NICHOLLS, Sir George (eld. child of Solomon Nicholls of St. Keverne, Cornwall, d. 1793) b. St. Keverne 31 Dec. 1781; ed. at Helston gr. sch.; midshipman on board the East India company’s ship the Abergaveny 1796; captain of the Lady Lushington 1809; captain of the Bengal, which was burnt at Point de Galle 18 Jany. 1815, when he lost about £30,000, left the service 1815; resided at Southwell, Notts. 1815, overseer of the poor there 1821, reduced the amount of relief from £2,000 to £500 in two years by abolishing outdoor relief; resided at Gloucester 1823, where he controlled the Gloucester and Berkeley ship canal; superintendent of Birmingham branch of Bank of England Nov. 1826 to Aug. 1834; established the Birmingham savings’ bank; a director of Birmingham canal navigation to death, chairman the last 12 years; one of the three poor law comrs. 18 Aug. 1834 to 17 Dec. 1847; his two reports on the Irish poor law 1836–7 were the foundation of the provision of the Irish poor law act 1838, directed the working of the measure in Ireland Sept. 1838 to Nov. 1842; permanent secretary of the poor law board 18 Dec. 1847, retired 27 Jany. 1851; C.B. 27 April 1848, K.C.B. 1 March 1851; author of Eight letters on the management of our poor, By An Overseer 1823; The farmer 1844; A history of the English poor law, 2 vols. 1854; A history of the Scotch poor law 1856; A history of the Irish poor law 1856. d. 17 Hyde park st. London 24 March 1865. bur. Willesden cemetery 30 March. Examiner 1 April 1865 p. 193.
NICHOLLS, Henry George (only son of sir George Nicholls, K.C.B. 1781–1865). b. 1825; educ. at Trinity coll. Camb., B.A. 1845, M.A. 1848; P.C. of Holy Trinity, Dean Forest 1847 to death; author of The forest of Dean 1858; The personalities of the forest of Dean 1863; Iron making in the olden times as instanced in the ancient mines, forges and furnaces of the forest of Dean 1866. d. 26 Porchester terrace, London 1 Jany. 1867.
NICHOLLS, James. b. Norfolk; L.S.A. 1825; M.R.C.S. 1827, F.R.C.S. 1852; M.R.C.P. 1861; medical adviser to Albert Life assurance society; author of Notes on Shakespeare, 2 parts 1861–2; and of papers in The Lancet. d. 13 Saville row, London 2 Jany. 1870.
NICHOLLS, James Fawckner (son of a builder at Sidmouth, Devon). b. Sidmouth 26 May 1818; a draper at Benwick in the Isle of Ely 1835; kept a school at Ramsay; traveller to a firm of paper-stainers at Manchester; a paper-stainer at Bristol 1860–8; city librarian of Bristol 1868 to death; the old city library was extended into three free libraries; F.S.A. 1876; author of The remarkable life, adventures, and discoveries of Sebastian Cabot 1869; How to see Bristol, a guide for the excursionist, the naturalist, the archæologist, and the man of business 1874, 2 ed. 1877; Bristol, past and present, an illustrated history of Bristol and its neighbourhood, 2 parts 1881–2. d. Goodwick, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire 19 Sept. 1883. Biograph Nov. 1881 pp. 493–7.
NICHOLLS, John Ashton (only child of Benjamin Nicholls). b. Grosvenor st. Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester 25 March 1823; ed. at Manchester New college 1840–4; a life member of British Association June 1842; F.R.A.S. June 1849; entered his father’s business 1844; secretary to the Ancoats Lyceum, organised classes and delivered courses of lectures; helped to form the Unitarian home missionary board 1854, one of the first secretaries; chairman of directors of Manchester Athenæum 1856. d. of low fever at Eagley house, Manchester 18 Sept. 1859. In memoriam, a selection from the letters of J. A. Nicholls, privately printed (1862); Christian Reformer (1859) 639 et seq.; Wade’s Rise of nonconformity in Manchester (1880) 64 et seq.
Note.—There is a tablet to his memory in Cross street chapel, Manchester; a granite obelisk in Great Ancoat st. was erected in his honour by the working men of Manchester July 1860. His parents devoted over £100,000 to the erection and endowment of an orphanage, the Nicholls hospital in Hyde road, as a memorial of their son.
NICHOLS, James. b. Washington, Durham 6 April 1785; worked in a factory at Holbeck 1793–7; ed. at Leeds gr. sch.; a Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Dutch scholar; tutor in a gentleman’s family; printer and bookseller at Briggate, Leeds; edited the Leeds Literary Observer, vol. 1 Jany. to Sept. 1819; printer at 22 Warwick sq. Newgate st. London 1820–32, and at 45 and 46 Hoxton sq. 1832 to death; a friend of Southey, Tomline, and Wordsworth; translated The works of Jacob Arminius 1825–75, 3 vols., vols. 1 and 2 by J. Nichols, vol. 3 by W. Nichols; edited Jeremiah and Lamentations by B. Blayney, 3 ed. 1836; The history of the university of Cambridge by T. Fuller 1840; The morning exercises at Cripplegate, St. Giles by S. Annesley 1844; The divine legation of Moses by W. Warburton 1846; The poetical works of James Thomson 1849; The complete works of Dr. Edward Young 1854, 2 vols.; Poems by S. Wesley the younger 1862; The church history of Britain by T. Fuller 1868; author of Calvinism and Arminianism compared 1824. d. 45 Hoxton sq. London 26 Nov. 1861. Taylor’s Biographia Leodiensis (1865) 503–6; Athenæum 30 Nov. 1861 p. 705, and 7 Dec. p. 769; Watchman 27 Nov. 1861 p. 391; Two letters from Holland, addressed to the translator of Arminius by A. D. A. V. D. Hoeven (1826).
NICHOLS, John Bowyer (eld. son of John Nichols, printer and author 1745–1826). b. Red Lion passage, Fleet st. London 15 July 1779; ed. at St. Paul’s school; entered his father’s printing office Sept. 1796; helped to edit Gentleman’s Magazine and contributed to it under the initials J. B. N. and N. R. S.; sole proprietor of the Gent. Mag. 1833, sold it to John Henry Parker June 1856; edited with Richard Gough vol. 4 of Hutchins’s History of Dorset 1815; partner in firm of J. Nichols, son & Bentley, printers 25 Parliament st. Westminster to death; a registrar of royal literary fund 1821; master of the Stationers’ company 1850; printed nearly all the county histories published 1801–50; F.L.S. 1812; F.S.A. 1818, printer to the society 1824 to death; author of A brief account of the guildhall of the city of London 1819; Account of the royal hospital and collegiate church of St. Katherine, near the Tower 1824; Historical notices of Fonthill abbey, Wiltshire 1836; Catalogue of the Hoare library at Stourhead, co. Wilts. 1840; edited J. Cradock’s Memoirs, vols. 3 and 4 1828; J. T. Smith’s Cries of London 1839; R. Yates’s History of the abbey of St. Edmunds, Bury, 2 ed. 1843; and vols. 7 and 8 of his father’s Illustrations of the literary history of the eighteenth century 1848–56. d. Hanger Oak, Ealing 19 Oct. 1863. bur. Kensal Green cemet. 24 Oct., bust of him by W. Behnes exhibited at the R.A. 1858, his library was sold at Sotheby’s for £6,175, May 1865. W. Bates’s Maclise portrait gallery (1883) 113–4.
NICHOLS, John Gough (eld. child of the preceding). b. Red Lion passage, Fleet st. London 22 May 1806; ed. at Lewisham 1814–6, and at Merchant Taylors’ sch. 1817–24; entered his father’s printing office 1824; completed and edited his grandfather John Nichols’s Progresses of king James the first, 4 vols. 1828; joint editor of Gent. Mag. 1828–51, sole editor 1851–6, contributed many essays and compiled the obituary notices; F.S.A. 3 Dec. 1835; a founder of the Camden Society 1838, edited many of its publications and printed A descriptive catalogue of the works of the Camden society 1862, new ed. 1872; printed Hoare’s History of modern Wiltshire, 6 vols. 1822–44, in which he wrote An account of the hundred of Alderbury 1837; edited Collectanea topographica et genealogica, 8 vols. 1834–43; The typographer and genealogist, 3 vols. 1846–8; founded the Herald and Genealogist 1863, edited vols. 1–8 1863–74; founded the Register and magazine of biography Jany. 1869, which ceased after 12 monthly numbers; author of Autographs of royal, noble, learned, and remarkable personages, from Richard II to Charles II 1829; London pageants 1831, 2 ed. 1837; Description of the church of St. Mary, Warwick, and of the Beauchamp chapel, London 1838; edited books for the Roxburgh club 1857–60. d. Holmwood park, near Dorking, Surrey 14 Nov. 1873, his library was sold by Sotheby Dec. 1874 for £2,195. Memoir of J. G. Nichols by R. C. Nichols (1874) portrait; Proc. of Soc. of Antiquaries vi 193–6 (1873–76); Bigmore and Wyman’s Bibliography of printing ii 76–7 (1884).
NICHOLS, Robert Cradock (brother of preceding). b. 1824; printer 25 Parliament st. London; printer of the house of commons votes; F.S.A. 23 Feb. 1854; F.R.G.S.; proprietor of Highley manor, Balcombe, Sussex; edited for the Roxburghe club A fragment of Partonope of Blois 1873; author of The passage of the Col de la Temple and of the Col de l’Echauda, printed in Peaks, passes, and glaciers, ii 183–97 (1862; resided Highley manor, and 5 Sussex place, Hyde park. d. 26 May 1892, will proved 21 July, personal estate £171,000.