was educated at the high school, where he gained the classical gold medal. Subsequently he entered his father's business as bookseller and publisher in 1835. With his brother Thomas, William gradually built up the business. He was in every respect a capable man of business, but took life much more leisurely than his brother, and in his beautiful home at Salisbury Green gratified many refined tastes, such as the collection of china and bronzes, gathered together in travel in all parts of the world. He also interested himself in the improvement of his native city, and he expended large sums in restoring St. Bernard's Well on the Water of Leith, the Argyll Tower, St. Margaret's Chapel, and the Old Scottish Parliament House in Edinburgh Castle. At Kinghorn, in Fifeshire, the birthplace of his mother, he erected a memorial cross to Alexander III, the last of the Celtic kings.
In July 1887 he was presented with the freedom of the burgh of Kinghorn, and he died at Edinburgh, on 10 Sept. 1887, on the eve of a visit to Greece. His remains were accorded a public funeral by the city, and interred in the Grange cemetery. On 24 July 1851 he married Catherine Inglis, daughter of Robert Inglis of Kirkmay, Fifeshire. He left a widow, four daughters, and a son. Eveline, the eldest daughter, was married in 1874 to Thomas Annandale, professor of surgery in Edinburgh University; and in 1886 the second daughter, Florence, married Simon Fraser MacLeod, K.C., of London (Scotsman, 11 Sept. 1887; Wilson, William Nelson: a Memoir [with portrait]).
[Obituary notices in Times and Scotsman, 21 Oct. 1892; Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xix. pp. lviii–lxii; Scottish Typographical Circular, November 1892; Curwen's Hist. of Booksellers; Sir Daniel Wilson's William Nelson: a Memoir.]
NELSON, WILLIAM (fl. 1720), legal writer, born in 1653, was son of William Nelson of Chaddleworth, Berkshire. On 16 July 1669 he matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, but did not graduate. He was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1684, and was elected a bencher in 1706 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iii. 1056). He practised in the court of chancery for many years.
Nelson's juridical knowledge was undoubtedly great, but he lacked both judgment and acumen. Although an unsparing critic of the labours of others, he was himself inaccurate and slovenly. His books are: 1. ‘Reports of Special Cases argued and decreed in the Court of Chancery,’ 1625–1693, 8vo, the Savoy, 1694 (another edit. 1717). 2. ‘The Rights of the Clergy … of Great Britain,’ 8vo, the Savoy, 1709 (2nd edit. 1712; 3rd edit. 1732). 3. ‘The Office and Authority of a Justice of the Peace,’ 8vo, the Savoy, 1710 (6th edit. 1718; 12th edit. 2 vols. 1745). 4. ‘Lex Testamentaria; or, a Compendious System of all the Laws of England … concerning Last Wills and Testaments,’ 8vo, the Savoy, 1714 (other edits. 1724 and 1728). 5. ‘Reports of Cases decreed in the High Court of Chancery during the time of Sir Heneage Finch (Lord Chancellor Nottingham), 1673–81,’ fol., London, 1725, said to be a book of no authority. 6. ‘Lex Maneriorum; or, the Law and Customs of England relating to Manors,’ &c., 2 pts. fol., the Savoy, 1726 (other edits. in 8vo, 1728, 1733, 1735). 7. ‘An Abridgment of the Common Law of England,’ 3 vols. fol., the Savoy, 1725–6, chiefly borrowed from William Hughes's ‘Abridgments.’ He does not abridge cases anterior to those in ‘Fitzherbert’ and ‘Brooke,’ and treats the ‘Year Books’ as a rhapsody of antiquated law. 8. ‘The Laws of England concerning the Game; of Hunting, Hawking, Fishing, and Fowling,’ 12mo, the Savoy, 1727 (other edits. 1732, 1736, 1751, 1753, 1762).
Nelson translated and annotated Sir Edward Lutwyche's ‘Reports and Entries,’ fol., London, 1718; the work was stigmatised by Charles Viner ‘as being a reproach and dishonour to the profession, and rather adapted to Billingsgate than Westminster Hall’ (Viner, Abridgment, vol. xviii. Preface). He also translated Lutwyche's ‘Reports of the Resolutions of the Court on divers exceptions taken to Pleadings … arising … in the … Common Pleas,’ 8vo, London, 1718.
In 1717 he issued enlarged editions of Blount's ‘Law Dictionary,’ fol., and Manwood's ‘Treatise of the Forest Laws,’ 8vo. To J. Lilly's ‘Reports and Pleadings of Cases in Assise for Offices … and Tenements,’ fol., 1719, he supplied a ‘Prefatory Discourse, shewing the Nature of this Action and reasons for putting it in practice.’ Nelson is supposed to have been the editor of the first five volumes of the so-called ‘Modern Reports,’ 1669–1700, fol., London, 1682–1711 (other edits.); a long preface by him precedes vol. v.
[Wallace's Reporters; Marvin's Legal Bibliography; Bridgman's Legal Bibliography.]
NELSON, WILLIAM, first Earl Nelson (1757–1835), eldest son of Edmund Nelson, rector of Burnham-Thorpe, in Norfolk,
