Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/442

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Nicholl
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Nicholl

allowed to lie on the table (Parl. Debates, 2nd ser. xix. 1749–62; see also 1694–7). His judgments will be found in the ‘Ecclesiastical Reports’ of Phillimore, Addams, and Haggard, and in the third volume of Haggard's ‘Admiralty Reports.’ One of the most important cases which Nicholl decided was that of Kemp v. Wickes (3 Phillimore, 264), where he held that a child baptised by a dissenter with water and the invocation of the Trinity was baptised in the sense of the rubric to the burial service, and of the sixty-eighth canon, and therefore the burial of such child was obligatory on the clergyman, a decision which gave rise to a considerable controversy, and was subsequently brought under the review of the court of arches in Mastin v. Escott (Curteis, Eccl. Rep. ii. 692; Moore, Privy Council Cases, iv. 104). Several of Nicholl's speeches and judgments have been separately printed.

Nicholl is said to have been one of the most active promoters of a volunteer corps among the advocates and proctors in the last decade of the last century, and on 3 Aug. 1803 was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the St. George's, Bloomsbury, volunteers. He assisted in the establishment of King's College, London, and was nominated a member of the provisional committee in June 1824 (Gent. Mag. 1824, pt. i. p. 544). He was a member of the judicial committee of the privy council, and a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries. He died at Merthyr-Mawr, Glamorganshire, on 26 Aug. 1838, and was buried in the churchyard of that parish.

Nicholl married, on 8 Sept. 1787, Judy, youngest daughter of Peter Birt, of Wenvoe Castle, Glamorganshire, by whom he left one son, John, and three daughters. His wife died in Bruton Street, Piccadilly, on 1 Dec. 1829, aged 70. Portraits of Nicholl by Sir Thomas Lawrence and William Owen, R.A., are in the possession of Mr. J. C. Nicholl of Merthyr-Mawr. There are engravings of Nicholl by Meyer, after Owen, and by Tomkins, after Shee.

[Diary and Correspondence of Lord Colchester, 1861; Catalogue of English Civilians, 1804, p. 130; Georgian Era, 1833, ii. 323–4; The Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette, 1 Sept. 1838; The Cambrian, 1 and 8 Sept. 1838; Legal Observer, xvii. 3–4; Gent. Mag. 1787 pt. ii. p. 836, 1829 pt. ii. p. 648, 1838 pt. ii. 546–7; Ann. Reg. 1838, App. to Chron. p. 223; Wilson's Biog. Index to the House of Commons, 1808, pp. 58–9, 518–19; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Burke's Landed Gentry, 1879, ii. 1166; Official Return of Members of Parliament, pt. ii.; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; private information.]

G. F. R. B.

NICHOLL, JOHN (1790–1871), antiquary, born at Stratford Green, Essex, on 19 April 1790, was only son of John Nicholl, brewer, by Mary, daughter of Mathias Miller of Epping in the same county (Nichols, Topographer, iii. 562). Possessed of an ample fortune, he was enabled to pursue uninterruptedly his researches in heraldry and genealogy. On 16 Feb. 1843 he was elected F.S.A. In 1859 he served as master of the Ironmongers' Company. He died in Canonbury Place, Islington, on 7 Feb. 1871, and was buried in the churchyard of Theydon Garnon, Essex, on the 13th. By his marriage on 5 Oct. 1822 to Elizabeth Sarah, daughter and heiress of John Rahn of Enfield, Middlesex, he left three sons and two daughters.

Nicholl collected genealogical notes made in the churches of Essex in six folio volumes, and filled three folio volumes with Essex pedigrees, and three others with pedigrees of the various families of Nicholl, Nicholls, or Nichols. Of the latter he made three copies, two of which he bequeathed to his own children, and a third (of smaller dimensions) to the College of Arms. He likewise worked up, in three volumes, the gatherings formed in two tours he made on the continent in 1842 and 1843. He left besides, in manuscript, collections for the history of Islington and notes on biblical criticism.

From the archives of the Ironmongers' Company Nicholl compiled a history of the company in seven folio volumes, embellished with armorial bearings and illuminated initials, and illustrated with drawings of buildings and costumes. The first six of these volumes were presented to the company between 1840 and 1844. In 1851 he printed ‘Some Account of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers’ (for private circulation), in imperial 8vo. In 1866 an improved edition was printed in 4to. The cost of both editions was defrayed by the company. Nicholl also attempted poetry, and printed a small private impression of his productions in 1863.

Nicholl's portrait was in 1851 painted at the expense of the Ironmongers' Company by Middleton, and placed in the court room.

[Proc. of Soc. Antiq. 2nd ser. v. 143; Nichols's Herald and Genealogist, vii. 83–5.]

G. G.

NICHOLLS. [See also Niccolls, Nichols, Nickolls, and Nicolls.]

NICHOLLS, DEGORY (d. 1591), divine, matriculated as a pensioner of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in May 1560. He graduated B.A. in 1563–4, and was elected a fellow 31 March 1566. He commenced M.A. in 1567, and was a taxor in 1571–2. He suppli-