NICHOLSON, John (1 son of rev. Mark Nicholson, president of Codrington college, Barbadoes, d. 1838). b. Barbadoes 1809; educ. Queen’s coll. Oxf., B.A. 1830; studied oriental languages under professor G. H. A. von Ewald in Germany; Ph.D. of univ. of Tübingen 1840; settled at Penrith in 1840; spent his life in studying Eastern languages; a member of the Oriental soc. 40 years; contributed to J. Kitto’s Cyclopædia of Biblical literature 1843–5; translated G. H. A. von Ewald’s A grammar of the Hebrew language of the Old Testament 1836; An account of the establishment of the Fatemite dynasty in Africa by Ali ibn Husain ibn Ali 1840. d. Penrith Dec. 1886. The Times 9 Dec. 1886 p. 7.
NICHOLSON, John. b. 1829 or 1830; assistant librarian in library of society of Lincoln’s Inn, London 1843, librarian 11 Dec. 1877 to death; author of Catalogue of the Mendham collection, being a selection of books and pamphlets from the library of the late rev. Joseph Mendham 1871 and Supplement 1874; Catalogue of the printed books in the library of the hon. society of Lincoln’s Inn, Supplementary volume containing the additions from 1859–90, 1890. d. suddenly of heart disease at his residence 228 Peckham rye, London 24 July 1894. bur. Forest hill, cemet. 28 July.
NICHOLSON, Joshua (son of Joshua Nicholson). b. Luddenden Foot, near Halifax 26 Oct. 1812; apprenticed to a draper at Bradford; resided at Leek, Staffs. 1837 to death, and travelled over the United Kingdom for the silk manufacturing firm of J. & J. Brough & Co. of Leek many years, admitted by them as partner, title of firm being changed to J. & J. Brough, Nicholson & Co., he became the head of the firm which he made the most important house in the trade; president of North Staffordshire Liberal association many years; built the Nicholson Institute at Leek, completed 1884 at cost of £30,000, the library contains 8,000 volumes, and 350 students attend the schools of art, science and technology. d. Stockwell house, Leek 24 Aug. 1885. W. Smith’s Old Yorkshire ii 118–9 (1890) portrait.
NICHOLSON, Sir Lothian (3 son of George Thomas Nicholson of Waverley abbey, Surrey). b. Ham Common, Surrey 19 Jany. 1827; ed. at R.M. academy, Woolwich 1844–6; 2 lieut. R.E. 6 Aug. 1846, colonel 20 July 1866, colonel commandant 28 June 1890 to death; served in Crimean war July 1855 to June 1856, and in Indian mutiny 1857–8; granted distinguished service reward 3 March 1881; commanded the R.E. in the London district 1861–6, and at Gibraltar 1866–8; assistant A G. of R.E. in Ireland 1868–70; commanded the R.E. at Shorncliffe 27 Jany. 1872 to 1 Oct. 1878; lieutenant governor of Jersey 1 Oct. 1878 to 30 Sept. 1883; inspector general of fortifications and of the R.E. 8 July 1886 to 25 March 1891; general 5 May 1888; governor and commander-in-chief of Gibraltar 26 March 1891 to death; C.B. 14 May 1859, K.C.B. 21 June 1887. d. The Convent, Gibraltar 27 June 1893. I.L.N. 8 July 1893 p. 30 portrait.
NICHOLSON, Nancy (only dau. of rev. John Jackson, vicar of Drax, Yorkshire, d. 1810). b. Drax 3 May 1787; m. Oct. 1811 rev. John Nicholson, formerly an assistant in Mr. Jackson’s school at Drax, then vicar of Drax 1810 and master of the grammar school, d. 1850; separated from her husband Nov. 1814; a great termagant, very eccentric, dishonest and a miser; was burnt in effigy at Asselby, near Howden, Yorkshire 1850; joined the church of Rome 1850 and again left it on being asked for a subscription. d. Asselby 6 Aug. 1854, leaving considerable property to her relations. Life of Nancy Nicholson; S. B. Gould’s Yorkshire Oddities ii 25–95 (1874).
NICHOLSON, Nathaniel Alexander (2 son of John Armytage Nicholson of Dublin). Matric. from Trin. coll. Oxf. 26 Oct. 1843 aged 16; B.A. 1849, M.A. 1858; acted in Frank Talfourd’s burlesque Macbeth travestie at Oxford 17 June 1847; author of The science of exchanges 1861, 4 ed. 1873; E pur si muove 1866; Observations on coinage, seignorage, etc. 1868, 3 ed. 1869; Matter and motion 1870; A shilling’s worth of political economy 1871; resided at 2 Oakland villas, Rathgar, near Dublin. d. 15 Feb. 1874.
NICHOLSON, Renton. b. Hackney road, London 4 April 1809; ed. at Henry Butter’s school, Islington; apprenticed to a pawnbroker 1821–4; employed by various pawnbrokers until 1830; a jeweller at 99 Quadrant, Regent st. about March 1830, became insolvent Nov. 1831; kept a cigar shop Warwick st. Regent st.; a wine merchant in Leicester place, bankrupt 22 April 1836; edited a weekly paper of fast life, entitled The Town 156 numbers 3 June 1837 to 23 May 1840; started with Joseph Last and Charles Pitcher The Crown, a weekly paper supporting the beer-sellers, which ran to 42 numbers 28 June 1838 to 14 April 1839; opened with T. B. Simpson The Garrick’s head and Town hotel 27 Bow st. Covent Garden 1841, where he established 8 March 1841 the Judge and jury society, over which he presided as ‘The Lord Chief Baron’; gave a three days’ fête at Cremorne Gardens 31 July and 1–2 Aug. 1843, and another fête at Easter 1844; had refreshment booths on race courses and dancing booths at fairs; removed the Judge and jury society to the Coal Hole tavern, Fountain court 103 Strand 1844; landlord of The Garrick’s Head 1847–9, where he introduced the poses plastiques 1847, he presided there till July 1851; rented the Justices’ tavern, Bow st. 1849 or 1850; landlord of the Coal Hole tavern July 1851 to 1856; presided at the Cider Cellar tavern 20 Maiden lane, Covent Garden 16 Jany. 1858 to death; was insolvent 6 Oct. 1849 and again 23 Feb. 1856; proprietor and editor of Illustrated London Life 25 numbers 1843; author of Boxing, with a chronology of the ring 1837; Cockney adventures 1838; Owen Swift’s Handbook of boxing 1840 anon; Miscellaneous writings of the lord chief baron, in monthly numbers, part 1 May 1849 with portrait; Nicholson’s Noctes, or nights and sights of London, 11 numbers 1852; Dombey and daughter, a moral fiction 1858. d. Gordon tavern, 3 Piazza, Covent Garden, London 18 May 1861. bur. Brompton cemet. 22 May. The lord chief baron Nicholson, an autobiography (1860) portrait; C. H. Ross’s Painted Faces (1891) 103–8 portrait; Notes and Queries vi 477 (1870), vii 18, 286, 327 (1871), iii 3–5 (1893); Vizetelly’s Glances back i 168–70 (1893); The Era 26 May 1861 p. 7.
Note.—Views of the Judge and Jury club are in The Bachelor’s guide to life in London, p. 8, and in The Illust. Sporting News 21 May 1864, pp. 129, 133. A view of the Garrick’s Head booth at Epsom is in Illustrated London Life 28 May 1843, p. 126, and a view of Nicholson’s Parlour at the Garrick’s Head is in the same paper 11 June p. 161.
The last scene of Frank Talfourd’s burlesque Shylock, produced at Olympic theatre 4 July 1853, represented the Judge and Jury society, in which Charles Bender, made up like Nicholson, opened the proceedings by calling ‘Waiter a glass of brandy and water and & cigar.’ The Society is referred to in R. H. Barham’s Ingoldsby Legends, 18 ed. 1860 in The Ghost, vol. ii, p. 296 as follows—
It more resembled one of later date