NEMOURS  , a

town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Marne, on the Loing and its canal, 26 m . S. of Melun, on the Paris-Lyon railway . Pop . (1906) 4814 . The church, which dates mainly from the 16th century, has a handsome wooden spire, and there is a feudal castle . A statue of the mathematician Bezout (d . 1783), a native of the town, was erected in 1885 . In the vicinity is a group of fine sandstone rocks, and sand is extensively quarried . Nemours is supposed to derive its name from the woods (nemora) in the midst of which it formerly stood, and discoveries of Gallo-Roman remains indicate its early origin . It was captured by the English in 1420, but derives its historical importance rather from the lordship (afterwards duchy) to which it gave its name . In 1585 a treaty revoking previous concessions to the Protestants was concluded at Nemours between Catherine de Medici and the Guises .