of September 1869. Fisk was shot and killed in New York City by E.S. Stokes, a former business associate, on the 6th of January 1872.

FISK, WILBUR (1792-1839), American educationist, was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, on the 31st of August 1792. He studied at the university of Vermont in 1812-1814, and then entered Brown University, where he graduated in 1815. He studied law, and in 1817 came under the influence of a religious revival in Vermont, where at Lyndon in the following year he was licensed as a local preacher and was admitted to the New England conference. His influence with the conference turned that body from its opposition to higher education as immoral in tendency to the establishment of secondary schools and colleges. Upon the removal in 1824 of the conference's academy at New Market, New Hampshire, to Wilbraham, Massachusetts, Fisk became one of its agents and trustees, and in 1826 its principal. He drafted the report of the committee on education to the general conference in 1828, at which time he declined the bishopric of the Canada conference. He was first president of Wesleyan University from the opening of the university in 1831 until his death on the 22nd of February 1839 in Middletown, Connecticut. His successful administration of the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham and of Wesleyan University were remarkable. He was an able controversialist, and in the interests of Arminianism attacked both New England Calvinism and Unitarianism; he published in 1837 _The Calvinistic Controversy_. He also wrote _Travels on the Continent of Europe_ (1838).

See _Life and Writings of Wilbur Fisk_ (New York, 1842), edited by
Joseph Holdich, and the biography by George Prentice (Boston, 1890),
in the _American Religious Leaders Series_; also a sketch in _Memoirs
of Teachers and Educators_ (New, York, 1861), edited by Henry Barnard.

FISKE, JOHN (1842-1901), American historical, philosophical and scientific writer, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on the 30th of March 1842, and died at Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July 1901. His name was originally Edmund Fiske Green, but in 1855 he took the name of a great-grandfather, John Fiske. His boyhood was spent with a grandmother in Middletown, Connecticut; and prior to his entering college he had read widely in English literature and history, had surpassed most boys in the extent of his Greek and Latin work, and had studied several modern languages. He graduated at Harvard in 1863, continuing to study languages and philosophy with zeal; spent two years in the Harvard law school, and opened an office in Boston; but soon devoted the greater portion of his time to writing for periodicals. With the exception of one year, he resided at Cambridge, Massachusetts, from the time of his graduation until his death. In 1869 he gave a course of lectures at Harvard on the Positive Philosophy; next year he was history tutor; in 1871 he delivered thirty-five lectures on the Doctrine of Evolution, afterwards revised and expanded as _Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy_ (1874); and between 1872 and 1879 he was assistant-librarian. After that time he devoted himself to literary work and lecturing on history. Nearly all of his books were first given to the public in the form of lectures or magazine articles, revised and collected under a general title, such as _Myths and Myth-Makers_ (1872), _Darwinism and Other Essays_ (1879), _Excursions of an Evolutionist_ (1883), and _A Century of Science_ (1899). He did much, by the thoroughness of his learning and the lucidity of his style, to spread a knowledge of Darwin and Spencer in America. His _Outlines of Cosmic_ _Philosophy_, while Setting forth the Spencerian system, made psychological and sociological additions of original matter, in some respects anticipating Spencer's later conclusions. Of one part of the argument of this work Fiske wrote in the preface of one of his later books (_Through Nature to God_, 1899): "The detection of the part played by the lengthening of infancy in the genesis of the human race is my own especial contribution to the Doctrine of Evolution." In _The Idea of God as affected by Modern Knowledge_ (1885) Fiske discusses the theistic problem, and declares that the mind of man, as developed, becomes an illuminating indication of the mind of God, which as a great immanent cause includes and controls both physical and moral forces. More original, perhaps, is the argument in the immediately preceding work, _The Destiny of Man, viewed in the Light of his Origin_ (1884), which is, in substance, that physical evolution is a demonstrated fact; that intellectual force is a later, higher and more potent thing than bodily strength; and that, finally, in most men and some "lower animals" there is developed a new idea of the advantageous, a moral and non-selfish line of thought and procedure, which in itself so transcends the physical that it cannot be identified with it or be measured by its standards, and may or must be enduring, or at its best immortal.

It is principally, however, through his work as a historian that Fiske's reputation will live. His historical writings, with the exception of a small volume on _American Political Ideas_ (1885), an account of the system of _Civil Government in the United States_ (1890), _The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War_ (1900), a school history of the United States, and an elementary story of the American Revolution, are devoted to studies, in a unified general manner, of separate yet related episodes in American history. The volumes have not appeared in chronological order of subject, but form a nearly complete colonial history, as follows: _The Discovery of America, with some Account of Ancient America, and the Spanish Conquest_ (1892, 2 vols.); _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_ (1897, 2 vols.); _The Beginnings of New England_; or, _The Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty_ (1889); _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_ (1899); _The American Revolution_ (1891, 2 vols.); and _The Critical Period of American History_, 1783-1789 (1888). Of these the most original and valuable is the _Critical Period_ volume, a history of the consolidation of the states into a government, and of the formation of the constitution. (C. F. R.)

FISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (1865- ), American actress, was born in New Orleans, the daughter of Thomas Davey. As a child she played, under her mother's name of Maddern, with several well-known actors. In 1882 she first appeared as a "star," but in 1890 she married Harrison Grey Fiske and was absent from the stage for several years. In 1893 she reappeared in _Hester Crewe_, a play written by her husband, and afterwards acted a number of Ibsen's heroines, and in _Becky Sharp_, a dramatization of Thackeray's _Vanity Fair_. In 1901 she opened, in opposition to the American theatrical "trust," an independent theatre in New York, the Manhattan. She won a considerable reputation in the United States as an emotional actress.

FISTULA (Lat. for a pipe or tube), a term in surgery used to designate an abnormal communication leading either from the surface of the body to a normal cavity or canal, or from one normal cavity or canal to another. These communications are the result of disease or injury. They receive different names according to their situation: _lachrymal fistula_ is the small opening left after the bursting of an abscess in the upper part of the tear-duct, near the root of the nose; _salivary fistula_ is an opening into the salivary duct on the cheek; _anal fistula_, or _fistula in ano_, is a suppurating track near the outlet of the bowel; _urethral fistula_ is the result of a giving way of the tissues behind a stricture. These are examples of the variety of the first kind of fistula; while _recto-vesical fistula_, a communication between the rectum and bladder, and _vesico-vaginal fistula_, a communication between the bladder and vagina, are examples of the second. The abnormal passage may be straight or tortuous, of considerable diameter or of narrow calibre. Fistulae may be caused by an obstruction of the normal channel, the result of disease or injury, which prevents, for example, the tears, saliva or urine, as the case may be, from escaping; their retention gives rise to inflammation and ulceration in order that an exit may be obtained by the formation of an abscess, which bursts, for example, into the gut or through the skin; the cavity does not close, and a fistula is the result. The fistulous channel remains open as long as the contents of the cavity or canal with which it is connected can pass through it. To obliterate the fistula one must remove the obstruction and encourage the flow along the natural channel; for example, one must open up the nasal duct so as to allow the tears to reach the nasal cavity, and the _lachrymal fistula_ will close; and so also in the _salivary_ and _urethral_ fistulae. Sometimes it may be necessary to lay the channel freely open, to scrape out the unhealthy material which lines the track, and to encourage it to fill up from its deepest part, as in _anal fistula_; in other cases it may be necessary to pare the edges of the abnormal opening and stitch them together. (E. O.*)

FIT, a word with several meanings. (1) A portion or division of a poem, a canto, in this sense often spelled "fytte." (2) A sudden but temporary seizure or attack of illness, particularly one with convulsive paroxysms accompanied by unconsciousness, especially an attack of apoplexy or epilepsy, but also applied to a transitory attack of gout, of coughing, fainting, &c., also of an outburst of tears, of merriment or of temper. In a transferred sense, the word is also used of any temporary or irregular periods of action or inaction, and hence in such expressions as "by fits and starts." (3) As an adjective, meaning suitable, proper, becoming, often with the idea of having necessary qualifications for a specific purpose, "a fit and proper person"; and also as prepared for, or in a good condition for, any enterprise. The verb "to fit" is thus used intransitively and transitively, to be adapted for, to suit, particularly to be of the right measurement or shape, of a dress, of parts of a mechanism, &c., and to make or render a thing in such a condition. Hence the word is used as a substantive.

The etymology of the word is difficult; the word may be one in origin, or may be a homonymous term, one in sound and spelling but with different origin in each different meaning. In Skeat's _Etymological Dictionary_ (ed. 1898) (1) and (2) are connected and derived from the root of "foot," which appears in Lat. _pes_, _pedis_. The evolution of the word is: step, a part of a poem, a struggle, a seizure. (3) A word of Scandinavian origin, with the idea of "knitted together" (cf. Ice. _fitja_, to knit together, Goth, _fetjan_, to adorn); the ultimate origin is a Teutonic root meaning to seize (cf. "fetch"). The _New English Dictionary_ suggests that this last root may be the origin of all the words, and that the underlying meaning is junction, meeting; the early use of "fit" (2) is that of conflict. It is also pointed out that the meanings of "fit," suitable, proper, have been modified by "feat," which comes through Fr. _fait_, from Lat. _factum_, _facere_, to do, make.

FITCH, JOHN (1743-1798), American pioneer of steam navigation, was born at Windsor, Connecticut, on the 21st of January 1743. He was the son of a farmer, and received the usual common school education. At the age of seventeen he went to sea, but he discontinued his sailor life after a few voyages and became successively a clockmaker, a brassfounder and a silversmith. During the War of Independence he was a sutler to the American troops, and amassed in that way a considerable sum of money, with which he bought land in Virginia. He was appointed deputy-surveyor for Kentucky in 1780, and when returning to Philadelphia in the following year he was captured by the Indians, but shortly afterwards regained his liberty. About this time he began an exploration of the north-western regions, with the view of preparing a map of the district; and while sailing on the great western rivers, the idea occurred to him that they might be navigated by steam. He endeavoured by the sale of his map to find money for the carrying out of his projects, but was unsuccessful. He next applied for assistance to the legislatures of different states, but though each reported in favourable terms of his invention, none of them would agree to grant him any pecuniary assistance. He was successful, however, in 1786, in forming a company for the prosecution of his enterprise, and shortly afterwards a steam-packet of his invention was launched on the Delaware. His claim to be the inventor of steam-navigation was disputed by James Rumsey of Virginia, but Fitch obtained exclusive rights in steam-navigation in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, while a similar privilege was granted to Rumsey in Virginia, Maryland and New York. A steam-boat built by Fitch conveyed passengers for hire on the Delaware in the summer of 1790, but the undertaking was a losing one, and led to the dissolution of the company. In 1793 he endeavoured to introduce his invention into France, but met with no success. On his return to America he found his property overrun by squatters, and reaping from his invention nothing but disappointment and poverty, he committed suicide at Bardstown, Kentucky, on the 2nd of July 1798.

He left behind him a record of his adventures and misfortunes,
"inscribed to his children and future posterity"; and from this a
biography was compiled by Thompson Westcott (Philadelphia, 1857.)

FITCH, SIR JOSHUA GIRLING (1824-1903), English educationist, second son of Thomas Fitch, of a Colchester family, was born in Southwark, London, in 1824. His parents were poor but intellectually inclined, and at an early age Fitch started work as an assistant master in the British and Foreign School Society's elementary school in the Borough Road, founded by Thomas Lancaster. But he continued to educate himself by assiduous reading and attending classes at University College; he was made headmaster of another school at Kingsland; and in 1850 he took his B.A. degree at London University, proceeding MA. two years later. In 1852 he was appointed by the British and Foreign School Society to a tutorship at their Training College in the Borough Road, soon becoming vice-principal and in 1856 principal. He had previously done some occasional teaching there, and he was thoroughly imbued with the Lancasterian system. In 1863 he was appointed a government inspector of schools for the York district, from which, after intervals in which he was detached for work as an assistant commissioner (1865-1867) on the Schools Inquiry Commission, as special commissioner (1869), and as an assistant commissioner under the Endowed Schools Act (1870-1877), he was transferred in 1877 to East Lambeth. In 1883 he was made a chief inspector, to superintend the eastern counties, and in 1885 chief inspector of training colleges, a post he held till he retired in 1894. In the course of an extraordinarily active career, he acquired a unique acquaintance with all branches of education, and became a recognized authority on the subject, his official reports, lectures and books having a great influence on the development of education in England. He was a strong advocate and supporter of the movement for the higher education of women, and he was constantly looked to for counsel and direction on every sort of educational subject; his wide knowledge, safe judgment and amiable character made his co-operation of exceptional value, and after he retired from official life his services were in active request in inquiries and on boards and committees. In 1896 he was knighted; and besides receiving such academic distinctions as the LL.D. degree from St Andrews University, he was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour in 1889. He was a constant contributor to the leading reviews; he published an important series of _Lectures on Teaching_ (1881), _Educational Aims and Methods, Notes on American Schools and Colleges_ (1887), and an authoritative criticism of _Thomas and Matthew Arnold, and their Influence on English Education_ (see also the article on ARNOLD, MATTHEW) in 1901; and he wrote the article on EDUCATION in the supplementary volumes (10th edition) of this encyclopaedia (1902). He died on the 14th of July 1903 in London. A civil list pension was given to his widow, whom, as Miss Emma Wilks, he had married in 1856.

See also _Sir Joshua Fitch_, by the Rev. A.L. Lilley (1906),

FITCH, RALPH (fl. 1583-1606), London merchant, one of the earliest English travellers and traders in Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, India proper and Indo-China. In January 1583 he embarked in the "Tiger" for Tripoli and Aleppo in Syria (see Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, Act I. sc. 3), together with J. Newberie, J. Eldred and two other merchants or employees of the Levant Company. From Aleppo he reached the Euphrates, descended the river from Bir to Fallujah, crossed southern Mesopotamia to Bagdad, and dropped down the Tigris to Basra (May to July 1583). Here Eldred stayed behind to trade, while Fitch and the rest sailed down the Persian Gulf to Ormuz, where they were arrested as spies (at Venetian instigation, as they believed) and sent prisoners to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa (September to October). Through the sureties procured by two Jesuits (one being Thomas Stevens, formerly of New College, Oxford, the first Englishman known to have reached India by the Cape route in 1579) Fitch and his friends regained their liberty, and escaping from Goa (April 1584) travelled through the heart of India to the court of the Great Mogul Akbar, then probably at Agra. In September 1585 Newberie left on his return journey overland via Lahore (he disappeared, being presumably murdered, in the Punjab), while Fitch descended the Jumna and the Ganges, visiting Benares, Patna, Kuch Behar, Hugli, Chittagong, &c. (1585-1586), and pushed on by sea to Pegu and Burma. Here he visited the Rangoon region, ascended the Irawadi some distance, acquired a remarkable acquaintance with inland Pegu, and even penetrated to the Siamese Shan states (1586-1587). Early in 1588 he visited Malacca; in the autumn of this year he began his homeward travels, first to Bengal; then round the Indian coast, touching at Cochin and Goa, to Ormuz; next up the Persian Gulf to Basra and up the Tigris to Mosul (Nineveh); finally via Urfa, Bir on the Euphrates, Aleppo and Tripoli, to the Mediterranean. He reappeared in London on the 29th of April 1591. His experience was greatly valued by the founders of the East India Company, who specially consulted him on Indian affairs (e.g. 2nd of October 1600; 29th of January 1601; 31st of December 1606).

See Hakluyt, _Principal Navigations_ (1599), vol. ii. part i. pp.
245-271, esp. 250-268; Linschoten, _Voyages_ (_Itineraris_), part i.
ch. xcii. (vol. ii. pp. 158-169, &c., Hakluyt Soc. edition); Stevens
and Birdwood, _Court Records of the East India Company 1599-1603_
(1886), esp. pp. 26, 123; _State Papers, East Indies_, &c.,
_1513-1616_ (1862), No. 36; Pinkerton, _Voyages and Travels_
(1808-1814), ix. 406-425.

FITCHBURG, a city and one of the county-seats of Worcester county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated, at an altitude varying from about 433 ft. to about 550 ft., about 23 m. N. of Worcester and about 45 m. W.N.W. of Boston. Pop. (1880) 12,429; (1890) 22,037; (1900) 31,531, of whom 10,917 were foreign-born, including 4063 French Canadians, 836 English Canadians, 2306 Irish and 963 Finns; (1910 census) 37,826. Fitchburg is traversed by the N. branch of the Nashua river, and is served by the Boston & Maine, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways, and by three interurban electric lines. The city area (27.7 sq.m.) is well watered, and is very uneven, with hill spurs running in all directions, affording picturesque scenery. The court house and the post office (in a park presented by the citizens) are the principal public buildings. Fitchburg is the seat of a state normal school (1895), with model and training schools; has a free public library (1859; in the Wallace library and art building), the Burbank hospital, the Fitchburg home for old ladies, and an extensive system of parks, in one of which is a fine fountain, designed by Herbert Adams. Fitchburg has large mercantile and financial interests, but manufacturing is the principal industry. The principal manufactures are paper and wood pulp, cotton and woollen goods, yarn and silk, machinery, saws, horn goods, and bicycles and firearms (the Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works being located here). In 1905 the city's total factory product was valued at $15,390,507, of which $3,019,118 was the value of the paper and wood pulp product, $2,910,572 was the value of the cotton goods, and $1,202,421 was the value of the foundry and machine shop products. The municipality owns and operates its (gravity) water works system. Fitchburg was included in Lunenburg until 1764, when it was incorporated as a township and was named in honour of John Fitch, a citizen who did much to secure incorporation; it was chartered as a city in 1872.

See W.A. Emerson, _Fitchburg, Massachusetts, Past and Present_
(Fitchburg, 1887).

FITTIG, RUDOLF (1835- ), German chemist, was born at Hamburg on the 6th of December 1835. He studied chemistry at Gottingen, graduating as Ph.D. with a dissertation on acetone in 1858. He subsequently held several appointments at Gottingen, being privat docent (1860), and extraordinary professor (1870). In 1870 he obtained the chair at Tubingen, and in 1876 that at Strassburg, where the laboratories were erected from his designs. Fittig's researches are entirely in organic chemistry, and cover an exceptionally wide field. The aldehydes and ketones provided material for his earlier work. He observed that aldehydes and ketones may suffer reduction in neutral, alkaline, and sometimes acid solution to secondary and tertiary glycols, substances which he named pinacones; and also that certain pinacones when distilled with dilute sulphuric acid gave compounds, which he named pinacolines. The unsaturated acids, also received much attention, and he discovered the internal anhydrides of oxyacids, termed lactones. In 1863 he introduced the reaction known by his name. In 1855 Adolph Wurtz had shown that when sodium acted upon alkyl iodides, the alkyl residues combined to form more complex hydrocarbons; Fittig developed this method by showing that a mixture of an aromatic and alkyl haloid, under similar treatment, yielded homologues of benzene. His investigations on Perkin's reaction led him to an explanation of its mechanism which appeared to be more in accordance with the facts. The question, however, is one of much difficulty, and the exact course of the reaction appears to await solution. These researches incidentally solved the constitution of coumarin, the odoriferous principle of woodruff. Fittig and Erdmann's observation that phenyl isocrotonic acid readily yielded [alpha]-naphthol by loss of water was of much importance, since it afforded valuable evidence as to the constitution of naphthalene. They also investigated certain hydrocarbons occurring in the high boiling point fraction of the coal tar distillate and solved the constitution of phenanthrene. We also owe much of our knowledge of the alkaloid piperine to Fittig, who in collaboration with Ira Remsen established its constitution in 1871. Fittig has published two widely used text-books; he edited several editions of Wohler's _Grundriss der organischen Chemie_ (11th ed., 1887) and wrote an _Unorganische Chemie_ (1st ed., 1872; 3rd, 1882). His researches have been recognized by many scientific societies and institutions, the Royal Society awarding him the Davy medal in 1906.

FITTON, MARY (c. 1578-1647), identified by some writers with the "dark lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets, was the daughter of Sir Edward Fitton of Gawsworth, Cheshire, and was baptized on the 24th of June 1578. Her elder sister, Anne, married John Newdigate in 1587, in her fourteenth year. About 1595 Mary Fitton became maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth. Her father recommended her to the care of Sir William Knollys, comptroller of the queen's household, who promised to defend the "innocent lamb" from the "wolfish cruelty and fox-like subtlety of the tame beasts of this place." Sir William was fifty and already married, but he soon became suitor to Mary Fitton, in hope of the speedy death of the actual Lady Knollys, and appears to have received considerable encouragement. There is no hint in her authenticated biography that she was acquainted with Shakespeare. William Kemp, who was a clown in Shakespeare's company, dedicated his _Nine Daies Wonder_ to Mistress Anne (perhaps an error for Mary) Fitton, "Maid of Honour to Elizabeth"; and there is a sonnet addressed to her in an anonymous volume, _A Woman's Woorth defended against all the Men in the World_ (1599). In 1600 Mary Fitton led a dance in court festivities at which William Herbert, later earl of Pembroke, is known to have been present; and shortly afterwards she became his mistress. In February 1601 Pembroke was sent to the Fleet in connexion with this affair, but Mary Fitton, whose child died soon after its birth, appears to have simply been dismissed from court. Mary Fitton seems to have gone to her sister, Lady Newdigate, at Arbury. A second scandal has been fixed on Mary Fitton by George Ormerod, author of _History of Cheshire_, in a MS. quoted by Mr. T. Tyler (_Academy_, 27th Sept. 1884). Ormerod asserted, on the strength of the MSS. of Sir Peter Leycester, that she had two illegitimate daughters by Sir Richard Leveson, the friend and correspondent of her sister Anne. He also gives the name of her first husband as Captain Logher, and her second as Captain Polwhele, by whom she had a son and daughter. Polwhele died in 1609 or 1610, about three years after his marriage. But Ormerod was mistaken in the order of Mary Fitton's husbands, for her second husband, Logher, died in 1636. Her own will, which was proved in 1647, gives her name as "Mary Lougher." In Gawsworth church there is a painted monument of the Fittons, in which Anne and Mary are represented kneeling behind their mother. It is stated that from what remains of the colouring Mary was a dark woman, which is of course essential to her identification with the lady of the sonnets, but in the portraits at Arbury described by Lady Newdigate-Newdegate in her _Gossip from a Muniment Room_ (1897) she has brown hair and grey eyes.

The identity of the Arbury portrait with Mary Fitton was challenged by
Mr Tyler and by Dr Furnivall. For an answer to their remarks see an
appendix by C.G.O. Bridgeman in the 2nd edition of Lady
Newdigate-Newdegate's book.

The suggestion that Mary Fitton should be regarded as the false
mistress of Shakespeare's sonnets rests on a very thin chain of
reasoning, and by no means follows on the acceptance of the theory
that William Herbert was the addressee of the sonnets, though it of
course fails with the rejection of that supposition. Mr William Archer
(_Fortnightly Review_, December 1897) found some support for Mary
Fitton's identification with the "dark lady" in the fact that Sir
William Knollys was also her suitor, thus numbering three "Wills"
among her admirers. This supplies a definite interpretation, whether
right or wrong, to the initial lines of Sonnet 135:--

"Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy 'Will,'
And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in overplus."

Arguments in favour of her adoption into the Shakespeare circle will
be found in Mr Thomas Tyler's _Shakespeare's Sonnets_ (1890, pp.
73-92), and in the same writer's _Herbert-Fitton Theory of
Shakespeare's Sonnets_ (1898).

FITTON, WILLIAM HENRY (1780-1861), British geologist was born in Dublin in January 1780. Educated at Trinity College, in that city, he gained the senior scholarship in 1798, and graduated in the following year. At this time he began to take interest in geology and to form a collection of fossils. Having adopted the medical profession he proceeded in 1808 to Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, and thenceforth his interest in natural history and especially in geology steadily increased. He removed to London in 1809, where he further studied medicine and chemistry. In 1811 he brought before the Geological Society of London a description of the geological structure of the vicinity of Dublin, with an account of some rare minerals found in Ireland. He took a medical practice at Northampton in 1812, and for some years the duties of his profession engrossed his time. He was admitted M.D. at Cambridge in 1816. In 1820, having married a lady of means, he settled in London, and devoted himself to the science of geology with such assiduity and thoroughness that he soon became a leading authority, and in the end, as Murchison said, "one of the British worthies who have raised modern geology to its present advanced position." His "Observations on some of the Strata between the Chalk and the Oxford Oolite, in the South-east of England" (_Trans. Geol. Soc._ ser. 2, vol. iv.) embodied a series of researches extending from 1824 to 1836, and form the classic memoir familiarly known as Fitton's "Strata below the Chalk." In this great work he established the true succession and relations of the Upper and Lower Greensand, and of the Wealden and Purbeck formations, and elaborated their detailed structure. He had been elected F.R.S. in 1815, and he was president of the Geological Society of London 1827-1829. His house then became a meeting place for scientific workers, and during his presidency he held a conversazione open on Sunday evenings to all fellows of the Geological Society. From 1817 to 1841 he contributed to the _Edinburgh Review_ many admirable essays on the progress of geological science; he also wrote "Notes on the Progress of Geology in England" for the _Philosophical Magazine_ (1832-1833). His only independent publication was _A Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings_ (1833). He was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society in 1852. He died in London on the 13th of May 1861.

Obituary by R.I. Murchison in _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._, vol. xviii.,
1862, p. xxx.

FITZBALL, EDWARD (1792-1873), English dramatist, whose real patronymic was Ball, was born at Burwell, Cambridgeshire, in 1792. His father was a well-to-do farmer, and Fitzball, after receiving his schooling at Newmarket, was apprenticed to a Norwich printer in 1809. He produced some dramatic pieces at the local theatre, and eventually the marked success of his _Innkeeper of Abbeville, or The Ostler and the Robber_ (1820), together with the friendly acceptance of one of his pieces at the Surrey theatre by Thomas Dibdin, induced him to settle in London. During the next twenty-five years he produced a great number of plays, most of which were highly successful. He had a special talent for nautical drama. His _Floating Beacon_ (Surrey theatre, 19th of April 1824) ran for 140 nights, and his _Pilot_ (Adelphi, 1825) for 200 nights. His greatest triumph in melodrama was perhaps _Jonathan Bradford, or the Murder at the Roadside Inn_ (Surrey theatre, 12th of June 1833). He was at one time stock dramatist and reader of plays at Covent Garden, and afterwards at Drury Lane. He had a considerable reputation as a song-writer and as a librettist in opera. The last years of his life were spent in retirement at Chatham, where he died on the 27th of October 1873.

His autobiography, _Thirty-Five Years of a Dramatic Author's Life_ (2
vol., 1859), is a naive record of his career. Numbers of his plays are
printed in _Cumberland's Minor British Theatre, Dick's Standard Plays_
and _Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays_.

FITZGERALD, the name of an historic Irish house, which descends from Walter, son of Other, who at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) was castellan of Windsor and a tenant-in-chief in five counties. From his eldest son William, known as "de Windsor," descended the Windsors of Stanwell, of whom Andrew Windsor was created Lord Windsor of Stanwell (a Domesday possession of the house) by Henry VIII., which barony is now vested in the earl of Plymouth, his descendant in the female line. Of Walter's younger sons, Robert was given by Henry I. the barony of Little Easton, Essex; Maurice obtained the stewardship (_dapiferatus_) of the great Suffolk abbey of Bury St Edmunds; Reinald the stewardship to Henry I.'s queen, Adeliza; and Gerald (also a _dapifer_) became the ancestor of the FitzGeralds. As constable and captain of the castle that Arnulf de Montgomery raised at Pembroke, Gerald strengthened his position in Wales by marrying Nesta, sister of Griffith, prince of South Wales, who bore to him famous children, "by whom the southern coast of Wales was saved for the English and the bulwarks of Ireland stormed." Of these sons William, the eldest, was succeeded by his son Odo, who was known as "de Carew," from the fortress of that name at the neck of the Pembroke peninsula, the eldest son Gerald having been slain by the Welsh. The descendants of Odo held Carew and the manor of Moulsford, Berks, and some of them acquired lands in Ireland. But the wild claims of Sir Peter Carew, under Queen Elizabeth, to vast Irish estates, including half of "the kingdom of Cork," were based on a fictitious pedigree. Odo de Carew's brothers, Reimund "Fitz William" (known as "Le Gros") and Griffin "Fitz William," took an active part in the conquest of Ireland.

Returning to Gerald and Nesta, their son David "Fitz Gerald" became bishop of St David's (1147-1176), and their daughter Angharat mother of Gerald de Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis, q.v.), the well-known historian and the eulogist of his mother's family. A third son, Maurice, obtained from his brother the stewardship (_dapiferatus_) of St David's, c. 1174, and having landed in Ireland in 1169, on the invitation of King Dermod, founded the fortunes of his house there, receiving lands at Wexford, where he died and was buried in 1176. His eventual territory, however, was the great barony of the Naas in Ophaley (now in Kildare), which Strongbow granted him with Wicklow Castle; but his sons were forced to give up the latter. His eldest son William succeeded him as baron of the Naas and steward of St David's, but William's granddaughter carried the Naas to the Butlers and so to the Loundreses. Gerald, a younger son of Maurice, who obtained lands in Ophaley, was father of Maurice "Fitz Gerald," who held the great office of justiciar of Ireland from 1232 to 1245. In 1234 he fought and defeated his overlord, the earl marshal, Richard, earl of Pembroke, and he also fought for his king against the Irish, the Welsh, and in Gascony, dying in 1257. He held Maynooth Castle, the seat of his descendants.

Much confusion follows in the family history, owing to the justiciar leaving a grandson Maurice (son of his eldest son Gerald) and a younger son Maurice, of whom the latter was justiciar for a year in 1272, while the former, as heir male and head of the race, inherited the Ophaley lands, which he is said to have bequeathed at his death (1287) to John "Fitz Thomas," whose fighting life was crowned by a grant of the castle and town of Kildare, and of the earldom of Kildare to him and the heirs male of his body (May 14th, 1316), Dying shortly after, he was succeeded by his son Thomas, son-in-law of Richard (de Burgh) the "red earl" of Ulster, who received the hereditary shrievalty of Kildare in 1317, and was twice (1320, 1327) justiciar of Ireland for a year. His younger son Maurice "Fitz Thomas," 4th earl (1331-1390), was frequently appointed justiciar, and was great-grandfather of Thomas, the 7th earl (1427-1477), who between 1455 and 1475 was repeatedly in charge of the government of Ireland as "deputy," and who founded the "brotherhood of St George" for the defence of the English Pale. He was also made lord chancellor of Ireland in 1463. His son Gerald, the 8th earl (1477-1513), called "More" (the Great), was deputy governor of Ireland from 1481 for most of the rest of his life, though imprisoned in the Tower two years (1494-1496) on suspicion as a Yorkist. He was mortally wounded while fighting the Irish as "deputy." Gerald, the 9th earl (1513-1534), followed in his father's steps as deputy, fighting the Irish, till the enmity of the earl of Ormonde, the hereditary rival of his house, brought about his deposition in 1520. In spite of temporary restorations he finally died a prisoner in the Tower.

In his anger at his rival's successes the 9th earl had been led, it was suspected, into treason, and while he was a prisoner in England his son Lord Thomas Fitzgerald, "Silken Thomas," broke out into open revolt (1534), and declared war on the government; his followers slew the archbishop of Dublin and laid siege to Dublin Castle. Meanwhile he made overtures to the native Irish, to the pope and to the emperor; but the Butlers took up arms against him, an English army laid siege to his castle of Maynooth, and, though its fall was followed by a long struggle in the field, the earl, deserted by O'Conor, had eventually to surrender himself to the king's deputy. He was sent to the Tower, where he was subsequently joined by his five uncles, arrested as his accomplices. They were all six executed as traitors in February 1537, and acts of attainder completed the ruin of the family.

But the earl's half-brother, Gerald (whose sister Elizabeth was the earl of Surrey's "fair Geraldine"), a mere boy, had been carried off, and, after many adventures at home and abroad, returned to England after Henry VIII.'s death, and to propitiate the Irish was restored to his estates by Edward VI. (1552). Having served Mary in Wyat's rebellion, he was created by her earl of Kildare and Lord Offaley, on the 13th of May 1554, but the old earldom (though the contrary is alleged) remained under attainder. Although he conformed to the Protestant religion under Elizabeth and served against the Munster rebels and their Spanish allies, he was imprisoned in the Tower on suspicion of treason in 1583. But the acts attainting his family had been repealed in 1569, and the old earldom was thus regained. In 1585 he was succeeded by his son Henry ("of the Battleaxes"), who was mortally wounded when fighting the Tyrone rebels in 1597. On the death of his brother in 1599 the earldom passed to their cousin Gerald, whose claim to the estates was opposed by Lettice, Lady Digby, the heir-general. She obtained the ancestral castle of Geashill with its territory and was recognized in 1620 as Lady Offaley for life. George, the 16th earl (1620-1660), had his castle of Maynooth pillaged by the Roman Catholics in 1642, and after its subsequent occupation by them in 1646 it was finally abandoned by the family.

The history of the earls after the Restoration was uneventful, save for the re-acquisition in 1739 of Carton, which thenceforth became the seat of the family, until James the 20th earl (1722-1773), who obtained a viscounty of Great Britain in 1747, built Leinster House in Dublin, and formed a powerful party in the Irish parliament. In 1756 he was made lord deputy; in 1760 he raised the royal Irish regiment of artillery; and in 1766 he received the dukedom of Leinster, which remained the only Irish dukedom till that of Abercorn was created in 1868. His wealth and connexions secured him a commanding position. Of his younger children one son was created Lord Lecale; another was the well-known rebel, Lord Edward Fitzgerald; another was the ancestor of Lord De Ros; and a daughter was created Baroness Rayleigh. William Robert, the 2nd duke (1749-1804), was a cordial supporter of the Union, and received nearly L30,000 for the loss of his borough influence. In 1883 the family was still holding over 70,000 acres in Co. Kildare; but, after a tenure of nearly 750 years, arrangements were made to sell them to the tenants under the recent Land Purchase Acts. In 1893 Maurice Fitzgerald (b. 1887) succeeded his father Gerald, the 5th duke (1851-1893), as 6th duke of Leinster.