Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nickolls, John

938958Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 41 — Nickolls, John1895Charlotte Fell Smith

NICKOLLS, JOHN (1710?–1745), antiquary, son of John Nickolls, a quaker miller of Ware, Hertfordshire, was born there in 1710 or 1711. He was apprenticed to Joseph Wyeth [q. v.], a merchant of London, and, after serving his time, became a partner with his father. At his house in Trinity parish, Queenhithe, he formed an excellent library. He also collected from the bookstalls about Moorfields two thousand prints of heads, which afterwards furnished Joseph Ames (1689–1759) [q. v.] with material for his ‘Catalogue of English Heads,’ London, 1748. From the widow of his former master, Joseph Wyeth, Nickolls received a number of letters at one time in Milton's possession; they had since belonged to Milton's secretary, Thomas Ellwood [q. v.], and had been used by Wyeth in the preparation for publication of Ellwood's ‘Journal,’ which was issued in 1713. Among them were letters from Sir Harry Vane, Colonels Overton, Harrison, and Venables, John Bradshaw, Andrew Marvel, and others, with numerous addresses from nonconformist ministers in Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Herefordshire, and Kent, Dublin, and elsewhere. William Oldys [q. v.] visited Nickolls at Queenhithe on 22 Dec. 1737, to see this collection of original letters ‘all pasted into a large volume folio, in number about 130’ (Oldys, Diary, 1862, p. 17). These valuable documents were issued by Nickolls in 1743 under the title of ‘Original Letters and Papers of State, addressed to Oliver Cromwell, concerning the Affairs of Great Britain. From the Year mdcxlix to mdclviii, found among the Political Collections of Mr. John Milton. Now first published from the Originals.’

Nickolls was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 17 Jan. 1740. He died of fever on 11 Jan. 1745, and was buried at Bunhill Fields on the 16th of the same month.

His father presented on 18 Jan. 1746 the original manuscripts of the collection to the Society of Antiquaries, to be by them preserved for public use. In their possession they still remain. Oldys says in his ‘Diary’ that Nickolls allowed Thomas Birch, D.D. [q. v.], to use from six to ten of them in his life of Oliver Cromwell contributed to the ‘General Dictionary, Historical and Critical,’ 1731–41. Nickolls's prints and rare pamphlets were purchased by Dr. John Fothergill [q. v.]

[Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 123; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, ii. 159, 160; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, ii. 238–9; Minutes of the Society of Antiquaries.]

C. F. S.