NOWELL, Increase, colonist, born in England in 1590; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 1 November, 1655. He was chosen an "assistant" in 1629, and arrived in this country in the " Arabella "with John Winthrop in 1630. He was appointed ruling elder in August of that year, but, becoming convinced of the impropriety of the union of church and state in that office, he resigned in 1632, was dismissed from the Boston pastorate, and became a founder of the church in Charlestown. He was a commissioner of military affairs in 1634, and secretary of Massachusetts colony in 1644-'9. At the latter date he entered an association against wearing the long hair that was at that time a mark of "dignified office and estate," and wrote and spoke with much vehemence on that subject. He died in poverty, but the colony granted 1,000 acres of land in Cocheco county, New Hampshire, to his widow, in acknowledgment of his services to the state.--His son, Samuel, treasurer of Harvard, born in Boston, 12 November, 1634; died in London, England, in September, 1688, was graduated at Harvard in 1653, and was chaplain under General Josiah Winslow in the Indian battle of 19 December, 1774, in which he evinced "a fearless mien while the balls whistled around him." He was an assistant in 1680-'6, and subsequently became treasurer of Harvard. He went to England in behalf of the old colonial charter in 1688, and died there.