Noel, Francois, a Belgian Jesuit missionary, was born in 1651 at Ilelstrud, in Hainault. In 1670 he en- tered the order, and in 1684 was sent to China, where he spent the greater part of his life. He went twice to Eome to co.ifer on the subject of Chinese ceremonies. The last years of his life were spent at Lille, where he died in 1729. He wrote Ohservationes mathematicoe et physicce in India et China factce ab anno 1684 usque ad annum 1708 (Prague, 1710, 4to) : — Sinensis impei-ii clas- sici vi, nimirum adultorvm schola imniutabile medium, Liber sententiarum, Mencius, Filialis observantia et par- vulorum schola e Sinico in Laiinum traducti (ibid. 1711, 4to; transl. into French by Pluquet, Paris, 1784-86, 7 vols. 18mo) ; a rather diffuse translation of the Chinese : — Philosophia Sinica, etc. (Prague, 1711, 4to) ; the au- thor represents Chinese doctrines as closely resembling Christianity: — Vita Jesu Christi; Epistoke Mariana (often reprinted), and Vita S.Ignatii de Loyola, togeth- er, under the title of Opuscula jioetica: — Theologice P. Francisci Suarez summa, to Avhich is joined an abridg- ment of Lessius's De justitia et jure, and of Sanchey's De Matrimonio : — Memoriale circa verilatem facti, cui innititur decretum Alexandri VI I. editum die 23 Marlii, 1656 (it is translated into French in the Lettres edif- antes), etc. See Goethals, Lectures, iii, 231 ; Baker, Bibli- otheque des ecrirains de la Compognie de Jesus. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 173. (J. N. P.)
Noel, Gerard Thomas, elder brother of the Rev. B. W. Noel (q. v.), was born Dec. 2, 1782, and was like- wise educated at Cambri<lge University, and became, too, a clergyman of the Established Church. In 1834 he was canon of Winchester. In 1840 he became vicar of Romsey. where be died, Feb. 24, 1851. He is princi- pally known as the author of the favorite hymn, '"If human kindness meets return," which he appended, with a few others, to a work written by him, entitled Arendel, or Sketches in Italy and Sicitzerland (2d edit. 1813). H<» was also the author of a Selection of Psalms
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a)id ffi/mnsfrom the Neio Version of the Church of Eng- binil and others, corrected and revised for Public Wor- ship (od edit. 1820). This consists of 220 hymns and must of the Psalms. Several of the hymns are by Mr. Noel. He published Fifti/ Sermons for the Use of Fam- ilies (2 vols.; new edit. 1830), and also separate Se?-- mons. After his death his sermons preached in Eomsey appeared with a preface by the bishop of Oxford (1853). .See jMiller, Singers and Songs of the Church; Pye- Smith, Introd. to Theology, p. 546, 595. (S. S.)
Noel, Leland, an English divine, and brother of the preceding and of Baptist Noel, was born Aug. 21, 1798, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He took holy orders, and was made vicar of Exton, Kutlandshire^ in 1832. He held this place for life, and was also made honorary canon of Peterborough cathe- dral in 1850. He died Jan. 5, 1871.
Noel, Silas Mercer, D.D., a Baptist minister, was born in Essex County, Va., Aug. 12, 1783, He studied medicine, afterwards law, and settled to prac- tice in this profession at Louisville, Ky. In 1811 he turned his attention to theology, and was finally or- dained in 1813 as pastor of the Church at Big Spring, Woodford County, and afterwards took charge of the Church at Frankfort. During his ministry there he was instrumental in establishing a number of churches in the adjacent country. In 1833 he became pastor of the Church in Lexington. In 1818 he had the honor to be appointed circuit judge of the Fourth Judicial Dis- trict, in which he resided. Dr. Noel all his life greatly exerted himself in behalf of missions, ministerial edu- cation, African colonization, and was the original pro- jector of the Baptist Education Society of Kentucky, of which he was president for several years. He died May 5, 1839, See Sprague, .1 nnals of the A mer. Pulpit, vi, G27.
Noell, Edwin P., a Presbyterian minister, was born in North Carolina in 180-1. His parents removed to Tennessee, and gave him such an education as that sec- tion of country afforded. He studied theology in the Union Theological Seminary at Marysville, Tenn., and was licensed and ordained as pastor of a Church in Jas- per County, Tenn., in 1833. In 1835 he accepted a call to the Church in Knoxville, 111.; in 1837 removed to Columbia, jMo., and thence to Eocheport, where he had charge of a school, but sickness unfitted him for active usefulness. He afterwards moved to the South-west, and located in Bolivar, Polk County, Mo. He was the first Presbyterian minister who preached south of the Osage. He organized a Church near Bolivar, and one twenty-five miles distant, in Green County, near Spring- field, to which charges he preached for about four years, suflbrlng all tlie privations incident to a life of poverty in a new settlement. During this time he received some little aid from the Home Missionary Society. At length he moved with his family to Bay County, and preached to the Plum Grove Church, In 1850 he moved to Troy, Lincoln County, and continued to labor there until his death, jNIarch 22, 18G4. Mr, Noell possessed good natural and acquired abilities, and a simple and instructive manner of presenting the truth. See Wil- son, Presh. Hist. A Imanac, 18G5, p, 1 12, (J, L. S.)