name of Toup from his maternal great uncle, the Rev. Jonathan Toup, Prebendary of Exeter, the editor of Longinus, and one of the most profound scholars of his age. II. Paul Harris Nicolas, a first lieutenant of the royal marines, who served in the Belleisle 74, at the battle of Trafalgar, and afterwards in the boats of the Amazon and Armide frigates, on the coast of France. III. William Keigwin Nicolas, made lieutenant in 1809, and was wounded whilst serving under the command of his eldest brother, in June, 1815. IV. Nicholas Harris Nicolas, made lieutenant in 1815, the author of a telegraphic vocabulary, and of other improvements in naval signals[1]. V. Charles Henry Nicolas. These sons have resumed the ancient manner of spelling the family name[2].
Mr. John Toup Nicolas entered the navy under the protection of Captain Edward Buller, in 1797; and served with that officer in the Edgar and Achille. During the peace of Amiens, he became an Admiralty midshipman in the Naiad frigate; but at the renewal of the war, he rejoined his patron, in the Malta 80, of which ship he was a lieutenant in Sir Robert Calder’s action, July 22, 1805[3]. His first commission bears date May 7, 1B04.
In 1807, Mr. Nicolas was introduced by Captain Buller to Rear-Admiral (now Sir George) Martin, who received him as his flag-lieutenant in the Queen 98, and with whom he removed as such to the Canopus 80, on the Mediterranean station. In Oct. 1809, Lord Collingwood gave him an order to act as commander of the Redwing 18, in which vessel he
- ↑ See United Service Journal, Vol. I. p. 50.
- ↑ The Rev. John Keigwin, mentioned in the last page, was the second son of John Keigwin, of Mousehole, co. Cornwall, Esq. by Margaret, daughter of John Giffard, of Brightley, co. Devon, Esq. (a distinguished loyalist, and a Colonel in King Charles the First’s army) who married Joan, sixth daughter of Sir John Wyndham, ancestor of the Earl of Egremont, and the lineal descendant of Sir John Wyndham and Lady Margaret Howard daughter of John, first Duke of Norfolk, K.G. whose mother was fifth in descent from King Edward the First. The Rev. Mr. Keigwin, married Prudence, daughter and sole heiress of John Busvargus, of Busvargus, in Cornwall, Esq. (who was descended from the ancient families of Courtenay, Grenville, Arundel, Vyvyan, Beville, Carminow, Bonville, and many others of great antiquity in that county), and widow of the Rev. John Toup, by whom she was the mother of the celebrated scholar above noticed.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. p. 352.
