Nicholson
Author: Nev. Ramsden
The Nicholson Family of Whitehaven
The Patriarch of the Whitehaven Nicholsons - William NICHOLSON (c. 1600-1682)
William NICHOLSON (1622- ).
William was born in 1622 in St.Bees parish. He was baptised on 16 August 1622 in St.Bees.
Anthony NICHOLSON (1624-1701).
Anthony was born in 1624 in Whitehaven. He was baptised on 3 February 1624 in St.Bees. He was a Mariner and was referred to as Anthony 'Senior'. He married Elizabeth Unknown circa 1655 in St.Bees. He died in 1701 in Whitehaven. He was buried on 7 October 1701 in St.Bees church.
Hellen NICHOLSON (1625- ).
Hellen was born in 1625 in Fincal Street, Whitehaven. She was baptised on 31 July 1625 in St.Bees.
Ellen NICHOLSON (1627- ).
Ellen was born in 1627 in Whitehaven. She was baptised on 15 October 1627 in St.Bees.
Mabel NICHOLSON (1631- ).
Mabel was born in 1631 in Whitehaven. She was baptised on 19 March 1631 in St.Bees.
John NICHOLSON (1631- ).
John was born in 1631 in Whitehaven. He was baptised on 19 March 1631 in St.Bees.
Timothy NICHOLSON (after 1631- ).
Timothy was born after 1631 in Whitehaven. He was a Mariner. He married Christabell UNKNOWN circa 1660 in Not Known.
Properly understanding the various Nicholson families in Whitehaven is difficult, particularly as Nicholson is a common family name in the county, made even more dificult as a result of their Unitarian beliefs. They appear to come into Whitehaven from Dublin - but some claim the Nicholsons went to Dublin from Cumberland in the first place. They were mariners first and several made sufficient money to become merchants in their own right - particularly trading tobacco from Virginia.
Origins of the Irish Nicholson Family
This Nicholson family originates from Cumberland, England. This first Nicholson of this family to go over to Ireland was Rev. William Nicholson. Accounts differ as to when the William Nicholson came over with 1589 and 1622 being suggested as the dates. The former is more likely as William's son, John, was supposedly born in Ireland. Rev. William Nicholson became the rector of Derrybrochus in 1622 and had built a house at Tallbridge, Cranagill (archaic Crannagael, meaning oak tree of the gael).
An account on the Nicholson family tells us what happened to them after having settled in Ireland:
"The fortunes of William's family came very near to utter overthrow by M'Guire's rebellion of 1641. His son's wife and her infant boy were the only two in Cranagill who escaped the common massacre. With the aid of a faithful servant, they were able to hide behind some brushwood. Eventually they fell in with a party of loyalist soldiers who escorted them safely to Dromore, whence they made their way across sea to the widow's former home at Whitehaven on the Cumberland coast. Here they seem to have remained throughout the troubled years that followed the outbreak of the Civil War."
There is a story that says that Rev. William Nicholson or Captain William Nicholson married Lady Elizabeth (Betty) Percy, the daughter of the Earl of Northumberland. This can be dismissed as family legend as the Earl of Northumberland at the time, Thomas Percy did have a daughter Elizabeth, but she married Richard Woodroffe of Wooley. No record ever mentions Elizabeth Percy as having married a second time.
Nicholsons in Ireland
The surviving infant, William Nicholson, grew up in Whitehaven, Cumberland. During this time he converted to Quakerism and was known henceforth as 'William the Quaker'. When of age, he returned to Cranagill. William Nicholson married Isabel Gilbert (c.1637-08/06/1718) and had five sons. William, who was born in 1632, died on 24 January 1715. His children were:
1. John Nicholson (c.1670-02/12/1704) m. Margery Brownlow, daughter of William
Brownlow and Elizabeth Unknown
2. Thomas Nicholson (-1688/1689) Killed at the Siege of Derry
3. James Nicholson (-1688/1689) Killed at the Siege of Derry
4. Abraham Nicholson (died young)
5. Jacob Nicholson, ancestor of the Tallbridge (sometimes Talbridge) Nicholson
branch, m. a relation (probably cousin), Elizabeth Gilbert
6. Prudentia Nicholson (died young)
7. Sarah Nicholson (10/05/1682-) m. (20/09/1701) Robert Hodgson of Lurgan
8. Elizabeth Nicholson m. her cousin, William Brownlow, son of William Brownlow
And Elizabeth Unknown
9. Jane Nicholson m. George Fox
taken from :- http://www.myirishheritage.net/nicholson-family.html
Clement Nicholson of Whitehaven
LLOYD v NICHOLSON: Papers of Clement Nicholson, merchant, of Whitehaven, relating to the tobacco trade: Cumberland Date: 1696-1701
The papers of Clement Nicholson a merchant from Whitehaven, 1697-98.
In two years the tobacco merchant Nicholson handled over £25,000 in tobacco as the agent of other merchants.
see:- The National Archives, Kew PRO; C.107/161 –
Anglo-Irish Trade 1660-1800 p103
…. In 1697 the Whitehaven tobacco merchant Clement Nicholson consigned tobacco on an apparently del credere basis to an English merchant who disposed of the tobacco on the Dublin market through the medium of his Irish correspondents.
Court case for the Year 1726
Clement Nicholson, a merchant in Whitehaven, and the owners of the Kent of Whitehaven, master Joseph Gale, versus Charles Millar, provost of Glasgow, re freight on a cargo of tobacco from Virginia.
Reference to the Amity of Whitehaven, Rappahannock of Whitehaven, Greenock of Glasgow, Adventure of Whitehaven, and the Globe of Whitehaven, the crew of the Kent :-
carpenter Thomas Miller, mate John Wilson, Samuel Hobart, John Peile, Thomas Smithson, John Smith, William Hellon, William Craine, Paul Parker and John Nicholson, plus various merchants in Glasgow and in Rotterdam.
Taken from:-American data from the Scots Court of the Admiralty of Scotland 1675-1800
by David Dobson, 2000
The begining of the end for the Nicholson merchant families of Whitehaven:-
London Gazette 1771: Timothy Nicholson [1703 – 1780], of Whitehaven, a Merchant – was declared Bankrupt.
The Nicholsons were a merchant family based in Liverpool and Manchester during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their business interests were initially in linen, later branching into other general merchandise. The family were active in the social and cultural life of Liverpool and were one of its leading Unitarian families; but were their origins from Cumberland and Whitehaven in particular?
The Lancashire Nicholsons
Robert Nicholson (1727-1779) was apprenticed to Edward Copper, linen draper, in 1742, and in 1748 he joined his brother James in the family business. On the death of James in 1773, he went into partnership with his nephew, Mathew Nicholson. Their principal business was in linen yarn. However they also traded in tallow, wool, hides, ashes, kelp, molasses, wheat, cotton, tobacco and the copperas and alum made at their Hurlett and Wigan works. Robert was an original subscriber to the Liverpool Library (Lyceum) in 1758 and was a promoter and governor of the Warrington Academy. James Nicholson (1796-1850), the last of the merchant Nicholsons, wound up the business in Liverpool in 1828, becoming a wine merchant in Bordeaux.
The Australian Nicholsons
William Nicholson (1816-1865), merchant and politician, was born on 27 February 1816 & was baptised from Weddicar Hall on 29 February 1816 at Hensingham parish church. Hensingham parish is adjacent to the town of Whitehaven; he was the son of Miles Nicholson, farmer, and his wife Hannah, née Dalziel. He was educated at both Hensingham and Whitehaven, he became a clerk to the firm of McAndrew & Pilchard, fruit merchants at Liverpool, about 1836. Subsequently he went out to Melbourne in October 1841.
He migrated to Port Phillip in 1842, age 26, and started as a retail grocer in Melbourne where he was a successful businessman and became the head of a merchant firm of W. Nicholson and Company. In 1848 Nicholson was elected to the Melbourne City Council, and served as Mayor of Melbourne (1850–51). He was also a director of the Bank of Victoria and several other companies.
In 1856, Nicholson visited England, where he was congratulated for his work in establishing the secret ballot, which had been advocated by the Chartist movement there. The system was introduced in Victoria on 19 March 1856, and in South Australia on 2 April in the same year. It was later adopted by all the other colonies. The secret ballot was known as "the Victorian ballot" for the rest of the 19th century.
WILLIAM NICHOLSON. (from the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD – 1 March 1858.)
The English papers announce that ''Mr. William Nicholson, ex-Premier of Victoria, and by whom vote by ballot was first introduced into the British dominions, has become a candidate for a seat in Parliament for his native town-Whitehaven". This gentleman, after a successful run of fortune, both political and commercial, was reported "gone home" a year or two ago. Contrary to the usual practice, he seems likely to settle at home.
Nicholson returned to Austria where he suffered a severe illness in 1863 after which he was not active in politics. A further attack in January 1864 presaged his death at St Kilda on 10 March 1865. He was survived by his wife Sarah, née Fairclough, and four sons.
Note:- apparently not everyone agrees about his origins:-
NICHOLSON, WILLIAM (1816–1865), Australian statesman and ‘father of the ballot,’ son of Miles Nicholson, a Cumberland farmer, was born at Tretting Mill, Lamplugh, on 27 Feb. 1816.