Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nicholson, Margaret

938946Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 41 — Nicholson, Margaret1895William Hunt

NICHOLSON, MARGARET (1750?–1828), assailant of George III, daughter of George Nicholson, a barber, of Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, was housemaid in three or more families of good position, one of her places being in the service of Sir John Sebright (Memoirs of Sir R. M. Keith). About the time of her leaving her last place she was deserted by her lover, a valet, with whom she is said to have misconducted herself in a former situation. She then lodged in the house of a stationer named Fisk, at the corner of Wigmore Street, Marylebone, where she remained about three years, supporting herself by taking in plain needlework. Although Fisk afterwards stated that ‘she was very odd at times,’ neither he nor any of her acquaintances suspected her of insanity. However, in July 1786 she sent a petition, which was disregarded, to the privy council, containing nonsense about usurpers and pretenders to the throne. On the morning of 2 Aug. she stood with the crowd that waited at the garden entrance to St. James's Palace to see the king arrive from Windsor. As he alighted from his carriage she presented him with a paper, which he received, and at the same moment made a stab at him with an old ivory-handled dessert knife. The king avoided the blow, which she immediately repeated. This time the knife touched his waistcoat, and, being quite worn out, bent against his person. One of the royal attendants seized her arm and wrenched the knife from her. As she was in some danger from the bystanders, the king, who remained perfectly calm, cried out, ‘The poor creature is mad; do not hurt her, she has not hurt me.’ She was at once examined by the privy council, and, Dr. Monro having declined to state offhand that she was insane, she was committed to the custody of a messenger. It was supposed that she was at the time about thirty-six years old (Jesse). On her lodgings being searched letters were found directed to some great persons, and expressing her belief that she had a right to the throne. On the 8th she was again brought before the privy council, and two physicians having declared that she was insane, she was the next day committed, on their certificate, to Bethlehem, or Bedlam, Hospital, orders being given that she should work if in a fit state to do so. On the 18th she was reported to have been very quiet in the hospital, and to have been supplied with writing materials, which she had asked for. She remained in Bedlam until her death on 14 May 1828 (date kindly supplied by Dr. R. Percy Smith, chief superintendent of Bethlehem Royal Hospital). Early in 1811 Percy Bysshe Shelley [q. v.] and Thomas Jefferson Hogg [q. v.], then undergraduates at Oxford, published a thin volume of burlesque verses, entitled ‘Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, edited by her nephew, John FitzVictor,’ Oxford, 1810, 4to.

[Annual Register, 1786, pp. 233, 234; Smyth's Memoirs of Sir R. M. Keith, ii. 189; Auckland Correspondence, i. 152, 389; Sir N. W. Wraxall's Memoirs, i. 295, iv. 353, ed. 1884; Burney's (Madame d'Arblay's) Memoirs, iii. 45, 47; Jesse's Memoirs of George III, ii. 532–7; Smeeton's Biographia Curiosa, with portrait and drawing of the knife, p. 91; High Treason committed by M. N., fol. sheet (Brit. Mus.)]

W. H.